Savings Experiment: Snow Removal
The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?
One trend that has to reverse for the U.S. economy to return to premiere economy status: the trend of top talent toward financial services and away from other fields, including engineering, and the natural sciences. The income gap between those who went into finance (for example as hedge fund managers and/or product designers of derivatives, credit default swaps, and other investment instruments) and those who went in to mechanical engineering or civil engineering widened considerably during the past 20 years: and where do think a lot of the talent went? You guessed it, in to designing derivatives, etc.
In fact, for a good part of the previous decade, a derivative designer could make a ton of money -- in many cases more than $500,000 per year, not including a bonus -- designing financial products that: 1) added little or no productive capacity to the United States; and 2) were based on pseudo assets (subprime mortgages and other problematic debt schemes).
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was correct when he assessed the core flaws of the financial crisis, saying that the U.S., "had too many financial engineers and not enough civil engineers and mechanical engineers." (And doesn't the nation's sub-standard highway/bridge/electric grid infrastructure show it?) Simply, for the U.S. economy to return to sustainable, strong GDP growth, it has to emphasize substantive skills, not wealth via flimflammery.
Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is writing a book on the U.S. presidency and the U.S. economy.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was correct when he assessed the core flaws of the financial crisis, saying that the U.S., "had too many financial engineers and not enough civil engineers and mechanical engineers." (And doesn't the nation's sub-standard highway/bridge/electric grid infrastructure show it?) Simply, for the U.S. economy to return to sustainable, strong GDP growth, it has to emphasize substantive skills, not wealth via flimflammery.
Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is writing a book on the U.S. presidency and the U.S. economy.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2010 @ 5:21PM
smeislahn65 said...
I have a master's degree in mechanical/aerospace engineering and I curse myself nearly every day for picking engineering instead of finance. The reason is printed in this article: $500,000 per year vs. $80,000 per year. If I'm going to be sitting at a computer developing algorithms and mathematical spreadsheets anyway, I might as well be making $500,000 per year. When the salaries reverse, so will the graduates.
2-11-2010 @ 8:10PM
Gary E. Sattler said...
So, how's that information age workin' out for y'all?
2-11-2010 @ 8:52PM
Peter Van Schaik said...
We put so many of our resources, including human resources, into non-productive endeavors. We generally do okay in the productivity department but just think how high our standard of living would be if more of our energy and resources were put to work in research, development, and production of oil alternatives and goods and services to improve the lives of the regular folks, both at home and abroad. Instead, we prefer to lavish greater rewards on traders of paper than the teachers of our children. We'd rather give millions of dollars to our entertainers than our engineers.
You can read "The Neo-Mercantilists" at http://jpetervanschaik.googlepages.com/theneo-mercantilists and "All Jobs Are Not Created Equal" at
http://jpetervanschaik.googlepages.com/articles