[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

FUN FACT, TAYLOR SWIFT AND I ARE BORN THE SAME MONTH, AND THIS ANTHEM IS NO LONGER FOR OUR GENERATION. THAT’S YOU GEN Z, YOU’RE ALL GROWN UP. 

AND SOON, YOU MAY BE RUNNING TO “CHIPOLTE” LIKE T-SWIFT’S BOYFRIEND CIRCA 2011. BUT INSTEAD OF SMASHING BURRITOS, YOU’RE SLINGING THEM. HERE’S WHY. 

GEN Z IS STARTING TO FEEL THOSE ADULT PROBLEMS CREEP INTO THEIR LIVES.

ACCORDING TO CREDIT KARMA – THESE ZOOMERS ARE RACKING UP CREDIT CARD DEBT AT A RATE FASTER THAN ANY PREVIOUS GENERATION –

AND GEN Z SAW THEIR OVERALL DEBT RISE BY 19% FROM 2022 TO 2023.

ON TOP OF THAT — AN INTUIT SURVEY SAYS 66% OF GEN Z SAY THEY’RE NOT SURE THEY’LL HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BE ABLE TO RETIRE.

CONSIDERING YOU WERE BORN BETWEEN ’97 AND 2012, YOU’VE GOT A BIT OF TIME, BUT NEVER TOO EARLY TO START THINKING ABOUT IT.

MORE ADULTING – MORE PROBLEMS.

SO WHAT CAN THESE TRENDSETTING TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS DO TO START ON THE RIGHT FOOT? 

WELCOME TO THE WORKFORCE GEN Z. WELL, NOT THE YOUNGEST OF YOU – YOU’RE TURNING 12 THIS YEAR. YOU CAN GO BACK TO WATCHING PERCY JACKSON.  

INVESTMENT BANK PIPER SANDLER FOUND IN ITS TAKING STOCK WITH TEENS SURVEY – 37% ARE HOLDING DOWN A PART-TIME JOB.   

GEN ZERS ARE LOOKING TO EARN CASH TO SNAG NIKE KICKS AND E.L.F. MAKEUP – THE TOP CLOTHING AND COSMETICS BRANDS PER THAT SURVEY. WE KNOW WHAT’S HIP. AND THOSE TEENS NEED A JOB THAT SPEAKS TO THEM AND THEIR WALLET.

ENTER CHIPOTLE.

THE MEXICAN GRILLE WHERE THE GUAC IS EXTRA – IS NOW TRYING TO ATTRACT EXTRA GEN ZERS TO JOIN THEIR BURRITO BUILDING BUNCH.

CHIPOTLE SAYS MORE THAN 73 PERCENT OF ITS RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES ARE ALREADY GEN Z. NOW THE RESTAURANT IS ANNOUNCING NEW BENEFITS CATERING TO ITS ZOOMERS’ NEEDS.

FIRST — CHIPOTLE IS OFFERING A STUDENT LOAN RETIREMENT MATCH PROGRAM USING SOFI’S STUDENT LOAN VERIFICATION SERVICE.

EMPLOYEES WILL ALSO HAVE ACCESS TO WHAT CHIPOTLE CALLS A HIGH-TECH VISA CARD THAT CAN HELP THEM BUILD CREDIT.

AND A NEW EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM WILL GIVE WORKERS ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES.

CHIPOTLE IS LOOKING TO HIRE 19,000 ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES AHEAD OF ITS BUSIEST TIME OF YEAR – MARCH TO MAY – KNOWN IN THE BIZ AS “BURRITO SEASON.”

I BETTER PUT THAT IN MY CALENDAR.

CHIPOTLE’S AIM TO HIRE GEN Z SHOULD NOT COME AS A SHOCK TO ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH THE BRAND. THE GENERATION MAKES UP ABOUT 40 PERCENT OF GLOBAL CONSUMERS. CHIPOTLE’S BEEN TARGETING THEM THROUGH ADS AND FOOD CAMPAIGNS FOR YEARS – I.E. THE ANNUAL BOORITO HALLOWEEN EVENT THIS PAST OCTOBER – OR THE “FREE-POINTER” TEXT TO WIN OFFER DURING MARCH MADNESS.

