Donovan X Ramsey for Demos: It’s not about smart phones, selfies or social media. Millennials aren’t making some of life’s biggest purchases because we’re broke. As James Carville might say, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Reading the money pages of popular publications as a millennial can be infuriating. Every other article seems to stumble through clumsy speculation about my generation’s financial decisions, as if they’re so mysterious.
A recent article for The Atlantic calls millennials “The Cheapest Generation” and expends more than 2,000 words to explain “why millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy.”
“The largest generation in American history might never spend as lavishly as its parents did — nor on the same things,” it reads. “Since the end of World War II, new cars and suburban houses have powered the world’s largest economy and propelled our most impressive recoveries. Millennials may have lost interest in both.”
The word “debt” appears only once throughout the entire piece.
The suggestion that millennials are forgoing major financial decisions, like buying a car or first home, because of generational values is a stretch, and an unnecessary one — especially in the presence of consistent, reliable economic data that shows we’re currently just too broke, saddled with student loan debt and low-wage jobs, to buy big-ticket items.
BANKING ON STONERS
Alan Pyke for ThinkProgress: Nearly a year after Colorado’s first legal marijuana shops opened, the thriving industry’s biggest problem is deciding what to do with all of its cash. Now, the state banking commission believes it has found a way to free pot entrepreneurs from the regulatory haze between federal banking laws, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) policy and the state’s right to experiment with legalization.
The nation’s first bank for marijuana pushers, growers and investors will open in January after Colorado’s banking regulators approved a charter for the Fourth Corner Credit Union.
The first-of-its-kind bank will allow state business owners to move away from relying on cash for every transaction. Business has been very good for marijuana sellers since the state’s carefully designed legalization regime came online in early 2014, but traditional banks have refused to do business with the industry for fear of inviting punishment from regulators that are required to enforce the federal prohibition on the drug. That inability to access banking services has pushed the businesses into the arms of companies like Blue Line Protection Group, a security firm that specializes in moving and safeguarding huge piles of cash for the marijuana industry. …
Keeping Colorado’s marijuana revenue out of the hands of criminal enterprises will be much easier if the industry doesn’t have to rely on cash. “If you can’t get your cash into the Federal Reserve system, you end up stockpiling it in your home, in caves, in your business. At some point, the risk becomes worth it for organized crime,” state financial services commissioner Chris Myklebust told USA Today. “I’ve never even held a joint, but I really want to see them banked.”
A state charter for Fourth Corner is a key step, because it requires the Federal Reserve to acknowledge the bank and give it access to the technological infrastructure for processing payments and conducting electronic transactions.
OBAMA OUTDOES BUSH ON SMALL BUSINESS RULES
Clyde Wayne Crews for the Competitive Enterprise Institute: President Obama has issued nearly half again as many “major,” $100 million regulations during his six years as president as George Bush did in his final six. (Obama had 407 over the period, Bush had 277.)
However, when it comes to regulations impacting small business, Obama also comes out as the bigger regulator.
We learn a little bit about the impact of individual federal regulations on small business thanks to the so-called Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires agencies to scrutinize such burdens more closely.
As the Federal Register notes: The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires that agencies publish semiannual regulatory agendas in the Federal Register describing regulatory actions they are developing that may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
Despite President Obama’s claim to have issued fewer rules than his predecessor, rules impacting small business have actually grown. …
The Bush total number of rules requiring a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis during his final six years was 2,268, averaging 378.
Obama’s total rules impacting small business significantly enough to require a Flexibility Analysis over six years is 2,453. His average is 409.
While not as dramatic, this mirrors Obama’s higher six-year average of 68 “major” (generally, $100 million-plus impact) rules annually vs. Bush’s 46.
Compiled by Joseph Lawler from think tank research.
