The bitter/sarcastic tone this article takes toward the end reminds me VERY much of humor/commentary I've heard from academics. It's amusing but off-putting at the same time, and comes off sounding as though the writer has an axe to grind.
That's just how the Economist is. Many of their articles end that way, with some acerbic witticism.
I was at a meetup tonight, and the people that were looking for jobs, where MBA fresh grads. All engineers were doing something already.
You, of course, realize that hard skills vs. soft skills has really little to do with it. I mean, it's not like factory workers are being snapped up right now. Or, you know, Ada programmers or something. It's really more about supply & demand (hah!).
I think there are different ways to approach thinking about an MBA degree. While it's true that MBA (often, but actually not always) doesn't give you hard skills (quants & opresearch guys would disagree!), it doesn't make the 'soft skills' useless. For me, the most valuable aspect of my program (granted, there are schools & there are, well, worthless schools, I'm quite biased) was learning about different aspects of business, hearing about problems other people/classmates have encountered & arguing heatedly, reflecting on my years of work & seeing additional angles & solutions, addressing practical problems with practical solutions (not all real problems can be solved with code, you know, although we can all wish :)
Of course, I think that the best MBAs are the ones who've actually been working on something real before they apply to the business school, and to be fair, that's what many business schools in fact encourage. Well, I can go on and on, maybe we can chat more about it when we meet. I won't convince you that MBA is a must, I don't believe that myself duh, but, just like Java, there are circumstances, independent of economy, in which it is warranted. :)
In fact, even if it is true that "the economy is turning more into skill-based economy" (let's see what it's going to be like in 10 years), it doesn't mean you don't need (granted, fewer) "soft-skillers". It's kind of like saying that because Internet allows disintermediation of content, you no longer need any mediators (although, of course, there are people who believe that, too).
