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Opening Remarks - Abby Cohen

Abby Cohen, Goldman Sachs

Presentation summary

  • Declining household incomes
    • Median household income declined by 4 % in decade before Recession, with largest decline among blue-collar workers
    • Rising household debt and construction boom masked impact until financial crisis which has exacerbated these trends
  • Americans and higher education
    • Educational attainment stopped growing about 10-12 years ago, stagnation of percentage of Americans getting a bachelor’s degree
      • Increase in the likelihood of women receiving a 4 year degree, subsequent decrease in the likelihood of men receiving a 4 year degree
    • Unemployment rate is higher for males than the unemployment rate for females
  • R&D/Patents/repatriation
    • Research and Development as a percentage of GDP is only about 2 %
    • Only 50% of patents in the US go to US citizens; 10% go to China and the rest of Asia; Japan gets 29%
    • S&P 500 have 30% of their sales come from outside the US -- $1 trillion in assets currently outside US