Employment Traits of Gen Z, 'Juicy' Bond Yields, Americans Quit Bowling

Bloomberg Intelligence

The episode explores the growing disconnect between strong macroeconomic indicators and lagging consumer sentiment, highlighting how shifting generational values are

Key takeaways

• Suzy Welch reveals that only 2% of Gen Z aligns with traditional achievement values, prioritizing self-care, agency, and authentic voice instead.
• Romain Bostic notes consumer fatigue is severely impacting discretionary spending, citing Lucky Strike and Dave & Buster's facing headwinds as nights out now cost hundreds of dollars.

Main topics

• Gen Z workplace values and career advice
• Consumer spending fatigue and discretionary retail

Notable quotes

You have a consumer that is behaving a lot better than what he or she actually feels.

Conclusion

Listeners gain actionable insights on navigating a bifurcated economy by prioritizing high-quality fixed

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:00) This November 11th at COP31 in Antalya, Bloomberg Green brings together policymakers, business leaders, investors, and innovators to examine practical climate solutions for resilience, investment, and the energy transition. Join the conversation, exploring the policies, technologies, and investments shaping the global economy. Bloomberg Green at COP31. Learn more at BloombergLive.com forward slash COP31. Bloomberg live.com forward slash cop 31. Speaker 4 (0:32) Bloomberg Speaker 6 (0:32) Audio Speaker 7 (0:33) Studios. Speaker 4 (0:34) Podcasts. Radio. News. Bloomberg Money. Speaker 2 (0:42) This is the Bloomberg Money Podcast. I'm Tom Keen with Scarlett Fu. Join us each week for a smart look at the forces shaping your financial life on personal finance, on retirement, and wealth management. We will explore how people are earning, investing, and building wealth. We are live Fridays at noon Eastern on Bloomberg Television. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen, and as always on the Bloomberg Terminal and the Bloomberg Business App. We're still there with us today. David Gurr is with us this morning here for Bloomberg this weekend and into the political maelstrom that he's in as well. Nikki Waller's here on a wide set of topics, which I think is going to be great. I think personal finance is sort of shattered within these markets. Sure Speaker 7 (1:30) is. Good thing we're all in it for the long term. Romain Speaker 2 (1:33) Bostic with us with some real expertise. What's different here, folks, is we all follow the blur. Scarlett and I do that, but then Romain's really channeled it, and we're going to talk about his perspective on running Speaker 5 (1:44) shoes. Speaker 2 (1:44) Well, he Speaker 5 (1:44) talks to a lot of CEOs, and he's got good insight into how some of these consumer-facing companies are managing through this period. Romain Speaker 2 (1:50) Bostic on a first-word basis with Jalen Brunson about which shoe he's going to wear next year for Ford Gazillion. I call him Jay. Speaker 2 (1:58) Great. Let's get this started. David Gurra, we're into the election season. You've got Raoul Braunstein on here, Bloomberg, this weekend. What's your first question, Raoul, about the cacophony we're living? Speaker 8 (2:08) Why is the president going to Texas and Oklahoma and Alabama? Why is the vice president going to Florida? What does it say about their strategy, Republican strategy going forward? We were promised by the president a few months ago. Right. Everything's up for grabs. He's going to crisscross the nation. He is sticking firmly to these red states. The personal Speaker 2 (2:22) finance of 50 states is flat on their back. I did Duluth, Minnesota today. Forget about that. Why aren't they in Iowa where the affordability issue, Grassley, at what, 90 years old? Is that apoplectic about this? Yes, Speaker 8 (2:35) in his 90s. Look, I think in states where now we're seeing races incredibly close, you have candidates who might not feel so easy with the president going there because of what's been happening in the economy more broadly. And I was struck by what Tom Tillis of North Carolina, my home state, said. He, of course, retiring from the Senate. This is a time when these lawmakers who are up for reelection are focusing on their own states. They don't want to have the burden of the president. Is this Speaker 2 (2:58) where he mentions Duke is 4-0? Yeah, Speaker 5 (3:00) I think it is. Speaker 8 (3:02) I will not talk about UNC football on principle on the show. Speaker 5 (3:06) Let's talk about the economy, though, because, Romain, we got some jobs numbers today. We also got consumer confidence this week that shows people feel really lousy, even though there is job growth. And we had solid PMI numbers which show that the economy's doing well. It's kind of hard to get a handle where things are. Speaker 3 (3:21) It's hard to get a handle. I think someone said it best to me. They said right now you have a consumer that is behaving a lot better than what he or she actually feels. And I guess that's good in the short term, but long term, it raises a lot of questions about are we reaching a breaking point? And to your point, David, about the midterm elections, this is something that has come up time and time again on the campaign trail. It doesn't seem like a lot of people in Washington. are paying a lot of attention to it. But I can tell you this right now, a lot of the retailers and the apparel makers and the companies that are selling goods and services, they are paying attention to it. That's all you hear on the conference calls these days. And Speaker 5 (3:54) Nikki, you see that too with companies like Dave & Buster's and Lucky Strike. They're hitting some serious economic headwinds. Speaker 7 (3:59) Yeah, we're seeing real consumer fatigue. And we know when people's finances are stressed, the first thing to go is that they're going to chop out is that discretionary spending and a fun night out. The other thing that's happening is that places like like Lucky Strike and Dave & Buster's aren't cheap anymore. You're looking at a couple hundred bucks for a night out. When I think all of us can remember the bowling alley beat you, you can have a good time for 20 bucks. You can have a good time for $20. $20? Come Speaker 5 (4:27) on, go Speaker 4 (4:27) with that. Speaker 5 (4:28) Between wages, between insurance costs, that's gone way up. So, Romain, you have talked to the CEO of Nike a couple of times. They have their own issues, right? They have their own execution issues. Elliot Hill inherited a bunch of problems, but they kind of really show some of the challenges that these consumer-dependent, consumer-facing companies are encountering. Speaker 3 (4:48) Yeah, and it's kind of one of the more ultimate discretionary names out there, and they've been struggling. A lot of idiosyncratic issues, but there are some broader macro issues there, too. You know, I was looking at a lot of the anecdotal Fed data about where spending is. You're still seeing spending strong at value places, the big box stores, the Costco's of the world. Durable goods is just really just kind of starting the circle to drain. But at the bottom of that stack was actually apparel and footwear. And it had done better at the start of the year, but you're starting to see a pullback. People are only buying the things either that they absolutely need or things that are really unique and exciting. And there's not a whole lot in between. I'm Speaker 2 (5:20) looking this weekend. I mean, Mrs. Keene told me she's got the Jalen Brunson. The Nikes, you know, the custom-made, and I don't even know what they cost. You don't want to know what they cost. The Speaker 3 (5:28) Nikes Speaker 2 (5:28) are like in and in right now. I mean, does the name still matter to Nike, like the endorsements? Oh, yeah, Speaker 3 (5:34) it matters. Just yesterday when they released their earnings report, they also released the Caitlin Clark connection. This is a huge deal, the most money that they've backed for a woman athlete ever. And, in fact, the amount of money they're spending on this rivals what they would spend on some of their male athletes. They really see her as sort of being the potential focal point for them. the branding, the endorsement branding. Why is the stock cratered? Well, because they're not selling. Jordan is down. Sportswear is down. The only real bright spots, they had some sort of, and the Nike brand here in North America. China is just abysmal. That was down 22 % in the most recent quarter. They're not selling anything over in Europe right now. This is a story right now where people have options. And for a lot of people, those options are not Nike. Speaker 5 (6:15) People have options. People are being selective with their spending. But David, if you listen to the president, there is no affordability crisis. There is no affordability challenge. As far as he's concerned, he fixed whatever inflation problems existed. I Speaker 8 (6:27) just want to say in the Gura household, we bought some