Who Really Had It Worse: Boomers or Millennials?

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I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the am edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. Saudi Arabia is pressing the U.S. to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, fearing that the move could trigger Iranian retaliation and the disruption of other key shipping routes. Saudi Arabia was recently able to get its oil exports back to pre-war levels by piping it across the desert to the Red Sea. However, we report that officials there worry that Iran could lash out against the blockade by attacking the Bob-El-Men-Deb Strait at the mouth of the sea. Iranian allied Houthi rebels in Yemen severely disrupted traffic through that Strait during the Gaza War, but thus far largely stayed out of the current conflict. Instead of risking a Houthi entry into the fight, Saudi officials are urging the U.S. to return to the negotiating table with Iran, with Gulf officials saying that although the warring sides are publicly maintaining hard lines, the combatants are actively engaging with mediators. Global markets are higher, and oil lower this morning on hopes of more talks. Meanwhile, the Iran War is starting to show up in Chinese economic data, posing a threat to one of the country's major growth drivers. I spoke to Asia Economic Reporter Hanemiah to learn more We just received China's export data for March, which showed a 2.5% growth from the year earlier. And that was down sharply from a 22% increase for January and February. So this could be an early sign that the war in Iran is weighing on global demand, which could really threaten a key growth driver for China's economy exports. Hannah, I know trade between China and the Middle East isn't huge compared to some of their other big export markets, and yet it had been growing, and then March came along and we saw the data contracting there. What's the significance of that? That's right. The Middle East was one of the regions where Chinese exporters were finding new customers and growing their trade amid a downturn in trade with the U.S. due to tariffs. So that really puts into question one of those markets where you could potentially try to get more exports. And in general, the bigger question is what the war in the Middle East will mean for global demand for Chinese products. On one hand, there's a lot more interest now in Chinese renewable energy products like solar panels and EVs. But on the other hand, energy prices could weigh on consumer demand. It might cause customers to pull back on orders and it's adding to costs for Chinese manufacturers, which could weigh on their profit margins as well. So it's a bit of a mixed bag in terms of what the outlook looks like. And like many other places in the world, it really depends on how long this war lasts and how severe it is. That was General Reporter Hannah Miyau. While also seeing hit from the war, our luxury good sales, Louis Vuitton owner LVMH, an industry pay setter, is reporting a revenue drop in its fashion and leather goods business with the war, souring hopes of a rebound in high-end purchases. And we want to wait long to get more updates from the luxury industry, with Gucci owner Karing providing a revenue update today, followed by Air Maze tomorrow. A pair of congressmen are giving up their seats. California Democrat Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez say they will both resign instead of facing potential expulsion votes when Congress returns to work today. Swalwell and Gonzalez face accusations of sexual misconduct, which their colleagues argued disqualified them from office. And the scrutiny of lawmakers may not end there, as calls mount for Florida Democrat Sheila Sherfluist McCormick and Republican Cory Mills to also step down following months of scrutiny from House investigators. Sherfluist McCormick has pleaded not guilty after being indicted for allegedly stealing $5 million that was improperly sent to her family's healthcare company, while Mills has called domestic violence and campaign finance allegations against him absolutely false. Posting on social media, New York Democrat Nidia Velazquez called for both to be expelled, as did South Carolina Republican Nancy Maze. "I'm holding everyone to the same standard. I told the speaker this weekend we have four members, not just Tony Gonzalez, it's not just Eric Swalwell. We need to clean house." Parents in LA can breathe a sigh of relief this morning after a late night breakthrough in talks to a verta strike that could have paralyzed the country's second biggest school district. Details are still being finalized. Our Paul Kearnan in LA said the negotiations came down to the wire. "The Los Angeles Unified School District has been in mediation talks with SEIU local 99 over issues including employee pay and hours. The Union, which has around 30,000 members in LA Unified, had rejected an offer from the school district of a 13 percent raise spread over three years." A strike would have seen the closure of more than 1,300 schools serving nearly 400,000 students. And Canada's ruling liberal party has secured a majority in the country's parliament after notching winds across a slate of special elections held yesterday. That result hands Prime Minister Mark Carney the ability to aggressively pursue a policy agenda aimed at rebuilding the struggling Canadian economy, including by pushing forward on promised infrastructure and resource projects. President Trump's trade policies have further boosted Carney's popularity since he won election a year ago, with liberals also convincing five members of opposition parties to join the government in recent months. Coming up, can economic data finally settle the debate of who had it worse as early adults? Baby boomers or millennials will ask after the break. Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees, but I don't really need it. "Infliction is killing me! What do you care? Big retailers are making record profits." "That's why we support the Durban Marshall Credit Card Bill." See, banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need. "While increasing Megastore profits." "They deserve it, don't they?" Tell Congress, stop the Durban Marshall Money Grab for corporate megastores paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition. "And finally, who really had it harder? Baby boomers or millennials? It's an age old debate between parents and children over which generation got the shorthand of the stick in trying to build a comfortable life. Personal finance reporter Joe Pinskarm has been looking at whether there's any data that can settle the debate, things like wages, student debt and housing prices, and he spoke to our producer, Daniel Bach." Joe, this seems like a really tough question to answer, so how did you go about it? Yeah, there are so many components that would go into this question of who had it harder financially. We chose to look at a few key areas that people would think about, specifically in the age ranges of the early decades of adulthood. Some of the data cut sort of cleanly starting at around age 25, and then it takes you through mid-40s. The oldest millennials are now 45, so that's kind of where the data stops. And what do you find out about wage growth for both generations? Yeah, when you're comparing how baby boomers and millennials wages compared when they were a similar age, and yes, of course we're adjusting for inflation here, they were not wildly different, which may surprise some people. One interesting side note, which a professor at MIT, Nathan Wilmer, has made to me as I was reporting the story, is that part of the frustration that millennials have might be a reaction to the fact that the economy has been growing faster than their wages were rising, at least for the early part of their careers. And so some of the frustration around earnings might have to do with this feeling of not sharing in the gains that are being spread more widely throughout the economy. Yeah, and one thing that really builds generation of wealth is the ability to buy a house. How did the generation stack up? Yeah, this is a really interesting question. Millennials who are trying to buy a house today have a really tough time. Prices have gone up a lot. Rates are higher than they were a few years ago. However, if you go back to that early 80s period when mortgage rates were really high, affordability was actually even worse for baby boomers when they were a similar age. That said, I think one of the points that stuck out to me in reporting this story is that generations are these easy labels that we put on tens of millions of people and there's so much human experience that that captures in it. So there was a segment of baby boomers who did have a tough bang out in that period, but you look later on in their age group, you go into the 90s, people allowing a house, it was actually more affordable. And the same is true millennials. It's tough to say in a big picture exactly who won or who lost, but also just within each generation, there's a bunch of variation. And what about student debt? How do millennials and boomers compare when it comes to paying back student loans? Yeah, this is obviously a huge area of difference between millennials and baby boomers. The cost of college increased so much between the time that the two generations were in school. And partially as a result, the student debt balance that people came out of school with was just much higher for millennials. That said, if you zoom out, millennials, average, wealth, and median wealth was higher than boomers was at the same age. And that's even accounting for inflation and accounting for the student loans that we were just talking about. Well, that's quite interesting to hear because there's this narrative that we've been hearing for so many years that millennials have been short-changed, right? Yeah, I think this is actually kind of a snuck up on people over the past five, seven years or so. Millennials, finances have actually gotten a whole lot better and their household net worth has climbed above what baby boomers was at a similar age. And that's true on average. It's true with the median. I think that there are a lot of parts of that early narrative that have still stuck around with how we think about how this generation is set up. That's journal personal finance reporter, Joe Pinscare. Joe, thanks for this. Yeah, thank you. And that's it for what's news for this Tuesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hadi Moyer and Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kylhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. And until then, thanks for listening. [MUSIC PLAYING] Enterprises are already creating efficiencies with a Genetic AI. Particularly in areas like finance, HR, and IT, says Jason Garzadas, CEO of Deloitte, US. Those will continue to proliferate and strengthen. And it'll change the work that gets done. And work will increasingly be delivered through agente capabilities. Garzadas believes the most transformative impacts of agenteic systems are still to come. It will fuel innovation. 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