New York Post - 13.08.2019

New York Post, Tuesday, August 13, 2019

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China’s Tencent Music En-

tertainment Group on Mon-

day missed quarterly revenue

estimates as it reported the

slowest increase in a widely

watched metric for growth

since its debut, sending the

shares of the media stream-

ing company down 4 percent.

Monthly average revenue

per user from its social enter-

tainment services rose 16.5

percent, to 130.2 yuan

($18.45), the slowest growth

since it went public in De-

cember last year.

Although Tencent’s music-

streaming services have

more users, its biggest reve-

nue drivers are its social en-

tertainment services through

which users can live-stream

concerts and shows.

Overall revenue rose to 5.9

billion yuan ($835.95 mil-

lion) from 4.5 billion yuan a

year earlier, but missed esti-

mates of 5.95 billion yuan,

according to IBES data from

Refinitiv.

The company, controlled

by Chinese tech giant Ten-

cent Holdings, reported net

income of 928 million yuan

for the quarter ended June 30,

compared with 903 million

yuan a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned

0.67 yuan per American de-

positary share, above the av-

erage analyst estimate of 0.61

yuan.

Shares, which have risen

9.2 percent year to date, fell

to $13.80 in extended trading.

Reuters

I

have a Master’s degree in Ameri-

can history from New York Uni-

versity. It has been almost worth-

less and hasn’t done a thing for my

career.

I started my Master’s degree with

Georgetown’s graduate program.

Had I finished there I suspect that

degree would also have been

worthless.

Not worthless was the Bachelor’s

degree I got from Syracuse Univer-

sity’s Newhouse School of Journal-

ism. The fact that I’m writing this

column — and have been a journal-

ist steadily for over 45 years — I

guess proves that.

But even that degree probably

only helped me get my first job.

I’m bringing up my personal stuff

for a reason: A new study by TD

Ameritrade shows that young mil-

lennials — described as people 22

to 28 years old — have mixed feel-

ings about their college education.

“Our research found that for

those young millennials who went

to college, just 5 percent regret do-

ing so,” says Dara Luber, senior re-

tirement manager for TD Ameri-

trade. “However, when considering

the value their degree had on get-

ting their current job, roughly half

said it wasn’t an important factor.”

Remember, these are people who

graduated just a few years ago. And

even in that short time span —

when their college degree should

have been most effective — the

people who were surveyed said it

wasn’t important.

And of course they didn’t regret

going to college. It’s fun, although a

very expensive way to enjoy one-

self.

I’m not knocking a college educa-

tion. Knowledge for knowledge’s

sake about any subject — even his-

tory — is a good thing. But whether

a college education is actually

harmful to a person’s well-being

has a lot to do with the cost.

If you really want knowledge at a

discount, read a book.

There’s going to be a crisis in

higher education one of these days.

And it is a crisis that is going to af-

fect the entire US economy.

The cost of a college education

and the loans students have to take

out are already a presidential cam-

paign issue.

Democratic candidates Bernie

Sanders and Elizabeth Warren

have already brought up the (ridic-

ulous) possibility of canceling all

student debt — all $1.6 trillion of it.

But anyone who understands

what is going on knows this is an

empty promise. The US govern-

ment, especially in its present state

of indebtedness, can’t just pick up

the tab for all those educations.

Somebody owns those $1.6 tril-

lion in loans. And they’ll want to be

paid to cancel them. And only the

American government — aka as we

the taxpayers — can do that. And

we won’t.

Back when I erred in getting my

Master’s degree in history, the mis-

take wasn’t very costly. I didn’t have

to take out huge loans that needed

to be paid back over decades.

I didn’t have indebtedness from

my college days that prevented me

from buying a house or having

kids.

That’s not the case today. Pick the

wrong area of study — and by that I

mean, one that doesn’t result in a

high-enough paying job — and stu-

dents are condemning themselves

to a much less affluent life.

And the students’ parents are

doomed to seeing their kids

achieve much less than they have

and much less than their kids

could have had.

Maybe that’s why TD Ameri-

trade’s survey also found that 20

percent of young millennials and

Gen Z’s — ages 15 to 21 — “say they

may opt out of a college experi-

ence,” says Luber.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a col-

umn about college costs that got a

lot of attention.

