Inflation will clobber “entitled generation” of consumers, BlackRock president says

It’s been at least 40 years since inflation was as high as it is now, and that means a whole generation of “authorized” consumers are about to learn some very rude lessons about life and money, according to the president of BlackRock. Rob Kapito.

Kapito, who is also a co-founder of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor of other people’s money, spoke this week at an oil and gas producers’ conference in Austin, Texas.

“For the first time, this generation will go to a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito told Bloomberg News.

“And we have a generation with a lot of right that has never had to be sacrificed,” he said, according to the outlet.

BlackRock has about $ 10 trillion in customer assets under management. As president, 65-year-old Kapito earned $ 22 million last year, placing him in the top tenth of the richest one percent of Americans.

According to Kapito’s comments, the economy is facing “shortage inflation”, which is the shortage of commodities, housing and workers. “I would put on your seat belts because that’s something we haven’t seen,” Kapito said, according to Bloomberg.

Consumer prices are rising almost 8% year-on-year, the fastest rate since the early 1980s. Supply chain disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic first caused price jumps in high-value items such as cars, electronics and furniture. These price hikes then spread throughout the economy, as companies felt empowered to pass on higher costs.

The invasion of Russia Ukraine It is likely to keep prices high in the short term, BlackRock CEO and co-founder Larry Fink warned last week.

“Central banks … are facing a dilemma they have not faced in decades, which has been exacerbated by the geopolitical conflict and the resulting energy shocks,” Fink wrote. “Central banks need to choose whether to live with higher inflation or slow economic activity and employment to reduce inflation rapidly.”

Kapito’s “titled generation” comments this week sparked a quick reaction on social media, with many commenters pointing out that younger workers are very poorer than previous generations they had his age and face higher debta more unstable job and a potentially unlivable future with climate change.

“Oh, yes. The titled generation that has suffered a global recession that has seen entire countries default, wars, a pandemic and a climate catastrophe” once in a lifetime “every 3 years. [whose] wages are stagnant, job security is down, meanwhile [cost of living] upload “, a user dit on Twitter. “This generation?”

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• Inflation