CHIPOTLE ALSO GAINED FAME WITH THE GEN Z CROWD THANKS TO VIRAL VIDEOS – SPECIFICALLY MUKBANG VIDEOS.

YOU KNOW – THE SOCIAL VIDEOS THAT SHOW PEOPLE GORGING ON ALL DIFFERENT TYPES OF FOOD – YEAH, YOU KNOW THOSE VIDEOS.

CHIPOTLE EVEN PARTNERED WITH ONE OF TIKTOK’S TOP FOOD REVIEWERS – KEITH LEE!

ALL TO REACH GENERATION Z –

ALL OF CHIPOTLE’S HARD WORK SEEMS TO BE PAYING OFF – AS THE BRAND HAS MADE IT ONTO NUMEROUS LISTS OF TOP RATED COMPANIES BY THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE. 

DCDX – A GEN Z CONSULTING FIRM – HAD CHIPOTLE ON ITS 2023 LIST OF THE TOP 25 MOST MAGNETIC BRANDS. THAT’S COMPANIES THAT CAN ATTRACT YOUNG CONSUMERS WHILE DISTANCING THEMSELVES FROM COMPETITORS.

THE FIRM SAYS CHIPOTLE IS CONSISTENTLY A FAVORITE BRAND OF GEN Z’S FOR CONTENT CREATION.

BUT LIKE WHEN YOUR BURRITO NEEDS MORE CHICKEN – CHIPOTLE HAS ROOM TO GROW. IT’S NUMBER 22 ON THE TOP 25 LIST.

THE NUMBER ONE MAGNETIC BRAND – MCDONALD’S – GOT PRAISE FOR CAPITALIZING ON THE GRIMACE SHAKE CRAZE OF ‘23 – WHERE TIKTOKERS PRODUCED AN EERIE TREND – TAKING THE FUN-LOVING PURPLE MASCOT INTO THRILLER TERRITORY.

DCDX SAYS WHEN “BRANDS SHOW UP FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES, THEIR COMMUNITIES SHOW UP FOR THEM.” THOUGH THEY NOTE THE GRIMACE VIRAL TREND HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT MCDONALD’S DID IN THE MOMENT.

ACCORDING TO DCDX – “2024 WILL BE THE YEAR YOUNG PEOPLE REALIZE MORE THAN EVER THE POWER THEY HOLD IN THE BALANCE BETWEEN CONSUMER AND CULTURE. AND IT WILL BE THE BRANDS THAT NOT ONLY RECOGNIZE THIS, BUT RESPECT IT, THAT WILL EARN THE LOYALTY OF THIS ELUSIVE YET UNWAVERINGLY PASSIONATE GENERATION.”

DCDX IS CALLING ON CHIPOTLE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX TO REMAIN A MAGNETIC BRAND THIS YEAR.

PERHAPS THESE GEN Z BENEFITS WILL DO THE TRICK.

MORE FREE FOOD OFFERS PROBABLY WOULDN’T HURT EITHER. I THINK THAT COUNTS FOR EVERY GENERATION. 

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Remember when Facebook was the hot ticket in town? Feel old yet?

Blow out those candles, Facebook, 20 years old on February 4.

Back when Facebook first started, college students clamored for access and you needed an edu address to sign up.

Now most teens wouldn’t be caught dead.

sharday618:
“My daughter just told me that Facebook is literally Snapchat for old people. It is.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

If you’re old enough to go on Facebook memories and cringe at what you used to write in that status bar…

christalluster:
“Christal is living in the moment and planning her future. Girl, what?”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

…you’re not alone.

dustinnickersoncomedy:
“There’s a lot of people I don’t like on the internet, but the person I hate the most is me on Facebook 10 years ago.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Pushing past the cringe, while Facebook mostly has this reputation these days:

yourbiwitchyaunt:
“Facebook is so uncool. (Gag, Gag, Gag)”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

It’s still a trillion dollar company with more than 3 billion monthly active users. Surprising, right?

chevvycaprice:
“It’s full of nothing but your hometown people. But them nothing but the biggest haters of all.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Travel back with me for a minute to the dorm rooms in 2004. MySpace and Friendster are just getting the social media movement off the ground. Don’t get me started on the fact that we publicly ranked our friends. “Me at the Zoo,” the first ever YouTube video, wouldn’t be uploaded for another year.

