Grauniad reports Britain is in danger of running out of scientists:
commoditity markets in Europe spiked sharply on the news, with the ten year future contract on physicists rising 20% in early morning trading; spot markets also rose sharply, with PhD chemists leading the rally to $274.18 per hour in early morning trading (for the benchmark liberal educated physical chemists favoured by industry).
In the US after an initial spike in morning trading, the early gains were erased by the announcement that India was releasing some of its strategic stockpile of computer scientists, and news that the University of Alaska geophysics program was back online after rumours they'd be shut down; analysts say however that the biggest impact came when NASA released a new "vision statement" and the White House Office leaked a draft of next week's planned announcement of a new National Science Competitiveness Effort, which will let industry claim R&D credits for powerpoint proposals produced by MBAs and marketing managers, no actual scientists will be needed. The projected reduction in demand will be enough to offset any future shortages in Europe. "People are fungible" said an anonymous senior source, "we still have the most flexible tax and accounting system for research credits, we can contract any actual work to the European labs, as needed, much more cost effective".
European Future markets remained high in after hour trading.
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