Behind the Curve, As Always

I'm buttuming that this Bush Depression that you speak of is the one that began in April-2000 when the dot-coms went bust. That was on Clintons watch. During 1998-2000 the tech-sector of the economy grew out of control. "Irrational exuberance" is what Greenspan called it. The growth and valuations were not sustainable and when the dot-com bubble burst it took other sectors of the economy with it.

Regarding the "this is going to turn around" part I think you're right on this. From what I've seen on the news the Silicon Valley area is doing well and I see first hand that the tech-sector in Boston is doing well once again. Companies aren't giving away BMW's as signing bonuses to new college-grads like they were in 1999 but things are currently doing well.

I did hear some statistic a while ago that was interesting. There are various versions of this so I did a quick Google search and found a recent one (June 8, 2005)

- "New data from the Higher Education Research Insbreastute at the University of California at Los Angeles shows the percentage of incoming students interested in majoring in computer science has plummeted over the last four years. Between the fall of 2000 and the fall of 2004, the percentage dropped by 60% and now is 70% lower than its peak in the early 1980s."

Look at the size of the computer industry now compared to 1980. Combine this with 70% fewer students now and all those who have retired and the predicted shortage of trained engineers appears to be accurate.