Millennials Big Losers in Stagnant "Recovery"

June 26, 20152:22 PM MST

According to recent surveys, the majority of Americans do not expect today's youth to live as well as previous generations.

Part of their pessimism emanates from the ongoing stagnant economy. Recent polls reveal that six in ten Americans believe the US is in an economic downturn or a recession.Two-thirds of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Such polls are a natural reflection of shrinking wages, soaring taxes and job opportunities, as well as the rapid rise in the cost of automobiles, higher education and healthcare insurance deductibles and premiums skyrocket.

The economy shrank in the first quarter of 2015. An eye-popping 93 million Americans are not in the workforce, and nearly 10 million are officially unemployed. Gallup CEO Jim Clifton claims when we add in workers who have dropped out of the workforce, the unemployment rate is closer to 11 percent, not the 5.5 percent the government claims.

Millennials seem to be suffering in this economy worse than many other groups. According to the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, barely half of the 2013 and 2014 college grads are working full-time jobs. The employed grads often must work in jobs that do not require a college degree. The EPI report said “a lack of job opportunities is either forcing young people to drop out of the labor force or take part-time jobs when they’re looking for full-time jobs.”

Young adults declining fortunes are impacting a number of areas of our society. In 2014 new home sales were down to 1963 levels. Due to the stagnant economy in 2014 the US fertility rate sunk to a Depression-era 1.8 children per female. For a nation to replace its population, the fertility rate must reach 2.1 children per woman of childbearing age. At its current fertility rate America will eventually experience population decline.

Presidential hopeful Donald Trump summed up what millennials and others repeatedly tell pollsters: “The American Dream is dead.”

In the midst of a bleak jobs situation for millennials, one wonders whether it is mere coincidence that commentators such as Ron Fournier of the National Journal have called for mandatory national service for every 18 to 28 year old. According to Fournier such a program would insure that young people are “invested in the nation’s biggest challenges,” including poverty, income inequality, and education.

Some critics wonder whether the true purpose behind drafting millions of millennials into national “service” jobs would be to reduce the official unemployment rolls without the private sector having to create one new job.

The future for millennials and succeeding generations will remain bleak unless substantive strategies emerge for building a robust economy in which young people can secure well-paying full-time jobs. This new prosperity will enable them to acquire new homes, cars, medical care and secure and stable future for themselves and their children.

New car gizmos can't stop per capita auto sales decline

November 2, 20157:35 AM MST

Car Makers Hope to Boost Sales with Innovations

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For the last several years car manufacturers have been trying to attract car buyers by equipping their new vehicles with a plethora of dazzling innovations such as rear-view cameras, built-in night vision,and global positioning systems.

Judging by per capita new car sales figures, these efforts have largely failed. Americans are far less likely to buy a new automobile than they were just a few decades ago. Population-adjusted car sales in the US have been declining since 1979, and are now a whopping 28% lower than they were almost four decades ago.

The reason for stagnating sales is quite clear: The majority of Americans simply do not have the financial wherewithal to afford new cars.For the last several years citizens have seen job opportunities disappear and wages shrink, while taxes, higher education costs and healthcare insurance premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed.

Worse, Federal Reserve numbers reveal that the US economy is slowing dramatically. The Fed announced that it expects third-quarter GDP growth to be revised down to an anemic 1.0% annual rate. Although the recession ended in 2009, nearly six in ten Americans believe the U.S. is still in a recession or economic downturn, according to recent polls.

According to a report by mega-bank HSBC, global trade is shrinking, down by -8.4 percent year after year, a decline usually found during recessionary periods. While many have been quick to blame the global economic decline for America's recent economic woes, a strong case can be made that the deteriorating US retail environment is actually exacerbating the global economic decline.

US and global manufacturers are learning that it's hard to sell cars, or any other item for that matter, in an environment in which over 102 million Americans of working age are not employed and those who do have jobs see their wages and take-home pay shrink.

America needs a solid strategy for building a prosperous economy that provides Americans well- paying full-time jobs that enable them to acquire new cars and homes. Such policies must include a commitment to reviving American manufacturing and energy sectors and nurturing a regulatory and tax environment that unleashes, not stifles, personal creativity and innovation.

Car companies hope to boost sales with a new wave of gizmos."Connected car" technology will soon enable vehicles to exchange information about speed, location, braking, direction of travel, and lane changes. Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) systems will tell the driver when to take a detour to avoid congestion. New apps will alert drivers to ice and other road hazards..

Until the average American's economic condition improves, he or she will resist the temptation to purchase a new car, regardless of how many attractive technologies and gizmos manufacturers add to these vehicles.

THYNC brings electronic mood enhancement to consumer market

August 24, 201511:53 AM MST

THYNC enters electronic mind-brain enhancement consumer market

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A new device, Thync, promises to provide its users with the ability to increase their energy levels or create a sense of inner calm with a mere flick of a button. The device, which you attach to your head and operate via your smart phone, delivers to specific areas of your brainelectronic pulses that can induce a variety of mood changes, and might even improve your powers of concentration.

The use of electronic stimulation of the brain to influence mood and neural functioning has been ongoing for at least the last few decades. The process, generally referred to as “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS), delivers pulses of energy a few centimeters into its wearer’s brain, inducing electrical activity in brain cells.

Neuroscientist Mark George and colleagues at the Medical University of South Carolina, as well as other researchers, have found that such pulses delivered via a device connected to a TMS machine can increase the pulse-recipients’ reaction time on tests. TMS has been found to be effective in treating neuropathic pain, depression, and other psychiatric disorders. TMS’ techno- cousin, transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, has been found to improve patients' vigilance, intelligence, learning and memory. In many cases tDCS has been used to relieve chronic pain and the symptoms of depression and treat, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia. Hospitals such as Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston and Beth Israel in New York have used electronic stimulation technologies to treat chronic pain and depression.

The Thync module brings the exciting potential of electronic brain stimulation to the consumer field. The module, which is a curved white apparatus, connects wirelessly to a smart phone using Bluetooth. The actual module attaches to specific points on the head via two adhesive strips you first place on the module itself.

The user then powers the module and pairs it to the smart phone. This starts a session lasting five to twenty minutes during which the device delivers low-level pulses of electricity into your head. The user can adjust the level of current delivered to the head.

Thync comes with two basic settings: a “calm” vibe and an “energy” vibe.

News search engines miss poll showing Trump, Carson beating Hillary

December 12, 20159:09 AM MST

Google and other search engines misses key Presidential poll

Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images

Major news search engines completely missed a new Morning Consult blockbuster poll of 2047 registered voters showing DonaldTrump, Ben Carson and others besting Hillary Clinton in the general election.