Blaming baby boomers for ruining millennial economy, says billionaire

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Baby boomers have left future generations with debt and a shattered economy, billionaire Howard Marks said. With an affordability crisis and two recessions under their belt, millennials have paid the price. Baby boomers must make way for millennials to exercise economic and political influence. Loading Something is loading.

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A billionaire boomer goes after his wealthy peers.

Howard Marks, investor and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, recently wrote a memo to clients filled with his generally notable remarks on the economy – and a shot at baby boomers for essentially ruining the economy for the younger generations.

He pointed out that over 71 million people are baby boomers – triple the 23 million Silent Gen members and 10% more than the 65 million Gen Xers, both generations on either side.

“The magnitude of the baby boomers’ votes and financial resources has given them enormous political clout over the past 40 years,” he wrote. “The result has been huge deficit spending on things baby boomers want and a failure to change benefit programs that need to be fixed, all to the detriment of future generations.”

Marks explained that this illustrates generational injustice, with both party administrations having historically and currently “spent huge sums, taxing less than they should relative to their spending (thus generating deficits) and increasing the national debt. , largely favoring the baby boomers “.

He continued, “The baby boomers have consumed and still consume more than their fair share of the pie. This will leave future generations with a substantial debt burden resulting from expenses they have not benefited from proportionately.”

Marks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baby Boomers’ Hand in Millennial Affordability Crisis

Marks is not the first to question the economic influence of baby boomers. Generational pundits and news outlets ranging from Vox to The Guardian have called on the Generation for its role in bankrupting the wealthy economy they inherited, leaving Millennials to pick up the pieces.

Millennials, now the largest generation, have faced an affordability crisis ever since they limped out of the Great Recession to join a ravaged job market, struggling to build wealth as they faced the skyrocketing cost of living and that they were carrying massive student debt. They were still grappling with its lingering effects a dozen years later when the coronavirus recession and a historic housing crisis hit.

Baby boomers have also been a force behind their economic situation. Neil Howe, the economist, historian and demographer who coined the term ‘millennial,’ previously told Insider that baby boomers refuse to pay for institutional upkeep, preferring to spend money on things that change society. people’s lives now. He said this was the result of their coming-of-age experience, during which their parents, the GI generation, cared about building strong institutions and looking to the future. The baby boomers took this for granted and developed a “live for today attitude,” he said.

They have reaped economic benefits from this mindset, a Deutsche Bank Research report revealed last year. Baby boomers, he said, have seen their assets grow thanks to low interest rates and inflated house prices. They didn’t have to pay as much for education as millennials, nor will they have to bear the cost of environmental damage from the carbon-emitting companies they’ve invested in.

Baby boomers have created an economic crisis that will leave first-generation millennials worse off than their parents, explores author Jill Filipovic in her book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk”. Millennials, she told Insider, are a generation of optimistic, hardworking people who have been taken a beating. “None of this was an accident,” she said.

The fact that baby boomers have wielded tremendous political, cultural and economic power over the past few decades has prevented millennials from seeing the economic solutions they need, Filipovic said. She argues that millennials need baby boomers to pass on their wisdom and experience while leaving room for the younger generation to be part of decision-making processes.

“Unless millennials are around the table, we’re really not going to see the issues that matter most to us addressed,” Filipovic said. “You need people who are actually going to live in the future, who have a stake in the future, at the decision-making table.”

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