Outsized Wall Street pay packages diverting scientists from the real economy.

Science magazine reports on a study (pay wall) of the pipeline for native-born scientists:

The findings suggest that the United States risks losing its economic competitiveness not because of a work force inadequately trained in science, as conventional wisdom holds, but because of a lack of social and economic incentives to pursue careers in science and technology.

Other reports, this one, e.g., suggest that top physics Ph.D.s are being lured to Wall Street to develop trading programs.  Many months after the start of the banking crisis, a UCLA physics professor told me that many of his top graduates are still going to Wall Street. 

Comments

[Christine]

I was at a water conference in Kuwait 2 years ago and asked one of the Saudi participants whether they still had a brain drain. He said that no, they didn't have a brain drain at all, but that Saudi Aramco was paying such high salaries to Saudis who graduated from college that they couldn't get any of their promising people to go on to get PhDs...