Rumored robot Mark Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook” as an online directory of Harvard students.

Soon they allowed students at other Ivy league schools to join, made a crucial change to the name…

“Drop the ‘The.’ Just Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

And eventually expanded to all universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Two and a half years after launch, Facebook broke down the wall to anyone 13 and older with an email address.

At the time, Facebook was bringing in about $30 million in revenue a year. And “experts” warned expanding reach the wrong way could give it the reputation of being a “second-rate version of MySpace.”

Facebook would go on to buy Instagram and WhatsApp, launch an IPO, deal with some lawsuits,

“If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

And go through another company name change, now Meta, to align with a shift toward the metaverse.

Through it all, Facebook remains the most popular social media platform in the world.

spiderwomanh:
“Facebook… is… For… Boomers.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Right… So how did a social network invented for college students get its Boomer reputation?

It’s certainly not because of actual demographics, where the biggest group is men age 25-34. Which, for the record, falls into the millennial category.

True boomers make up maybe a tenth of Facebook’s user base, but they tend to make themselves known.

camquestions:
“There’s 1 reason and 1 reason only I’m still on Facebook. And it’s for the Boomers and the Gammons. They create their own comedy, they’re hilarious.”

blaire_allison:
“And then my dad, every night, tells everyone on Facebook goodnight. Goodnight Facebook friends, going to bed. (laughs)”

space.mermaid.cos:
“For all its faults, there’s nothing like thousands of people coming together to dunk on boomers on Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

So maybe you’re here for the entertainment. But 20 years in, Facebook’s struggling with its street cred.

Let’s look at teens age 13 to 17. Ten years ago, 71% of them said they use Facebook. Today, this Pew Research poll shows just 33% use the site.

The reality is, teens are are flocking to short-form video apps, whether it’s YouTube at 93 percent, TikTok at 63 percent, Snap at 60, or Instagram at 59.

Good news for Meta, they own Instagram, the third-most-used social network on the planet. And a substantial chunk of those users are 18 to 34, even if it is mostly just videos from TikTok.

Gareth gets it.

It was probably initially concerning for Facebook to see teenage use drop off a cliff. But with all the heat it gets for harmful content for teens,

“There’s families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to do so now?”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Facebook is now purposefully focusing on young adults instead.

And I’ve got news for you, Gen Z. Your generation is expected to soon outnumber Boomers on Facebook, if you haven’t already.

Simone Del Rosario: If video killed the radio star, what’s killing music journalism? Journalism in general has been going through it since…the internet. It’s black and white: Digital ads don’t pay as much as print. But when Condé Nast announced it was folding Pitchfork into men’s magazine GQ, music press was put on notice.

Annie Zaleski: Pitchfork covers artists and bands and scenes and ideas that no other publication does.

Simone Del Rosario: Annie Zaleski is an award-winning music journalist and author of biographies on Lady Gaga and P!nk, to name a couple.

Annie Zaleski: This actually marks my 25th year in music journalism this year. And it’s obviously, it’s like night and day.

Simone Del Rosario: Back in the day, the power of a positive writeup in Rolling Stone or Pitchfork could drive music lovers to their nearest record store. Now everything lives in the palm of your hand. And algorithms, not critics, can feed you music you may like.

As Amos Barshad wrote about Pitchfork in this 2018 Slate article, “the internet democratized access to music. We didn’t really need gatekeepers anymore; for a whole generation, reading about what something sounded like, when you could listen to it for free yourself, felt increasingly like an insane thing to do.”

But as jobs for music journalists dwindle, music libraries are only growing, thanks to virtually anyone being able to upload music these days.