Sabrina Ionesco. Sorry to do Speaker 1 (6:30) it Speaker 8 (6:30) on part to help. But no, I think that's right. And so what we have from the president is this promise of this $5,000 dividend, this promise that, you know, come election day, the war is going to end, oil prices are going to come down. And I think there's frustration among the American people with Having to hold on to that is the best hope here that the president is offering. And I think there's just this talk about sentiment, a real disconnect. That was something, that $5,000 check was kind of a throwaway line at this Republican convention in Dallas. It continues to have life. And I think lawmakers are having to deal with how do they answer their constituents who now expect this sort of thing. Speaker 7 (7:02) At the same time, this has been a little bit of a Republican talking point. It has a lot of truth. Americans are fairly rich. One of the things we're looking at in money is that later this year, they are going to have the Fed is going to release its survey of household consumer finances. And we are going to see how it is that people are managing to shop and spend even with everything they're facing. And I think we can't avoid the fact that people have retirement accounts. People have homes, by and large. They are in a pretty good situation with their mortgages. It's what feels bad is Speaker 5 (7:32) sometimes the discretionary stuff. Go Speaker 2 (7:34) ahead, Scar, please. Speaker 5 (7:35) No, and on top of that, you have AI kind of looming over everyone. I know that your team wrote something up about how there's a new report that shows AI may force 11 million workers into new jobs. Speaker 7 (7:45) It's a really big number from McKinsey and shows sort of the extent of what we could be looking at in the next couple years. And how our jobs are going to change, we don't know. It's a really, you know, I think that's one of the things that's helping people feel not so great is that, you know, tell anyone there's big change coming, but we can't tell you how, but it's going to be kind of painful. And that adds up to some really dark consumer sentiment like we saw earlier this Speaker 2 (8:10) week. David mentioned the Carolinas. And for his birthday. What we need to understand is this is like his second job. His real job is nailing a major pentatonic scale and the Mixolydian scale with incredible ability here. David Gurra playing fiddle a few weeks back. Speaker 8 (8:35) This is many months back, years back. Speaker 2 (8:51) I wasn't sure which video we had. That was a celebration during COVID. Well, yeah. Speaker 8 (8:56) Those are some skills, bro. Thank you so Speaker 2 (8:57) much, bro. All needed that. That's my mandolin. I had a jam session. During COVID as well. To see that. I mean, it was a birthday time. Speaker 5 (9:05) Well, happy birthday, David Gurra. Thank Speaker 2 (9:07) you very much, bro. Appreciate Speaker 8 (9:07) it. Speaker 5 (9:07) We'll maybe get you to do this live one day for us. Yeah, I'd Speaker 8 (9:10) love to. Tom can bring his guitar. Mandolin. We'll do the full, hit the band together. Wonderful. Speaker 5 (9:14) What's your instrument, Nikki? Triangle. I'll bring the cowbell. All right. Thank you so much to all of our guests today. Nikki Waller, David Gora and Romaine Bostic. Tom? Speaker 2 (9:25) Well, I mean, you know, there we are coming up. We've got, you know, a really important discussion. This is Susie Welch, hugely anticipated. My essay of the year last year, she's at NYU and this will get some heat going in the room. This, this is a... This controversial moment with Suzy Love. She's Speaker 5 (9:43) got some strong opinions. All right, we're going to look into all that, including her research on decision-making and how it applies to your money moves. This is Bloomberg Money. Speaker 4 (9:51) Japan's economy is entering a new era. As inflation returns, monetary policy shifts, and corporate reform accelerates, the implications extend far beyond Tokyo. Join us at Bloomberg Invest Tokyo, December 2nd and 3rd. to explore what these shifts mean for portfolios worldwide. Thank you to our host partner, FinCity Tokyo, knowledge sponsor, Marsh, and participating sponsor, Japan Exchange Group, JPX. Learn more at bloomberglive.com slash invest hyphen Tokyo. Speaker 2 (10:26) great money. It's on personal finance. It's on wealth management. It's on retirement. Scarlett Fu and Tommy, what a day. The jobs report. And then we had like, you know, British hydro, European hydrocarbons and