WSJ What’s News - Older Americans Are Now the Richest Age Group

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

P.M. Edition for Oct. 9. New data out today from the Federal Reserve show that the typical American family got a little richer in the years after the pandemic. Journal economics reporter Rachel Ensign explains why the oldest and wealthiest Americans saw the biggest gains, painting a picture of a two-speed economy. Plus, economics reporter Matt Grossman explains how President Trump’s new committee to investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook is his latest bid to exert control over the central bank. And reporter Kejal Vyas tells us what he saw on a recent visit to Lake Maracaibo. It’s the birthplace of Venezuela’s oil industry–a region that’s now at the center of the U.S. effort to revive the country’s energy sector. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

President Trump launches a new effort to fire Lisa Cook and exert control over the Fed. Plus, why residents in Venezuela's traditional oil heartland can't wait for American investors to arrive. And a new report shows that older people and rich people became even wealthier in the years after the pandemic. Older people are the richest group of Americans right now, which is pretty remarkable. Just three years ago, they were not. It's Friday, October 9th. I'm Alex Osloaf for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

We have three pieces of news from the Trump administration today. First up, President Trump has formed a committee to investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud. A memo posted on the White House website says there will be an in-person hearing on November 5th to consider firing her. Mortgage fraud allegations against Cook stem from Trump's long-running attempt to wield more. control over how the Federal Reserve sets monetary policy, and Trump had also tried to fire her last year. The Supreme Court ruled in Cook's favor earlier this year. Journal Economics reporter Matt Grossman says the White House memo lays out a step-by-step process that seems designed to respond to the court's ruling. The Supreme Court, in its temporary ruling, it only decided that

Cook had not been given enough notice and enough process before she was fired. And this looks like an attempt by the Trump administration in the meantime to clear that hurdle that the Supreme Court laid out, that you have to give an official sufficient notice before firing them. That still leaves open the question of whether Cook actually committed what a court would decide to be mortgage fraud, or whether that's sufficient reason to remove a Fed official from her job, which is a question that courts really haven't looked at before, because presidents have not tried to fire a Fed official before this. Cook will have the opportunity to present a defense to the committee.

All three committee members are Trump appointees, so this isn't an independent body that's going to be examining her. Cook's lawyers say they've contacted the White House and have, quote, grave doubts that the hearing will be legitimate. Today, the Trump administration also announced sanctions on the international criminal court, or ICC, and threatened to dismantle the institution. The sanctions could deal a potentially crippling blow to the ICC by cutting the organization all. from the U.S. financial system and prohibiting the ICC from using dollars in its transactions. To take a step back in 2024, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it's the ICC's case against him and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Galant that's destroyed the U.S. relationship with the court.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that the court threatened American sovereignty if it prosecuted Americans. Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC. The sanctions allow a grace period until April 7th, which officials said could be used for negotiations to address U.S. concerns, like guarantees that the court won't target U.S. citizens. The U.S. is not a member of the court. The ICC said it wouldn't be deterred by U.S. sanctions. And President Trump said today that his administration has reached an agreement with Russia to supply diesel fuel to the U.S. and global markets. The agreement provides for about 36 million barrels of diesel overall. In his post on social media, Trump framed the

deal as part of an effort to lower prices for American farmers and households. Republicans are struggling to address voter worries over surging prices before the midterms. The deal includes suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports for about six months. While the Kremlin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that easing sanctions on Russia would play into Vladimir Putin's hands. In markets today, diesel futures turned lower after President Trump announced the Russian diesel agreement just before 3 p.m. Eastern time. In recent trading, they were down about 4.5%, trading around $4.67 a barrel. But international oil remains above $100 a barrel, where it's been for most of the week,

on reports of more attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz. And U.S. stocks ended the week trading higher, with the Dow leading the gains and closing up 0.8%. But not all industry sectors traded higher. shares of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all sold off on news of SpaceX's $8 billion spectrum deal, which is SpaceX's biggest move yet into the wireless market. The typical American family got a little wealthier in the years after the pandemic. That's according to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, which is out today. The survey comes out every three years and is considered the gold standard for measuring household wealth.