Annie Zaleski: It has just gotten so difficult to sort of follow what’s going on and making sure something doesn’t fall through the cracks. Who’s actually curating the stuff to tell you what’s coming out in a given week? You know, there’s some really, really great playlists on streaming services, you know, but are there you know, magazines and newspapers used to do that, you know, where are those?

Simone Del Rosario: Folding, evidently. While Pitchfork’s closure is not unique –

Annie Zaleski: It is, unfortunately, a microcosm of what’s going on in media and the press in general.

Simone Del Rosario: There’s more to music journalism’s struggle than general press decline. Music journalists now face competition from their own subjects.

Annie Zaleski: Musicians, some of them are just wizards at either taking to TikTok or taking to Instagram.

Simone Del Rosario: No longer do musicians need that coveted cover and feature to reach new and existing fans. Not when they can go straight to social media.

Annie Zaleski: I think that musicians very early on realized that that connection, that fan to fan connection, is their best way to kind of make sure that they can still stay connected to audiences.

Simone Del Rosario: So before we make music journalism extinct, what is the case for music journalism, if fans have direct access to the musicians and bands that they love?

Annie Zaleski: You might get new insights into an artist that you didn’t recognize before, especially if people are really good interviewers, they tease things out from artists that you might not know. You can read a piece and it’ll kind of reflect what’s going on in history at the time, you know, what’s going on in culture.

Simone Del Rosario: And, she says, exceptional criticism can help you hear records differently.

Annie Zaleski: It can be influential and just new give you new insights into something that you thought you knew. And that’s important. It might not necessarily sometimes feel groundbreaking, but you know, maybe you’re gonna find a record that saves your life.

Simone Del Rosario: A select few music enthusiasts have built lucrative online platforms sharing personal critiques. While newsletters, community hubs and startups fill voids left by legacy media.

Annie Zaleski: People are still music fans and people still hunger for, you know, new music and hunger for new bands. And I think everyone is trying to figure out the best place to do that.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

For those of us of a certain age, it might be hard to believe Operation Desert Storm took place a little more than 33 years ago, 

[GEORGE BUSH]

Just two hours ago, Allied Air Forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. 

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

From that conflict, several American icons were born. Among them, General Stormin Norman Schwarzkopf, the F-117 Nighthawk and the legendary High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, otherwise known as the Humvee. How popular was the Humvee? Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded he’d be sold a civilian version. And he was. 

Though it still serves our troops today, lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan spurred military leadership to ask for a new workhorse to replace the now 40 year old Humvee. Enter the Oshkosh defense Light Combat Tactical All Terrain Vehicle, or the L-ATV. After years of testing, this beast bounded into active duty in 2019. With a price tag of just $344,000, this four wheeled ferocity is currently used by the United States Army, the Marines and the U.S. Special Operations Command. 

There are four different vehicles and all kinds of variants available for users, the general purpose, the heavy gun carrier, the utility and the close combat weapons carrier. On average, each L-ATV weighs 11 tons and is comparatively easier to transport than its cousin, the M-ATV. So, it can be sling loaded under helicopters and fits inside a C-130. 

Fully fueled, the L-ATV could go 400 miles and pegs the speedometer at around 70 miles per hour. That combination of range and speed means the L-ATV is a difference maker when it comes to mission capability. But no beast is complete without a thick hide. The L-ATV is Mine Resistant and ambush protective with modular armor. It also likes to go for a dip when the opportunity presents itself. The L-ATV can navigate up to 60 inches of water even with all that armor. 

And if all that wasn’t enough to make you a fan, last year Oshkosh defense introduced the eJLTV. That’s right kids, it’s a hybrid that allows operators to charge the lithium ion battery while the diesel engine is in use. That battery that allows users to drive in silent mode. Perfect for those times when you want to sneak up on your enemy in an 11 ton vehicle. Of course, it’s more than just an SUV on steroids that can get your soldiers or Marines where they need to go. It can also be configured to carry a number of weapons, allowing troops to take the fight to the enemy.

The L-ATV can be fitted with light, medium and heavy machine guns, as well as automatic grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles, and honestly, I would not be surprised at all to see some containerized drone launchers on it at some point in the near future, which makes the vehicle an essential part of any modern battle plan. 

