“Half of the stocks are now owned by baby boomers. It's not just the AI billionaires who are driving this stock market gains. It's all of these baby boomers, these grandparents. And that's what's tricky if we do finally get a pullback in the stock market. Do all these grandparents stop spending?”
Marketplace All-in-One · October 2026
On Marketplace, the host asked whether, given AI, the stock market might actually be the economy now. The economist added that roughly $85 trillion in boomer savings is propping up consumption in a way that "doesn't really care about the labor market anymore."
Transcript
years.
Can I add on to that? Of course you can. Please. Come on.
Just, you know, plus one to everything David said. But I think the other thing that's really different right now is the baby boomer wealth. You know, all that accumulated savings, 85 trillion or more, half of the stocks are now owned by baby boomers. And I think that's what's really different. It's not just the AI billionaires who are driving this stock market gains. It's all of these baby boomers, these grandparents. And that's what's tricky if we do finally get a pullback in the stock market. You know, do all these grandparents stop spending? You know, that's a huge block that's been propelling consumption in this economy that doesn't really care about the labor market anymore.
And again, okay, Boomer. All right. Look, Heather, let me stay with you because we're going to go to Consumers, Consumer Sentiment. Came out today from the University of Michigan. It was down again. There was a study out showing consumers are planning not to spend as much as they usually do next…
It does feel like at some point, and we're finally pretty close to that point. I've sort of shifted. From K-shape economy to E-shape economy, it's pretty clear there's the top 20%'s doing great, as David was just articulating on the stock market gains and wealth effect. It's also pretty clear the…
And also, sorry, Justin Hoat did a story for us a couple of days ago about how auto loan delinquencies are on the rise. So that's an indicator there, you know? Yeah. David, another testament to how long you and I have known each other, we were in Athens in like 2015, walking through that main…
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