Today’s column is about the nation’s job situation. And the election. And bitcoin. And the Middle East. And the day I interviewed the governor of Montana and his dog.
Also — the state of US colleges, Americans’ view of the economy and dying in debt.
How do all these topics fit together?
This column will be like when Mom clears out the fridge and whips up an unexpected (and hopefully tasty) smorgasbord for dinner.
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Colleges will continue to have a rough time in 2020 as enrollment keeps declining. The number of undergraduate and grad students in the fall semester fell by 1.3%, or by 231,000 students, according to Student Clearing House.
That’s the eighth annual decline in a row.
Meanwhile, an alternative to college seems to be doing well. Since I wrote about Apprenti, a service which matches people with apprentice programs in the high-tech area early last month, the amount of interest in the novel approach to job training and enhancement, has risen substantially.
“Since our conversation with The New York Post, we have received interest from several organizations that want to bring Apprenti to their market, including New York, Illinois and Oregon,” said Jennifer Carlson, the head of the company.
“In fact, we’ve had traction from companies in industries outside of tech that want to use our apprenticeship program. Apprenti is very thankful for the exposure in The New York Post, and we’re looking forward to a great 2020,” she added.
Hey, glad we could help. Is it too late for me to, uh, learn how to code?
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And here’s some good news for morticians.
CreditCards.com says that just 7% of adults in the US who are currently in debt expect to die underwater — financially speaking, that is, not by drowning.
That’s the lowest percentage since the company started asking the question back in 2013.
Twenty-five percent thought they’d die in debt in 2019 and 30% in 2018. Nearly half of debtors expect to be debt-free in five years. That goes to prove that current-day Americans are an optimistic bunch.
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A recent study by Bitwise revealed that 95% of bitcoin trading is faked by unregulated exchanges.
And $300 million was stolen from cryptocurrency exchanges in 2019.
Prices of bitcoin, the digital (yuk, yuk) “currency,” have tumbled mightily from their all-time highs. But more recently prices have risen because manipulators think they can find more fools to buy into this scam.
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ManpowerGroup says New York companies plan to hire workers at a consistent pace early this year, but growth won’t be as strong as it had been in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The job data tracker said hiring is expected to be up 11% in the current quarter, which was down a bit from the 14% growth in the final four months of 2019.
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Americans are apparently worried about the national debt — finally— now that it’s growing by about a trillion dollars a year.
According to The Democracy Poll, 52% of voters think the national debt and deficit is the biggest economic problem in the country. And The Economist/YouGov poll said 83% of Americans think the budget deficit is an important issue.
How many are willing to pay extra taxes to fix the problem? 0%. (OK, I made that part up, but it’s probably close to that figure.)
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When polled recently, 77% of corporate chief financial officers said the stock market was overvalued.
Even so, companies continued to buy back their own stock in record amounts in 2018 and 2019.
I described in a previous column how the Federal Reserve, which created a stock market bubble through low interest rates, and the mysterious Plunge Protection Team are ready to spring into action should the market falter.
They may just do that — but it’s not something I’d stake my retirement on.
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Americans are still very optimistic about the economy although professional money managers and corporate executives think a recession is long overdue. If the average guy is right, President Trump’s reelection is a sure thing.
That’s because the blame for the faltering economy will fall on the Democrats, whose anti-Trump antics have frustrated the president and frustrated hopes for a bipartisan approach to economic growth.
Back in 2008, I interviewed then-Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer in his Helena office with his dog, Jag, at his side. Jag didn’t have much to say but Schweitzer did.
He invited the nation’s oil companies to come to his state where, he said, there was loads of shale oil for the taking through fracking.
I wrote many enthusiastic columns after that saying America was on the verge of being energy self-sufficient and wouldn’t be a beholden to the Middle East anymore. That time seems to have come.
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The Upper West Side and Upper East Side of Manhattan have the highest credit scores in New York City at an average of 746. The average in all of Manhattan is 714. The Bronx is the city’s lowest at 665, according to Experian. I’m guessing the credit scores of the Bronx Bombers didn’t count in that latter figure.