By now you might be asking yourself the same question Arnold Schwarzenegger asked all those years ago. Can I buy one? Well, surprisingly, the answer is yes. If you want one and can live with the fact it doesn’t come with armored plating or machine guns, you can have one. The civilian version is cheaper as well, all it will set you back is a cool quarter of a million dollars.

Simone Del Rosario:

The seats are packed with the home fans. Super Bowl dreams are on the line. 

There are a lot of advantages to hosting a home playoff game. But money isn’t one of them. In fact, making the playoffs can be a financial drain on a team. 

The San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are gearing up to host their second straight home playoff game. But as their fans fill the seats, the ticket sales go straight to the league.

Unlike other professional sports leagues, individual NFL teams do not pocket a dime of their playoff gate receipts up front. The NFL pools all of the money together and evenly distributes it amongst the 32 teams. Meaning there’s no financial difference between the team bringing in all the revenue and the team sitting it out. 

So how do teams pay for the playoff environment? The league gives stipends to home teams to pay for stadium operations, and travel money to visiting teams.

Home teams do get to pocket concessions and parking, but that tends to be a drop in the bucket. A $1 to $2 million drop in the bucket, but still. Playoff teams can actually lose money over the whole ordeal when you consider having to pay out coach and player playoff incentives. 

So no, hosting its first home playoff games in 30 years was not a financial winner for the Detroit Lions this season, even with playoff tickets going for as high as $17,000. But teams like the Lions can parlay playoff success into long-term revenue growth. 

Enjoying a game at Detroit’s Ford Field is one of the cheapest experiences in the league. But after clinching the division for the first time in three decades, fans found out season ticket prices are going up an average of 30% next season. And yes, teams do get to pocket a portion of regular-season receipts.

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

It’s Oscars season, and that means controversy

[PRESENTER]

“Guys, guys, guys, I’m sorry, There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

That’s not quite what I meant.

[CHRIS ROCK]

“Wow… Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me.”

[SEMIOFFICIALKATI]
“I’m reading the nomination list. I’ve not even heard of half of these movies.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Ah, there we go!

[LEBATARTSHOW]

“Oh, you gotta watch Banshees of Inisherin. So, I’m like, alright.”

“It’s absolutely a horrible movie. And it’s nominated for all these awards.”

[SNOWBABYFRESH]

“This is where I want to lose my fucking marbles. Ana de Armas, I love you. But Blonde was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in my entire life.”

[KI.THOMAS]

“Why in the world was this movie nominated for an Oscar? And before you try and guess, I’m going to stop you right there. We all know it’s Licorice Pizza.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

But seriously, why does this seem to happen every single year? Aside from the fact that people have different tastes.

[TROPIC THUNDER CLIP]

“You should have got an oscar.”

“Well, you know, just to be nominated.”

“You were nominated?”

“No no no, I wasn’t nominated. I’m just saying to have been nominated would have been nice. It’s just very political. You have to take out ads.”

[PAUL DERGARABEDIAN]
“It’s so political, and obviously not in the true political sense, but Hollywood politics are very intricate.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Every industry has its own politics, but Hollywood’s awards season is more like the road to the White House than lobbying for the best parking spot at the office.

Here’s how movies you’ve never heard about get nominated for top awards.

[PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES CLIP]

“Marketing. Marketing? Super, super.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Starting in November, studios go on spending sprees to score nominations.

[PAUL DERGARABEDIAN]
“Sometimes the way you do that is with a for your consideration ad, and that can be in the trade papers. That’s a big one. Because if you look through Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, or even online, with The Wrap or Deadline, any of the big trades for Hollywood, it’s really like speaking to that in-house crowd.”

And it’s a big business.

[SUSAN SARANDON]

“You have to start on the road, it’s as long as a presidential campaign. You have to have money to go to festivals, you know palm springs where all the older academy voters are, the lunches. People have to be available for months. And someone has to pay for that. You have to have a Harvey Weinstein or somebody behind you.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Whoa… that last reference didn’t age well…

[FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION CLIP]

“I didn’t get nominated. I didn’t get nominated.”

