baby boomer

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Baby Boomers Still Mad for the Reefer, Man

(Newser) - Some Americans haven't let go of one part of the 1960s: getting high on illicit drugs. The percentage of Americans age 50-59 who reported use of illicit drugs within a year nearly doubled from 2002-2007, from 5.1% to 9.4%, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported...

A Quarter of Middle-Aged Men Binge Drink

Excessive alcohol consumption isn't just for college kids

(Newser) - Binge drinking is generally thought to be a college-age phenomenon, but middle-aged people—especially men—live it up as well, the New York Daily News reports. A new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 23% of men and 9% of women between 50 and 64 years old...

Boomers Turn to Annuities, Leaving Nothing for Kids

(Newser) - Now that the financial crisis has destroyed so many nest eggs, many soon-to-be retirees are buying annuities and leaving their kids to fend for themselves, the Wall Street Journal reports. Annuities turn a lump-sum payment into a guaranteed income for life. That’ll provide more peace of mind than living...

Mississippi Still Porkiest, but Alabama Closing In

Obesity up in 23 states: report

(Newser) - Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers. It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past...

Live With It: Retirement Must Shrink
Live With It:
Retirement
Must Shrink
OPINION
Jun 26, 2009 12:13 PM CDT

Live With It: Retirement Must Shrink

Longer lifespans, older population mean quitting age has to rise

(Newser) - With people living longer and having fewer children in developed countries, the population is aging even as the workforce shrinks. And with retirement ages in the 60s, retirees are living longer on pensions. Those demographic shifts make a policy shift inevitable: we’re all going to have to work longer,...

Big Three See Bumpy Road With 20-Somethings

Demographic key to rebuilding for US automakers

(Newser) - Detroit automakers face a hard road when it comes to Generation Y—consumers aged 22-32 whose business is crucial to securing the firms' futures, BusinessWeek reports. Their boomer parents broke from tradition by shifting to Japanese cars, and Gen Y is following in those footsteps. Detroit “simply must do...

Early Retirees Face Shaky Financial Future

Bucking poll, older workers ditch work in tough economy

(Newser) - A growing number of older US  workers are bucking expectations and retiring early, risking financial hardship in their senior years, the Los Angeles Times reports. Instead of staving off retirement to rebuild diminished nest eggs, many older Americans, frustrated by the job market, are simply calling it quits. Add aging...

Grandparents Face Bitter Foe: Other Grandparents

Jealousy games amount to big consumer spending

(Newser) - Baby boomers are joining the ranks of grandparents, and as usual, they want to be the best—which includes outranking other grandparents in their mutual grandchildren's affections. The competition is so fierce that it's an economic stimulus unto itself: 42% of gift spending is by grandparents, the Boston Globe...

Madoff Case Likely to Sour Boomers on Stocks
Madoff Case Likely to Sour Boomers on Stocks
ANALYSIS
Mar 12, 2009 1:47 PM CDT

Madoff Case Likely to Sour Boomers on Stocks

Fraud is final straw after terrible performance, analysts say

(Newser) - With Bernard Madoff’s long, fraudulent story drawing to a close, stock-market analysts look to the larger effect the $50 billion Ponzi scheme will have on equities, Kate Gibson writes for MarketWatch. Combined with the dismal performance in stocks over the last year, experts say Madoff’s deception has probably...

Rosie's Menopause Guru? Madonna
Rosie's Menopause Guru? Madonna
Feb 25, 2009 10:37 AM CST

Rosie's Menopause Guru? Madonna

'Big sis' tells O'Donnell to 'get the cream' for 'hormone things'

(Newser) - The Material Girl can add another talent to her resume: menopause counselor. At least according to Rosie O'Donnell, who happily overshared in an interview on The Tyra Banks Show. Between investigating the source of all the sweat in her bed and cutting out booze, O'Donnell still has time to check...

Aging Boomers Want Hipper Label Than 'Grandpa'

Forever Young generation outgrows stereotypical grandparent tags

(Newser) - As baby boomers become grandparents, the generation that never wanted to get old is grappling with maturity. Many new grandparents are dodging the bullets of age by avoiding typical “Grandma,” “Grandpa,” and “Bubbe” labels, the Wall Street Journal reports. Preferring to retain her glamour, one...

