Boomerang Generation

Moving Back Home After College? All Your Friends Are Doing It.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/business/college-graduates-living-at-home.html
More young adults are living with their parents. The development suggests that they face a weak job market, but also that fewer face stigma in returning to the roost.

Moving Back Home Used to Be a Sign of Failure. Now It Shows Financial Savvy.
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/living-with-parents-finances-0c35530c
Nearly half of American adults under 30, pinched by the cost of housing, are living with a parent. It can be an adjustment for both. 

Related:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/the-kids-are-kind-of-all-right

Cost of Eldercare in the Developing World

Poor Countries are Aging Fast but Can’t Keep Up with the Cost
https://www.wsj.com/world/poor-countries-are-aging-fast-but-cant-keep-up-with-the-cost-fd83b1cd
The elderly population is exploding in developing nations like Thailand, where savings and government resources are scant. 

Scandinavia Rethinks Migration

Sweden squashed migration. The populist right wants to go further
https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/07/16/sweden-squashed-migration-the-populist-right-wants-to-go-further 

Burka to be banned in Danish schools
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/16/burka-faces-ban-in-danish-schools/
Measure aimed at countering ‘parallel societies’ of non-integrated foreigners.

Ageism and the Labor Market

Ageism: the silent but deadly threat to your retirement
https://www.ft.com/content/b4bc3868-7684-4b36-a0e0-a5bf2b606162
For Gen X, financial planning needs to involve career planning. 

Related:

You’re About to Retire. What Are You Doing for the Next 20 or 30 Years?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/18/business/retirement-plan.html
Workers often focus solely on their retirement savings balance. But figuring out how you want to spend the rest of your life could be job No. 1.

Boomers and Real Estate Trends

Boomers Were Supposed to Downsize. They Are Buying Bigger Homes Instead.
https://www.wsj.com/economy/housing/baby-boomer-home-sales-real-estate-879614be
Wealthy, older Americans are ripping up the traditional script for aging: “We’ll downsize when they plant me 6 feet into the ground.” 

Uptick in Labor Productivity

U.S. Workers Are More Productive Than Ever. And That’s Without A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/business/worker-productivity-artificial-intelligence-economy.html
Companies have been getting more out of employees for several years. Tight labor markets, digitization and remote work are among the reasons. 

Related:

Labor Force Participation Is High If You Measure It Right
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/labor-force-participation-is-high-if-you-measure-it-right-87761.html  

Building Wealth - Equities versus Real Estate

Houses Are No Longer the Best Place for Your Money
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/houses-are-no-longer-the-best-place-for-your-money-87759.html
The median house price in Nantucket, Massachusetts, is nearly $4 million. It was just $500,000 in 1995. This sounds like a stunning increase in one of the hottest and least accessible real estate markets in the country. What’s even more stunning is the stock market: If you invested $500,000 in the S&P 500 Index in 1995, you’d have more than $8.2 million today, even more if you reinvested the dividends you earned.
Stocks have clearly been the superior investment, even as housing has moved out of reach for too many Americans. It’s no surprise then that young people are saying they would rather put their money in equities than make a down payment like people their age have done for generations.

Is Buying a Home Still the Way to Wealth? Some Young Americans Aren't Sure
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/is-buying-a-home-still-the-way-to-wealth--some-young-americans-aren-t-sure-87707.html
The fast-rising costs of owning a home have some young Americans questioning whether buying a house is still a good investment.
 
Trump makes the stock market his scoreboard, but many Americans aren't even in the game
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-makes-stock-market-his-scoreboard-many-americans-arent-even-game-2026-07-10/ 

Priced-out young buyers are looking abroad for their first homes
https://www.reuters.com/markets/on-the-money/priced-out-young-buyers-are-looking-abroad-their-first-homes-2026-07-17/

The Case for Slower Population Growth

Economies Thrive with Older, Smaller Population, New Study Finds
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/economies-thrive-with-older--smaller-population--new-study-finds-87649.html

Baby Busts and Growth Booms: Demographic Change and the Macroeconomy
https://www.nber.org/papers/w35401 

Britain’s baby bust could fuel an economic boom
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/07/13/britains-baby-bust-could-fuel-an-economic-boom/
Falling birth rates may make Britain richer and more productive, say experts.

‘They Don’t Need People’: The Workers Left Behind by China’s Robot Drive
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/world/asia/china-workers-robots-factories.html
For out-of-work factory workers in Kunshan, a region made rich by electronics manufacturing, a park is the only place to go.

Related:

An ageing society might not cost too much
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/07/09/an-ageing-society-might-not-cost-too-much
A dystopian vision of the future may not come to pass.

Mass immigration is not the silver bullet economists think it is
https://www.ft.com/content/1b934ad7-7ea8-477a-8baf-fcb82bb643ca
As with the free-trade debate in recent years, consensus is shifting.

Smartphones and Declining Birth Rates

How iPhones became birth control
https://spectator.com/article/iphones-became-birth-control/ 

The Choice Is Not Babies or iPhones
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/opinion/iphones-birthrate-decline.html

Swiss Referendum on a Population Cap

No Vacancy
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/15/could-switzerland-become-the-first-country-to-limit-its-population
Amid Europe’s economic stagnation and demographic decline, Switzerland is booming. But the Swiss aren’t happy. They’ll soon vote on a proposal to cap the country’s population. 

Related:
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/switzerlands-radical-proposal-on-immigration-cap-the-population-467967f5

Challenges Facing UK and US Higher Education Systems

Let AI eat the universities
https://spectator.com/article/let-ai-eat-the-universities/

Eight Predictions for the Future of Higher Education
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/eight-predictions-for-the-future-of-higher-education
The concurrent crises in the reading, writing, and math competencies of incoming college freshmen—which, I have begrudgingly accepted, are real, and not merely the familiar griping you hear in faculty lounges—will get worse, and within a few years a course that used to be appropriate for tenth graders will become the standard 200-level course in many universities across the country.
 
