Robert Kaplan

And many are concluding.

that in this new era, they're better off getting more size and scale and merging.

So that's not slowing down at all.

Having said that, if you're forecast for the year, this has put a little bit of a damper for many businesses on their growth outlook, and they're going to be more careful, and that will start with hiring and other expenditures.

But they've got to keep aggressively pursuing this AI situation, and mergers will be part of that.

So what we see, and I saw this when I was at the Dallas Fed, and I see it more now, we've got a lot of what I call mismatches.

So the Fed worries about, are we sickly growing?

Are we weakening?

We've got a structural problem.

We've got college graduates, programmers, others can't find jobs.

But I've never seen more open jobs, window installers, technicians, plumbers, people to work on the Ford Motor Company assembly line to make $135,000 a year can't find them.

And so these mismatches have to be worked through and we're kind of struggling with that right now.

Some of it is aspirational.

If I go to college, did I go to college to be a plumber or electrician?

Turns out those jobs make a lot of money.

And so I think you may see, you're going to need to see more changes in our educational system where it wouldn't shock me if 15 years from now, a state college offers a skill training option.

They don't do that now.

Exactly.

That's right.

College Station.