The one-time “Oracle of Wall Street” who famously called the 2008 financial crisis is once again sounding the alarm—this time warning that Gen Z and millennials will be “very weak” in the year ahead. Meredith Whitney, the prominent financial analyst whose prescient warnings about subprime mortgages proved true nearly two decades ago, has shifted her focus to the economic vulnerabilities facing today’s younger generations in the evolving U.S. economy.
On a recent episode of “Barron’s Roundtable” aired by Fox Business, Whitney explained that while Gen Z and millennials have propped up consumer spending and have often been considered the backbone of the post-pandemic economy, their financial underpinnings are increasingly fragile. Whitney described Gen Z and millennials—she said she calls them the “avocado toast consumer”—as being uniquely exposed due to a convergence of economic factors that threaten their resilience: rising costs, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, and a waning safety net from pandemic-era benefits.