“What was that?!?!”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Anyway, it’s a lot of money… Not presidential election levels of money that hit more than $14 billion in 2020, but a lot of money.

There’s no Federal Election Commission or campaign spending laws, so studios don’t have to report exactly what they spent. But according to Variety, for the 2015 Oscars race for Best Picture, small studios shelled out as much as $3 million per flick while larger studios could spend as much as $10 million to lobby for the honor of being nominated.

Heck, even sending out watermarked screeners to voters could run up $300,000.

Sticking with our election analogy, if the Academy Awards are the general election, the Golden Globes, Guild Awards and even People’s Choice can be seen as somewhat of a primary.

[REAGANS_RATINGS]

“So if you have a category where someone has missed like Charles Melton earlier for the SAG awards. That’s a really bad sign.”

“It indicates to people that he’s not really a popular choice. So, people don’t like to vote for something where they feel their vote would be wasted.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

Of course, it’s not always about the film as a whole. When it comes to individual awards like Best Actor, studios craft a whole story around that.

[PAUL DERGARABEDIAN]

“So creating a narrative for an act around an actor, while they’re in contention or for consideration. That’s very interesting.”

“I mean, Paul Giamatti has been really everywhere, big screen and small screen promoting the holdovers, there was a picture of him after the Golden Globes going In-N-Out.”

“And I don’t think that was any mistake, I think that was just a way to get him out there that went viral.”

[SIMONE DEL ROSARIO]

The Academy does have some specific rules about how to lobby your film. But the social media age has muddied the waters a bit.

Last year Andrea Riseborough got a long-shot Oscar nod for Best Actress. Her manager and the director’s wife enlisted their famous friends to get the word out on “To Leslie.” That included an intimate reception at the director’s home. After the ask, Edward Norton and Gwyneth Paltrow were among those who took to social media to applaud Riseborough’s performance.

After hearing about the fishiness, the Academy launched an investigation into the grassroots campaign. Ultimately, they let Riseborough keep her nomination but said the campaign tactics “caused concern.”

Awards shows have often been characterized as people in the entertainment industry patting themselves on the back. And to a certain extent that’s by design.

[PAUL DERGARABEDIAN]

“It’s sort of a dog and pony show for everybody else in the industry. And if you’re a studio, and you’re really putting yourself out there, spending a lot of money on ads, getting out screeners and other promotions then talent will look to that studio and say they do a really good job of getting my movie out there.”

After years of criticism about Best Picture nominees being indie dramas that no one ever sees, the Academy expanded the category to 10 nominees and has been throwing some big budget blockbusters in the mix.

Of course this year, everyone’s expecting Barbie and Oppenheimer. BarbenHeimer, to both be nominated for Best Picture. So there you’ve got, in just domestic box office, close to a billion dollars. That’s a lot of people who saw both of those movies have a vested interest in watching an awards show that has both of them in contention.

[FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION CLIP]

“And congratulations on almost being nominated. That’s exciting”

“Yes it is. Thank you very much. It was an honor just to be almost nominated.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

Waiting for the boom? The U.S. just crossed $34 trillion in debt. We’ve doubled the national debt in the last decade. And the latest spending package won’t help chip away at it. There are no two ways about it, that’s a lot of money. And I’m about to tell you who holds every dime.

I’m sure you know that China is a major holder of U.S. debt. But according to Treasury data, the No. 2 economy appears to be dumping U.S. Treasuries over the years. They’ve offloaded 18% of their holdings from August 2022 to October 2023. But analysts are split on whether China’s actually dumping dollars, or just moving them off book to offshore agencies.

And China’s not the foreign country holding most of the bag. That goes to Japan, with 14.5%. Then China, the U.K., and so on. But this list of foreign countries accounts for less than a quarter of the purse. So who holds the rest? Here’s economist Charles Calomiris.

[Charles Calomiris]

The buyers for U.S. debt, I think, can be usefully grouped into three categories. First, the Federal Reserve, which buys the U.S. debt currently as part of their own desired monetary policy.