Basically it asked a simple, but

troubling question: Why are par-

ents allowing their kids to pick

overpriced schools that

aren’t going to lead to

jobs that earn enough?

Most of the people

who wrote to me

agreed that parents

had abandoned their

responsibility in this

area.

Some said many parents

aren’t equipped to make school de-

cisions any more than their kids are,

especially since colleges are so slick

in their pitches.

And as long as parents and stu-

dents don’t shop for value in col-

leges, the school administrators

aren’t going to change.

They will continue to overbuild

and overspend on things that aren’t

necessary for an education that will

pay dividends in the end.

This is a good time of year, with

the fall semester about to begin, to

talk about what students should

study if they want to stay solvent.

LendKey Technologies, which

has given out $1.02 billion worth of

education loans, says that educa-

tion, nursing, engineering and com-

puter sciences have the lowest loan

default rates.

Psychology, communications and

liberal arts have the highest.

LendKey’s rule of thumb is that

“you shouldn’t borrow more

than the expected first year

salary for a graduate of

that degree.”

Here are some exam-

ples from LendKey: Ag-

riculture majors make

$40,000 the first year;

journalism majors, $38,000;

computer science $62,000; elec-

trical engineering $65,000; and ele-

mentary education majors earn

$35,000.

“It’s not that some of these de-

grees are bad,” says Christian

Widham, a senior vice president at

Lendkey. “It’s just the fact that you

shouldn’t borrow a lot of money to

get these degrees. You shouldn’t

put yourself behind the eight ball.”

[email protected]

By RICHARD MORGAN

and JOSH KOSMAN

Casino chain Caesars has

fired a top executive who

was accused of terminating

an underling who com-

plained about his “making

out” with another underling.

Caesars terminated Re-

gional President Kevin Or-

tzman after the lawsuit,

filed by Jocelyn Agnellini

Allison, triggered an inter-

nal investigation, two

sources said.

Ortzman, who oversaw the

company’s Bally’s, Caesars

and Harrah’s Resort proper-

ties in Atlantic City, was let

go on Aug. 9 after meeting

with Caesars CEO Tony Ro-

dio, the sources added.

It’s unlear if Ortzman was

fired as a result of the inves-

tigation, but Agnellini Alli-

son “feels vindicated” by the

termination, said a person

with knowledge of her

thinking.

As The Post reported in

June, Agnellini Allison

claimed that her 21-year ca-

reer at Caesars started to

suffer after she complained

in May 2017 that Ortzman

had been “making out” with

a subordinate after a work

function in a way that “made

employees uncomfortable.”

Instead of taking action,

Caesars top brass looked the

other way as Ortzman retali-

ated, including telling peo-

ple “there will be hell to pay”

once he found out who rat-

ted on him, the lawsuit said.

Shortly thereafter, Agnel-

lini Allison says she began to

be excluded from “executive

team thank you e-mails” and

even holiday gift-giving.

She was also kept out of

meetings, “treated in a hostile

and dismissive manner” and

“falsely” accused of abusing

her position and administra-

tive compensation privileges,

according to the suit.

The alleged “retaliation”

continued until she was

fired without explanation in

February 2019.

Ortzman did not return

calls for comment.

Caesars’ media contacts in

Atlantic City and Las Vegas

headquarters did not re-

spond to requests for com-

ment. [email protected]

Caesars kiss-off

Exec X’d after fired worker suit: sources

Tencent music

revs out of tune

My Master’s got me zilch, so choose wisely

JOHN

CRUDELE

overpriced schools that “you shouldn’t borrow more

than the expected first year

Some said many parents computer science $62,000; elec­

Get more

John Crudele at

$40,000 the first year;

journalism majors, $38,000;

NYPOST. COM

US retailers large and small are pressing ahead with testing

the use of artificial intelligence to track what products shoppers

pick up and automatically bill their accounts when they walk out

the door, eliminating the need for a checkout line. The concept

got a push from Amazon Go stores, which launched in early

2018. Recent entrants include Sam’s Club and Giant Eagle, a re-
      gional chain of grocery and convenience stores. Dow Jones

Cashierless trend hot

DEAL HIM OUT: Caesars Entertainment

fired a regional president in its sex-harass

dust-up, according to sources. Getty Images

EXCLUSIVE