00:00 Brian
What would you say to someone that would counter that with, but Anthony, the stock market’s at a record high?
00:06 Anthony
I would say that the the country’s top heavy. I would say that the dynamics in the country and I know you talk to a lot of economists, the upper third of the country, certainly the upper 1% of the country is doing incredibly well. Those are the owners of the stocks, uh the profitability for those large companies are quite good, uh and that is all well and good and I’m all about that.
00:32 Anthony
But if you look at disposable income and you look at the median income in the country, uh, you know, we’re not catching up. And there’s a lot of financial anxiety for what would be my adult children’s age, you know, 25 to 30 year olds, particularly living in this city.
00:52 Anthony
I just did a podcast with this young 25-year-old, the guy’s got like a got this sort of like swank YouTube following.
01:01 Brian
They all do.
01:02 Anthony
Yeah, but he’s living he’s living he’s got four guys living in a two bedroom apartment and they got like
01:06 Brian
That’s the life.
01:07 Anthony
they got shower curtains up, you know? And so, so I’m just saying that like it was easier for me, it was easier for my generation, and I would say you’re right, the stock market’s up, economy is generally doing well.
01:25 Anthony
But there’s a very large group of people that feel left out of the system. That’s what I would say.
01:30 Brian
You’re a
01:30 Anthony
Do you not agree with that, by the way? If you don’t agree with that, push back.
01:32 Brian
Well, it is top heavy. You know, on the other side of it is, you know I track a lot of companies. I read a lot of earnings call transcripts and companies that expose the Dollar Tree, Dollar General. I mean these people can’t even afford to make it week to week. I mean they’re cutting back on what they can eat week to week. Suddenly a trip to McDonald’s is too damn expensive.
02:00 Anthony
Okay. So, so Brian, to fortify that, I’m on the board uh Eric Schwartz, who’s the head of the board, former Goldman partner, dear friend of mine, put me on the board of City Harvest this past year, which is a big honor for me frankly because I I want to be helpful. It’s the largest food bank in the city. Uh the stats are very damning. We have 1.2 million people in this beautiful, very wealthy city that feel food insecure. By the way, these are not homeless people. These are people who have two jobs working super hard. To your point about going to McDonald’s, they’re having a hard time because their energy prices are up, their heating prices are up, the transportation to get to and back to work is up. and it’s starting to eat up the other aspects. Remember, remember, these price increases and inflation are regressive. Uh wealthy people can handle it, but the poor can’t.
