00:00I think anyone who has followed our economy over the last few decades understands just how much
00:07Latino immigrants and the Latino population have contributed to that growth. As you know,
00:13we are in a time frame right now where a huge chunk of that community has been under pressure,
00:19whether it's through the immigration crackdown or other political issues that I've had sought to,
00:24I guess, rethink what their role in this society is. When I look at a number about what they're
00:30contributing, I'm having a hard time squaring that with some of the political rhetoric that we're
00:34seeing that seems to be anti-ethical to that contribution. Well, I think it's antithetical
00:40to the contribution, but it just doesn't make sense if you're a capitalist. Now, I sit here today
00:46talking to you. I am a capitalist. I've been a capitalist my whole life. So I love this country.
00:51I love the rule of law. I love a constitution. I love all the economic foundries that we have in
00:57our country. So we started doing this study several years ago because of people's misinterpretation of
01:05immigrants. Well, I would say the president is like a second generation German immigrant, right?
01:12So and plenty of the other people that are in his cabinet. So we're all mostly immigrants.
01:19The Native Americans are the only originals. So so we think that data matters. As a CEO of
01:25large companies around the world, I always thought data mattered as opposed to opinions.
01:31So we went out and gathered the data. The data shows just what you saw and what you read about
01:35the 1.6 trillion of these immigrants. But let's remember that 95 percent of those that are 18 or
01:42younger that have a Latino last name are native born. Eighty five percent are here legally and with
01:50documents and all that in spite of ice and whatever they might be supposing that they're doing. So this
01:57is a business conversation. The event velocity was about presenting data that says, number one,
02:04this cohort is the only sure bet in our economy for the rest of this this this decade because it's
02:10going to continue to grow. Before we go deeper into that data, I am curious if you've seen material
02:14evidence of a slowdown in economic activity in our Latino communities. It's one thing to say
02:19that these immigration raids on undocumented immigrants. I understand that has an impact.
02:24But for those people who are either born here or here legally, are they also maybe pulling back,
02:30retrenching a bit? Well, I would say a simple yes to your question, but it's not the full answer
02:37yet. The whole economy, if you look at the bottom 90 percent of our economy, their purchase behavior
02:44is now slowing. You see it in the sales results of Target and Walmart and even Amazon and those who
02:51are digitally founded. So it's happening everywhere. If you look at the retail sales announcements a
02:57couple of weeks ago, 90 percent of of the growth in retail sales was tied to price ups as opposed to volumes.
03:06So, yes, the volumes are down with this cohort, but the upper 10 percent now is accounting for about 50 percent
03:13of the sales volume increases. Think about that. We've never had that in the history of this country. So we're
03:19concentrated right now or population under OECD rankings. We are more concentrated in wealth than Saudi Arabia.
03:30Hmm. So and you know, anybody can check that. So I'm not I'm not here with an opinion. I care about our economy.
03:37I want an economy that works for all people. So I like to bring data. And in particular, this cohort is one of the engines of growth.
03:44And the last thing I'll say is that what sets the United States of America apart from Europe that slowed down, from Japan
03:52that slowed down, from Russia that slowed down and now China is that we have a growth cohort in our in our corpus.
03:59Right. And it's young. Yeah. Well, let's talk about that a little bit more. The data that you're bringing to the show.
04:04You talk about that growth cohort, the fact that this is a young population, too, that we're talking about.
04:10Where is growth accelerating? We talk about this overall spending slowdown that you're seeing economy wide.
04:16But what categories are most resilient when it comes to U.S. Latinos specifically?
04:21Well, I'll say two or three things very quickly. One is geographically.
04:26Forty eight of the 50 states are now tied. They're dependent on this cohort for growth, for for entrepreneurship, starting businesses, et cetera, et cetera.
04:36The second thing that I'd say is that manufacturing, that this cohort is now representing one of the biggest growth rates in terms of manufacturing.
04:45So when whether you're Biden or Trump, you talk about reshoring. Well, who's going to reshore?
04:52Who's going to manufacture it? All that sort of thing. Right.
04:55Well, the Latinos are growing double digit rate, strong double digit rates in terms of manufacturing and also in terms of business startups, business formations.
05:04They're growing at more than two times the rate of the rest of the economy.
05:08So it's about the base. What's the DNA of the United States? Entrepreneurship, investment and making your way going forward.
05:17So, I mean, it's like the ideal cohort that you want to have. And so now my point is this investment.
05:24Well, let's talk a little bit more about geography.
05:27I thought it was interesting that the report highlights California, Texas and Florida as the top state contribution.
05:33So you talk about investment. Is that more on the part of governments in those states?
05:39Are you talking about private businesses?
05:41Well, I think, again, that's another great question.
05:45Businesses that are investors, the investor class.
05:48I had Bain Consulting do a study two and a half years ago, three years ago that showed that less than one percent of invested capital is going into this cohort that's accounting for four trillion dollars of GDP.
06:00That's accounting for 80 percent of all the net new workers and about 80 percent of all net new businesses.
06:07So as a capitalist, I'm looking at it and saying, let's go get the data and let's share the data, which you're you're doing today, which I really appreciate, because as an American, I want to see us grow.
06:18I want to see us differentiate. So so geography is is a big deal.
06:22Those states you mentioned, just to finish off, they are getting a disproportionate benefit of this cohort.
06:30When you look at the percentage of GDP growth, it's tied to them as cohorts, Texas, Florida, California, but there's many others.
06:38Are you trying to get this message across to folks in Washington right now?
06:42And if so, what's been the response?
06:45Well, right now, Washington has been tied up in extraneous issues like deportations, which I think don't make a lot of business sense.
06:54So when you think about the other issues of growth and investment, I think the business community has a role here.
07:02The business roundtable, all the all the business entities, they have to understand their growth is here.
07:08And I can tell you, we've also done studies to show the percentage of their growth tied to this cohort in many cases, maybe more than 50 percent.
Be the first to comment