The false promise that sparked the student loans crisis
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2026/06/the-false-promise-that-sparked-the-student-loans-crisis
Turning students into “consumers” was always going to fuel perverse incentives.
 
Tarnished Towers
https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/tarnished-towers/
Fixing England’s Broken Higher Education System. 

Italian Soccer

Why Has Italy Failed to Qualify for Three Straight World Cups?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/italy-has-failed-to-qualify-for-three-straight-world-cups-are-the-countrys-immigration-policies-to-blame
After winning the tournament in 2006, gli Azzurri have become a national embarrassment, and their failure has sparked a conversation in Italy over immigration policies and who gets to be a citizen. 

Fresh Graduates and the Labor Market

A Job Market Leaving Young Graduates Behind Could Scar Them for Years
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/business/college-graduates-job-market.html
The labor market has improved but people entering the work force are having a harder time starting careers, a dynamic that has had permanent effects in the past.  

Demographic Shift in India

India’s surprise baby bust is a warning to the world
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/04/indias-surprise-baby-bust-is-a-warning-to-the-world
It is not just rich places that are becoming less fertile. 
 
India’s population will soon be falling—probably quite fast
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2026/06/04/indias-population-will-soon-be-falling-probably-quite-fast
Neither widespread poverty, nor high rates of marriage nor relatively young mothers are sustaining fertility. 

The Immigration Dilemma

Governments are scared of tackling the immigration dilemma
https://www.ft.com/content/c57b1cd1-923e-4fec-8884-9a93ffb67871
Rich economies need workers but their voters don’t like migrants. 

Martin Wolf interviews Lant Pritchett
https://www.ft.com/content/ba0cea22-e055-4715-9fc8-52fd0e367a66

Immigration is both essential and impossible
https://www.ft.com/content/811f1b29-af5f-404c-a3a0-b28c5db4dec0
The option of temporary worker contracts is not embraced by either side but it may be the solution
 
Economist Lant Pritchett:
https://lantpritchett.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-political-acceptability-of-temporary-labor-mobility-PAQ-revisions.pdf

Russia Imports Workers from India

Putin’s solution to replace Russia’s vanishing workforce
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/06/03/putin-turns-to-indians-replace-russias-vanishing-workforce/
As the Kremlin deploys troops to the front line, it is turning to India over a growing demographic crisis. 

UK's 'Worklessness' Crisis

There’s a £710-a-week reason why Britain can’t get people back to work
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/06/04/in-benefits-britain-work-simply-doesnt-pay/
Labour has done nothing since coming to power to turn the tide of a broken welfare system.

How Britain sank into the worst jobs crisis in two centuries
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/29/britain-sank-worst-jobs-crisis-two-centuries/ 

One in seven university graduates are not in education, employment or training (NEETs), according to a flagship review that warned government policy was making it harder for young people to find work.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/05/28/one-in-seven-university-graduates-are-neets/ 

Japan's Demographics

How Japan Lost 3 Million People in 5 Years
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/05/29/world/asia/japan-census-population-decline.html
The staggering population drop underscores the depths of the country’s accelerating demographic crisis.  

US Higher Education Woes

60 Percent of Grades at Harvard Were A’s. Enough Is Enough.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/opinion/harvard-easy-a-grades.html

‘A’ Grades Are Everywhere Since the Arrival of ChatGPT
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/a-grades-are-suddenly-everywhere-since-the-arrival-of-chatgpt-845baae7
AI is accelerating grade inflation, research indicates and making it harder for employers to assess college grads. 
 
Parents Are Fuming About Other Peoples’ Kids Getting Extra Time on the SAT
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/parents-are-fuming-about-other-peoples-kids-getting-extra-time-on-the-sat-2daeea8c
Special accommodations for irritable bowel syndrome? Families are getting creative, and spending big, in pursuit of an edge. 

Colleges Are at a Breaking Point
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/05/higher-education-college-crisis/687233/
The AI job market has made tuition look like a dubious investment. But it only exposes the deeper identity crisis in American higher education.

The Enrollment Cliff Is Here. Which Schools Will Survive It?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/the-enrollment-cliff-is-here-which-schools-will-survive-it  
As the number of new high-school graduates drops, colleges will close, some will merge, and others may change beyond recognition. 

Why the Future of College Could Look Like OnlyFans
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/why-the-future-of-college-could-look-like-onlyfans
Universities have become generic, one professor and former dean argues. In the A.I. era, students may demand something they can’t get elsewhere. 
 
Will A.I. Make College Obsolete?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/will-ai-make-college-obsolete
Americans already distrust institutions, including academia. More and more people may decide that its stamp of approval isn’t worth the cost.

Impact of High Gas Prices

The 'K-shaped economy' has shown up at the gasoline pump
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/article/the-k-shaped-economy-has-shown-up-at-the-gasoline-pump-172111222.html
Low-income households have seen the lowest increase in nominal gas spending because they have cut down their consumption by the largest margin. Conversely, high-income households have seen the largest jump in spending because they have done the least to reduce their consumption. ...
The same economic movements are holding true now, the analysis said. When energy prices skyrocket, low-income households reduce their consumption, while higher-income households may only slightly moderate their own consumption. 

America’s Army of Supercommuters Is Reeling Over High Gas Prices
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/high-gas-prices-wreak-havoc-on-americas-army-of-supercommuters-99ee6cc0
While real estate far from big cities is cheaper, filling up for long drives has become painful.