[Jerome Powell]

Our asset purchases have been a critical tool. They helped preserve financial stability early in the pandemic and since then have helped foster smooth market functioning and accommodative financial conditions to support the economy.

[Simone Del Rosario]

According to the latest Treasury Department data, the Federal Reserve currently owns more than 16% of the national debt.

[Charles Calomiris]

The second group that buys U.S. government debt are hedgers.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Hedgers include things like pension funds and insurance companies. As long-term, low-risk investments, Treasury securities are a natural hedge. And you know what big group fits into this category? Government accounts. The Social Security fund, federal employee retirement funds, they all buy Treasury securities. Government accounts hold more than a fifth of all the national debt.

[Charles Calomiris]

The Fed and the hedgers really are willing to buy the debt without any kind of speculative belief being expressed about whether the things are gonna go right or wrong. Hedgers really don’t care.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Add up government agencies with the Federal Reserve. The result means more than a third of all U.S. debt is held by agencies that tie back to the U.S. government.

[Charles Calomiris]

Now the third group are the public in general or investors in general within and outside the United States.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Now we can fill out the rest of our pie, giving you a complete picture of who holds U.S. debt. That “other investor” category includes private sector hedgers but also speculators, looking for a good return on the debt.

[Charles Calomiris]

Those people include sharp penciled investors who are sometimes called the bond vigilantes, because they’re worrying ahead and thinking ahead. So it’s really those three groups and I think part of the problem in the last decade has been that the size of the demand coming from the first two groups has been so large that it’s kind of insulated the government debt markets from seeing this longer term problem and making it visible in interest rates.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Bond vigilantes are bondholders who either threaten to sell – or do sell – large amounts of U.S. debt to send the government a message on spending. Selling bonds depress their value, pushing interest rates up. At its core, it is investors demanding higher compensation to lend the government money, which is what you do when you buy U.S. treasuries. This vigilantism helped push a recent peak in October 2023, when the 10-year Treasury yield topped 5%.

But what happens if higher interest rates aren’t enough? If the government wants to take on more debt, but bond auctions fail to attract outside buyers? That’s when the government turns back to Group No. 1, the Federal Reserve.

[Charles Calomiris]

The central bank has no choice but to step in and mop up the mess caused by the fiscal authorities. Every inflation in all of history has been caused by that. And that is exactly what our risk is, again, for us today.

[Simone Del Rosario]

One thing you can say about Vivek Ramaswamy: He put his money where his mouth is. Running for president costs a lot of money, and Ramaswamy paid for most of his campaign out of his own pocket. I’m about to tell you how much.

The entrepreneur effectively dropped out of the presidential race after a distant 4th-place showing at the Iowa caucuses. He scored just three delegates and less than 8% of the vote. He’d previously said he’d consider 10% support in Iowa a victory.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

“As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

His departure is a departure from what he said just before the caucuses, which is that he’d use his personal wealth and be in the race until the very end. About two weeks ago, an SEC filing shows he sold $33 million in shares of the biotech firm he founded. A spokesperson confirmed he’d use the profits of the sale to make a significant investment in the campaign.

The latest Federal Election Commission filings show Ramaswamy himself contributed more than $17 million to his campaign through September 30th. That’s 64% of total campaign contributions. Over the same period, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have personally contributed $0 to their campaigns.

Candidates have until the end of January to file year-end reports, so Ramaswamy’s total contribution down the stretch is likely much larger. It’s still a small fraction of his wealth. Forbes said he was worth $1 billion back in August, making him one of the 20 youngest billionaires in the country. He’s 38.

So what’s ahead for the young political outsider? A full-throated endorsement for Donald Trump.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

As I’ve said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race. And earlier tonight, I called Donald Trump to tell him that I congratulate him on his victory. And now going forward, he will have my full endorsement for the presidency.

[Simone Del Rosario]

On Truth Social, Trump thanked Vivek for his endorsement, calling it a great honor, the same day he had told his followers a vote for Vivek is a wasted vote.