Making money
New college graduates are entering the
“worst job market in decades,” said Jeffrey
Selingo and Matt Sigelman in The Wall Street
Journal. “Hiring for entry-level college-
graduate positions has fallen 45 percent,”
likely hastening doubts about the value of
college that have been building for years.
According to Gallup, “the number of Ameri-
cans who consider higher education ‘very
important’ has fallen nearly 20 points since
2013.” Americans simply don’t see the return
on their investment, and colleges themselves
aren’t helping. The same survey found that
78 percent of new grads never even bothered with their college’s
career office. It’s the job of schools to help students identify more
fruitful career pathways. For example, “a psychology major who
acquires data-analysis skills through research or internships can
unlock more than 100,000 additional entry-level jobs paying on
average $60,000, versus $39,000 for psychology majors overall.”College enrollment usually increases during recessions, said
Catherine Rampell in The Washington Post. Not this time.
“College completions and new enrollment have plummeted”
since the start of the pandemic, particularly among “Americans
who could financially benefit most from education and train-
ing.” The further down the economic ladder you go, the worse
the decline. The number of high school seniors completing
the federal student aid application is down 10 percent over-
all, and as much as 15 percent at high schools with minoritystudents. There’s an even sharper drop-
off—30 percent—in enrollment by first-
time students over age 24, who are “pre-
sumably those most likely to be switching
careers.” Reskilling was a reason enroll-
ment “swelled at two-year schools” during
the last downturn, said Lawrence Lanahan
in HechingerReport .org. A decade later,
community college attendance figures are
cratering. Remote instruction has “worn
out its welcome for many,” and others are
finding that the financial pressures of the
pandemic are getting in the way.Fear of the college bill is often exaggerated, said Ron Lieber in
The New York Times. The “sticker price” at some state schools
has now “crossed the $100,000 barrier for four years.” But
that’s not what most people pay. “According to the College
Board, the net tuition (after aid and various discounts) and fees
that first-time full-time undergraduates paid this school year
was $3,230 at public colleges and universities and $15,990 at
private ones,” not including room, board, travel, and books. A
college education “remains America’s single greatest determinant
of socioeconomic advancement,” said Christopher Callahan,
president of the University of the Pacific, in the San Francisco
Chronicle. “Gen Z students, often derided as overly sensitive,
fragile ‘snowflakes,’” have faced obstacles no college students
have ever encountered. Their response has given me “hope for
the future of higher education.”Education: Americans lose confidence in college
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College aid applications are falling fast.Special car warranty offer? Skip it
Extended car warranties are too often “a bad
deal,” said David Lazarus in the Los Angeles
Times. “As I frequently tell consumers, if in-
surance helps you sleep at night, it’s probably
worth it.” But generally speaking, service con-
tracts don’t deliver enough bang for their buck.
“A 2013 survey by Consumer Reports found
that 55 percent of people who purchased
extended car warranties never used the cover-
age.” Even those who did saved about $837
on covered repairs, far less than the $1,500
median cost of the coverage. You should steer
clear of “coverage pitched by marketing letters
or robocalls.” Many car dealers “sell details of
extended warranties to data brokers, which in
turn sell them to others,” giving salesmen that
information about your car.Robinhood’s turn in the hot seat
Lawmakers took aim at the chief executive
of Robinhood at a hearing last week, said
Nathaniel Popper and Matt Phillips in The
New York Times. “Members of the House
Financial Services Committee grilled Vlad
Tenev,” who was called in for questioning
along with other major players in last month’s
GameStop trading frenzy. Several representa-
tives accused Robinhood of profiting fromtrades that aren’t really free, because the bro-
kerage is “paid by Citadel Securities and other
hedge funds for directing customer orders to
them.” Citadel in turn makes money by “ex-
ploiting tiny differences between the buy and
sell prices” of trades on the Robinhood app.
Tenev disputed the lawmakers’ claims, saying
that Robinhood “doesn’t answer to hedge
funds” and that its customers have earned
$35 billion on their investments.A tax debt yields a surprise profit
An online bank customer received $47,000
cash back after paying taxes with a debit card,
said Felix Salmon in Axios.com. “Thanks to
a quirk of the U.S. payments processing in-
frastructure,” some taxpayers are taking full
advantage of their 1 percent rewards card. A
customer at an online bank called Jiko did so
recently, using a Discover debit card to make
a $4.7 million tax payment. The bank, which
offers 1 percent cash back on all debit card pur-
chases, handed the customer a $47,000 wind-
fall. The IRS got its full $4.7 million, while the
government’s payment processor “had to pay
more than 1 percent of the transaction back
to Discover and thence to Jiko,” which passed
it on to the customer. “This is probably not
going to last,” said Jiko CEO Stephane Lintner.What the experts say
Since
1984, the
Performing
Animal
Welfare
Society
(pawsweb
.org) has been
rescuing, protecting, and rehabilitating
exotic performing animals that have
been abused and neglected. PAWS oper-
ates two wildlife refuges, a 2,300-acre
sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif., for ele-
phants, lions, bears, primates, and tigers,
and a 100-acre refuge in Herald, Calif.,
for emus and oryxes. These sanctuaries
are carefully created to mimic the ani-
mals’ natural habitats. There are specially
constructed areas for older, arthritic, or
injured animals. At PAWS, these exotic
animals receive care from dozens of
trained staff and veterinarians and are
not bred, sold, or exploited in any way.
In 2004, dozens of tigers who lived on
a landfill were rescued from a breeding
facility and brought to the refuge’s safety.Charity of the week
Each charity we feature has earned a
four-star overall rating from Charity
Navigator, which rates not-for-profit
organizations on the strength of their
finances, their governance practices,
and the transparency of their operations.
Four stars is the group’s highest rating.