Economic free falls have a way of clearing the way for innovators. The huge education sector of our economy will certainly be shaken by the huge withdrawal of cash from the status quo. In the following upbeat predications by Hugh Hewlitt, he is thinking about politics. But why not apply this frame of mind to pressing on into the connected future of education:
There is also a new economy humming along powered by millions of highly connected Millennials doing business in new and very different ways. I know a number of them, and most of you do as well. They are outside of old structures and busy designing an economic future. For them, the collapse of stock prices is the greatest investment opportunity of their young lives since they can buy their first shares at these ridiculously low prices. Those of us who invest every month are in fact going to get some greatly discounted shares for a bit, and when the market recovers, please remember that. . . .
Not many Americans are thinking about “pressing on into the future” today, but they will be next week or next month. (In fact, enough of them might so carefully consider the future to give Obama a huge shock at the polls.) A NASCAR nation loves its fast economy, but as with fast cars, there are some spectacular wrecks along the way. We are watching one right now. At its conclusion –which may have already arrived, we just can’t know– a shaken crowd will exhale, fret a bit and mourn the real damage, and then look forward to the next race. “Gentlemen, start your engines” will mark all of 2009, no matter who is president.
I wonder how many web star-ups launched this week? LawStudentCafe.com did, and probably a few thousand others. More will follow next week, and in ten thousand industries many hundreds of thousands of engineers will continue to innovate and design. Yes, the Christmas sales season will be slow, and car sales awful, but one thing is certain –Americans will be buying cars for a long long time. There are lots and lots of newly unemployed investment bankers, and most of them are enormously talented folks who will now take that talent away from banking and into the American economy at some other point. Think of the seeding that is going on in front of us.
