I don't think anyone can conclusively predict what effect this will have on the job market, or America's position in the global marketplace in decades to come, but it stands to reason that Wall Street's increasing focus on short-term profits is going to have some long-term effects. Do you disagree?

I'd love to see evidence of this fact.

To me, it certainly isn't obvious. There are various companies and products focused on profits at various stages. VC focuses on the long term. Assorted securitized consumer loan products (mortgage backed securities, etc) are also long term investment. HFT companies focus on the short term. There are various medium term investments as well.

Have you any evidence that there has been a shift from long term to short term investments?

[edit: just curious, why am I being downmodded?]

Too bad.

"The kind of people who have jobs at Bell Labs and the 6.7m unemployed are probably pretty disjoint."

The point of the article was that small subset of people who have jobs at research labs create a disproportionate amount of jobs and wealth. The author was not implying that basic research jobs could generate millions of jobs on their own. However, the results of the basic research eventually result in the creation of millions of jobs (e.g. invention of transistor leading to an explosion of jobs in the computer industry. etc.). The article's point is that the only way we are going to be able to generate enough high paying jobs to sustain our standard of living and position in the world is through the investment into basic research.