US Higher Education in Crisis

Inside the Enrollment Cliff Hitting US Colleges
https://youtu.be/aZJZV-FODqk
 
Colleges are making themselves obsolete
https://spectator.com/article/colleges-making-themselves-obsolete/?edition=us
Peter Wood:
But as teaching standards have fallen, tuition and expenses have surged. Americans now carry a total of $1.863 trillion in student-loan debt. That’s the second largest sum of consumer debt, behind home mortgages. A house, however, has intrinsic value. A college degree is worth only what the graduate can make of it. Student-loan debt impedes graduates who want to get married or change jobs. It cannot be defaulted on. It can linger even into one’s retirement years.
Then there’s the matter of waste and bloat. More than half the salaried employees of colleges and universities are now in “student services” rather than education. What students get for their tuition dollar is a full range of counseling, stroking, reassurance and diversion from the actual acquisition of knowledge and skills. 

The End of College as We Know It
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-end-of-college-as-we-know-it-e222ab3d

My take from Jan 2022: Is the US higher education bubble about to burst?
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/590971-will-the-us-higher-education-bubble-finally-burst

Race, Politics, and Meritocracy

The Mainstreaming of Anti-Indian Bigotry
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/10/french-rufo-meritocracy-race/688870/
A Republican schism over a social-media post by a Texas politician revealed that the party’s defense of a color-blind meritocracy has its limits. 

Republicans Find a New Way to Lose: Attacking Asians
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/republicans-find-a-new-way-to-lose-attacking-asians-be81d097
Texas’ Bo French jettisons meritocracy for an ethnic appeal at the expense of UT football fans. 

Low Fertility in High-Income Countries

What’s Really Behind the Baby Bust?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/28/inconceivable-the-impossibility-of-family-in-an-age-of-uncertainty-anna-louise-sussman-book-review
People say they want more children than they’re having. Is modern life stopping them—or have our ideas about a good life changed?
 
Kearney, Melissa S., and Phillip B. Levine. 2026. "Why Is Fertility So Low in High-Income Countries?" Journal of Economic Literature 64 (3): 907–49.
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/jel.20261786 

American Millionaires

The Wealthiest—and Stealthiest—Class in America
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/the-everywhere-millionaire-owen-zidar-and-eric-zwick-book-review
America’s everywhere millionaires built fortunes from hot dogs, car dealerships, medical practices, and convenience stores. Then they learned how to protect them.
 
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
https://www.everywheremillionaire.com 

Jonathan Haidt versus Social Media

A $17.1 Billion Vote of Confidence That Jonathan Haidt Was Right
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/style/meta-jonathan-haidt-anxious-generation.html
In “The Anxious Generation,” he laid out the evils of social media for kids. The landmark Meta settlement seems to agree.  

Related:
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-adverse-effects-of-social-media.html
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2024/05/tech-and-teen-anxiety.html

Mass Migration - The Case of Spain

Quo Vadis, Hispania? Part One
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-one/
 
Quo Vadis Hispania? Part Two
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-two/
Mass immigration is arguably the most important demographic force at play in Europe today. It is also one of the most salient—and polarizing—issues in contemporary European politics. 

When Following the Rules Leads to Disaster
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/ceuta-morocco-crisis-immigration/688149/
A supreme-court decision helped cause the Ceuta disaster.
 
Schengen’s Greatest Failure
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/migration-splitting-europe-apart/688137/
The Ceuta crisis is undermining an agreement designed to foster “solidarity.” 

Gen Z and the Job Market

How the Job Market Will Shape the Next Generation
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/how-the-job-market-will-shape-the-next-generation
Young people are already discontented. It’s not going to get better anytime soon. 

Building Wealth - Stock Market versus the Housing Market

For some young buyers, renting and investing beats buying a home
https://www.reuters.com/markets/on-the-money/some-young-buyers-renting-investing-beats-buying-home-2026-09-10/
Older generations tend to see renting as a waste of money. But for Gen Z, it’s a wealth-building strategy with a bigger payoff.

For Gen Z, Building Wealth Is in the Stock Market, Not the Housing Market
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/business/gen-z-houses-investing.html
When it comes to building wealth, Gen Z is more focused on investment apps and their retirement accounts than they are in building equity in a home.

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.

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/ 

Declining Fertility Rates

The Case for Chilling Out About Birth Rates by Idrees Kahloon
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/birth-rate-panic-overblown/688320/
Even if the fertility decline doesn’t reverse itself anytime soon, the consequences are unlikely to be apocalyptic. 

Don’t panic about the global fertility crash
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/09/11/dont-panic-about-the-global-fertility-crash
A world with fewer people would not be all bad.

AFTER THE SPIKE AND THE MYTH OF DEPOPULATION
https://populationmatters.org/news/2025/08/after-the-spike-and-the-myth-of-depopulation/

Elon Musk and the population apocalypse
https://populationmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PM%20Report%20-%20Elon%20Musk%20and%20the%20population%20apocalypse.pdf

 
Humanity will shrink, far sooner than you think
https://www.economist.com/interactive/briefing/2025/09/11/humanity-will-shrink-far-sooner-than-you-think
Demography sneaks up on you.

A contracting population need not be a catastrophe
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/09/11/a-contracting-population-need-not-be-a-catastrophe
The economics of a shrinking world. 

Will Africa Enjoy a Demographic Dividend?

Africa Can’t Afford to Squander Its Demographic Opportunity
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/africa/africa-cant-afford-squander-its-demographic-opportunity
What the Youngest Continent Stands to Gain from Growing Old. 

Robots in Aging Japan

Can Robots Save an Aging Japan?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/world/asia/japan-ai-robot-cherry-blossoms.html
In an area where many farmers are in their 70s, robots with names like Monster Wolf and Pochi have been deployed to scare bears and transport cherry blossoms. 

Dividend Stocks - Still Attractive?

Retirees Love Dividends, but the Stock Market Surge Is Making Them Think Again
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/retirees-love-dividends-but-the-stock-market-surge-is-making-them-think-again-0e448ff6
With the S&P 500 dividend yield near generational lows, chasing income in the stock market is getting tougher. 

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

How Sweden is turning back the clock on years of mass migration
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2026/09/13/zverev-vs-shelton-us-open-live-score-latest-mens-final/
Stockholm is giving asylum seekers £46k to leave as its coalition government pushes for ‘net zero 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.

How Denmark’s Social Democrats Are Succeeding with Stricter Immigration Policies
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/magazine/denmark-immigration-policy-progressives.html 
 
Denmark’s uprooting of settled residents from ‘ghettos’ forms part of aggressive plan to assimilate nonwhite inhabitant
https://theconversation.com/denmarks-uprooting-of-settled-residents-from-ghettos-forms-part-of-aggressive-plan-to-assimilate-nonwhite-inhabitants-243424

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  

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