Today’s Financial Times was full of headlines that tie directly to many of the themes we’ve been covering in recent months.  Let’s take a look:

“Americans Decide to Sit Out the Economic Downturn - To a Degree”

The FT writes, “Americans are going back to school, sitting out the worst job market for 25 years in colleges, universities, and business schools in the hopes of better prospects when the economy improves. ”

The problem, as we covered in a prior post, is that many of these professionals will leave the confines of academia and find a job market that is still very, very weak.  On the upside, business should remain brisk for universities for longer than demographic trends would have suggested (applications for undergrads should drop off dramatically in the coming years, all else equal, due to the shrinking number of 18-year-olds). Read the rest of this entry »

By now, everyone should be aware of the anti-regime protests taking place in Iran.   The country is experiencing unrest not seen since the 1979 Islamic revolution that deposed the Shah and brought the current regime to power.  The “spark” that ignited this rebellion was the disputed presidential election, of course.  But the “tinder” that caused this fire to spread are Iran’s demographics.  As you can see from the charts below, Iran is primed for revolution. Read the rest of this entry »