Belt-Tightening Spares Older Workers

Increasingly, companies value maturity, experience of older employees

(Newser) - As companies nationwide cut tens of thousands of jobs, younger workers appear to be taking a hit as companies try to retain older, more experienced employees, reports BusinessWeek. Boomers increasingly have become corporate America’s gold standard: “When you’re in your 50s and 60s, you’re in your...

Obama Signals End of Boomers' DC Reign

But at 47 he's too old for Gen X; seen as more of a bridge

(Newser) - Baby boomers will lose Washington next week to a new, more pragmatic generation. But which one that is seems up for debate, reports the AP. At 47, Barack Obama is a tad too young for boomers—whose partisan politics are informed by civil-rights marches and sexual liberation—but too old...

In Your Late 40s? You Are the Dumbest Generation

President-Elect is smart, but his early-60s birth cohort isn't

(Newser) - Barack Obama is a pretty smart guy, but his generation—the strange, in-between group born from the late 1950s to mid-1960s—is, quantitatively, the dumbest on record, writes Neil Howe of the Washington Post. Sometimes called “Generation Jones” or “early Xers,” this group nabbed the fewest educational...

Nuke Tests Left Mark on Trees, People

Scientists can date humans and trees by the extra carbon in their systems

(Newser) - Scientists can now carbon-date baby boomers by detecting atomic bomb residue in their DNA, NPR reports. Turns out that carbon-14 released during above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s hung around, then was absorbed into living tissue, experts say. Evidence, in the form of extra carbon neutrons, has been...

Gen X to Boomers: We Get It Now
Gen X to Boomers:
We Get It Now
OPINION
Nov 9, 2008 5:09 AM CST

Gen X to Boomers: We Get It Now

With Obam's election, Gen X sees the political light

(Newser) - Sorry, boomers, for taking so long to drop the cynicism and eye-rolling, writes Heather Havrilesky in Salon. But to those who "became rational adults at the exact moment a reckless frat boy boomer became president," your generation's idealism and tales of '60s radicalism fell flat, she spills. Barack...

Unprepared Next Gen Faces 'Stone-Cold Scarcity'
Unprepared Next Gen Faces 'Stone-Cold Scarcity'
OPINION
Nov 4, 2008 11:14 AM CST

Unprepared Next Gen Faces 'Stone-Cold Scarcity'

Can young people used to prosperity handle scarcity?

(Newser) - Today marks a national sea change, the “end of an economic era, a political era, and a generational era,” writes David Brooks in the New York Times. “The baby boomers have been a politically undistinguished generation,” he writes, and now, “change is demanded." If...

Suicide Rate Soars for Middle-Aged
Suicide Rate Soars for Middle-Aged
Oct 21, 2008 5:02 AM CDT

Suicide Rate Soars for Middle-Aged

Scientists baffled by 16% spike for Boomers

(Newser) - A sharp rise in the number of middle-aged white people taking their own lives has driven up the US suicide rate by nearly 5% since 1999, the Los Angeles Times reports. Experts are baffled by the nearly 16% hike in this group, but speculate that prescription drug abuse, a drop...

Record US Births Top Boomer Peak
Record US Births Top Boomer Peak
Jul 18, 2008 4:46 AM CDT

Record US Births Top Boomer Peak

Fertility is lower but larger population adds up to baby bumper crop

(Newser) - More Americans were born last year than in any other in history, reports ABC News. The 4,315,000 bundles of joy even top the Baby Boom at its peak. The expanding population is expected to put more pressure on scarce resources, but all those new taxpayers will help foot...

Campuses Shift to Middle as 'Radical Profs' Retire

Liberal legacy waning with new generation

(Newser) - University campuses all over the country are becoming less passionate and more businesslike as liberal '60s professors retire, the New York Times reports. The process is expected to accelerate over the next decade as Baby Boomers hired in the great '70s expansion of  higher education move on, to be replaced...

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