The Boomers are Still in Charge

So, don’t expect too much to change in DC.  Obama may be a Gen X, and many Boomers are retiring from working life, but don’t start thinking that they don’t control much of American culture. They do.

Let’s take a quick look at the numbers.

Political leadership is still mostly held by Boomers.  The 111^th congress was (source):

63.77 percent Boomer

19.66 percent Silent

15.91 percent Gen X

.85 percent GI

Don't have numbers on the 112th congress but no significant demographic change occurred.

I spent the afternoon today going through company profile pages for the SP400, just for fun.

Of the 381 companies currently in the index (AMEX: ^MID), the CEOs (or the person mostly likely to be in change) break down as:

297 Boomers

65 Gen X

18 Silent

1 crusty old GI (the Tootsie Roll Company).

So, of our American midcap companies, 78 percent are run by Boomers, and most were in their 50s.

Assumptions:

Strauss and Howe dates for generations.

No concern for cuspers and there were plenty that could be cuspers.

Some companies didn’t have CEOs so I used the person most likely to be in charge; also, some cos have chairmen who seem to hang on but I used the CEO.

I used Yahoo Finance & assumed info was correct and up to date.