It's the Beginning of the End for the Boomers

Much like Fonzi jumping over the shark marked the end to "Happy Days" I think we're going to look back and say, "Remember Madonna and her wrinkly thunder thighs? Yeah, that was the beginning of the end for the baby boomers."

I don't know what people were thinking to bank roll this old has been hag, but I think it's a syndrome or a psychological problem that affects a disproportionate amount of baby boomers. That they just plain don't want to grow up, and will do whatever is in their power to convince themselves they're still young. Thus we get Madonna woefully misinformed that she is somehow some kind of cougar, the flabby armed McJager performing at the super bowl, and morons whose pinnacle of life was 1968 and just plain can't get over the fact that it's not only over, but their lives since have been pretty pathetic.

But the reason I bring this up, isn't so much Madonna or lame Viagra variant commercials where boomer males are playing guitars and windsurfing, but there is indeed a more fundamental power shift occurring.

First was the obvious ass kicking Obama delivered to the heiress entitled Hilary Clinton. If there was a person who personified the centralized power the baby boomers had, it was Hilary Clinton. And out of nowhere a rookie nobody freshman senator comes and usurps the role. Gen X was coming online, and for better or worse, remember the shenanigans of Bill Clinton and wonder just what a political operator Hilary had to have been to tolerate Bill's indiscretions and not dump his ass, and ended up exerting their power.

Second is this housing crash and subsequent credit crisis. If there is a generational, generalized culprit to blame for the housing bubble and the idiocy that occurred, it was the baby boomers. Though there were certainly younger salesmen and mortgage brokers to blame, at the head of practically every financial institution leading the way was a baby boomer. Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Countrywide, you name it. Even every boss I had at smaller banks whilst working in banking was a baby boomer; the one who had 1 in every 2 loans go into default. The one who approve a $25,000 loan for a guy THAT AFTERNOON WITH NO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS. The one who told me "no, the Federal Reserve figures are wrong." All of them boomers and all of them making grave errors. And such a distaste and disaster has the housing crash left in America's mouth, there is now a managerial and power shake up in the financial services industry, just in time for some of the older Gen-X'ers to take the help or at least start poaching some executive and senior management positions.

And thirdly, a slumbering giant is slowly waking up as the younger generations get wise to this social security farce. Shaking off the laced kool-aid we were fed in college about socialism and social security and medicare and medicaid, more and more members of the younger generations are going online and pulling readily and easily accessible data on just how much they can expect to shell out and are waking up. Across political spectrums I see this. Doesn't matter if they eco-terrorists, marxist Obama supporters or you evil right wing puppy kicking republicans. Anybody under 40 when you mention social security makes some joke about Santa Claus and the easter bunny and them mumbles some curse words under their breath.

In any case, it won't be an immediate handover of power, it will be long and dragged out. And matter of fact, given how long it's taking Madonna to retire, we my younger American friends are in for a battle as long and contested as the Battle of Somme.