BloombergTV kicked off their week-long coverage of the millennial market Monday with a segment focused on how the Millennial generation compares with their Baby Boomer parents. The proposed results were slightly depressing.
The first installment of the series titled, “Rise of the Millennials: Generation Built on Crises,” discussed statistics of birth rate and population for both the Boomers and the Millennials. The findings from Ned Davis Research and Canaccord Genuity found that the peak per year birthrate of the Baby Boomers was 4.3 million in 1957. That number was matched by the Millennials in 1990, making today’s late-teens and twenty-somethings the largest generation in history.
“The difference is we went into the 60s and hugely expanded our social programs,” said Jonathan Golub, Chief U.S. Market Strategist for RBC Capital Markets. “The big issue with these young folks is that they’re going to be paying for all of us for a long time.”
The round table panel at BloombergTV went on to agree that Millennials have been raised in an economically abnormal environment. With the Sept. 11 tragedy and the 2008 recession looming in the back of each of their minds, there is bound to be an effect on the way they view the world, the panel said.
“They learned something about geopolitical risk and economic risk as children,” said Marshall Sonenshine, Chairman and Managing Partner of his own investment bank. “I don’t know how that is going to play out, but I think it has made them more focused about real life.”
We can only hope our generation does focus on “real life.” The government bill that is headed our way is certainly real enough.