But the data also show a more complicated picture of who is getting wealthier and who isn't, in an increasingly split economy. For more, I'm joined now by journal economics reporter, Rachel Ensign. Rachel, this data is showing that between 2022 and 2025, the average family saw modest gains, but well-off and older Americans got much richer. Median wealth for a family in the top 10% of earners increased 31%. And for Americans 75 and older, wealth increased 37%. What drove those gains?

Older people are the richest group of Americans right now, which is pretty remarkable. Just three years ago they were not. For a long time, when you got to old age, you got poorer because you weren't making money and you were spending down your savings. You did not get richer. And just three years ago, when the last survey was done, the age group of 75 and older, they were doing pretty well, but they were less wealthy than people who were in their 50s and in their 60s.

But now they've surpassed both of those groups and have the most wealth of any age group. And I talked to an economist who's studied the survey for years and he said, people on the sage group, they just kind of hit it at the right time. They bought homes in the 70s and 80s, and those have gone up at a tremendous amount in value. They bought stocks a long time ago. Those have gone up a lot. Those trends are kind of just reshaping the whole life cycle of wealth right now. They're all of these companies that are thriving, catering to older Americans. For instance, Viking, the cruise companies. Their demographic is affluent older Americans, and that company is doing great. So some demographic groups are getting a lot richer, but a lot of others aren't. Wealth decreased for the bottom 40% of earners. What happened for them? In this era where stocks are going up a lot, or even if you have like a CD and you can get 4% interest at the bank on that, that compounds and the wealth builds on itself. and people who have less wealth not only don't have that,

but they also had to deal with rising inflation, which probably ate into their wealth. So there were groups that had very big decreases in wealth, like people under 35, black Americans, people without a high school diploma, wealth was down 55% for them. Right, down 55% for people without a high school diploma, and down about a quarter, both for people under 35 and for black Americans. That was WSJ economics reporter, Rachel Ensign. Thank you, Rachel.

Thanks for having me. Coming up, why foreign investors see what our reporter calls an oil industry graveyard as key to Venezuela's revival. More after the break. The center of U.S. efforts to revive Venezuela's oil industry is in a region in the west of the country called Lake Maracaibo. Cities around the lake were once booming, but now, They've fallen into disrepair, presenting both challenges and opportunities for oil companies looking to come in. Journal reporter Kajil Vyas joins me now with more. Kajel, you've recently visited Kabimas, a city of 350,000 people on the shores of Lake Maracaibo.

What was it like there? What was the vibe? It's kind of an old oil industry graveyard. Oil platforms and pump jacks and telecommunication towers that are rusted or bent, over or collapsing. And so there's oil spills everywhere. There's gas leaking everywhere. And so you have these very world-class installations that saw better days and many humble homes of people trying to get by in the middle of these ruins. Visually, it's quite stunning. And it gives you a sense of the massive task that is facing the oil industry as they try to revive Venezuela. Why is this a key area for the oil industry? The area around Lake Maracaibo is very much the cradle

of Venezuela's oil industry going back more than a century. It's a pretty sizable patch of territory. We're talking about an area roughly the size of Connecticut. Now, the U.S. has been pushing foreign investors into all areas of Venezuela. But the areas where they see the fastest recovery are these areas around Lake Maracaibo, where a lot of executives are hoping they can refurbish old wells and get them pumping again and really kind of get this Venezuela economic recovery story rolling. What are the obstacles that stand in the way of that recovery?

So there's a very long list of issues that oil and energy executives in general are still worried about in terms of getting into Venezuela. Certainly, the Trump administration has done quite a bit over the last year loosening restrictions that had kept foreign capital out of the country. However, many of those sanctions still remain on the books. You know, navigating these financial restrictions is a top challenge. On top of that, they're dealing with chronic power cuts and just political uncertainty. How do locals around Lake Maracaibo feel about U.S. companies coming in there? Basically, we're saying, you know, foreigners are welcome. Please come back.

You know, we had better days when the industry was more professionally managed. The lake was far less polluted. The fishing was better. And, well, confie me, more ahead, if recuperate in all of this, and we'll go back as to as, like, as we'll be the water. That was fisherman Jose Medina, who lives in a lake front shanty. We were speaking from his backyard leaning up against his fishing boat, and he, like many residents there, are really hoping that the energy industry does come back

and starts injecting money into the local economy and can also help repair a lot of the broken oil infrastructure that has just been so destructive to the fishing livelihood of many residents and just the environmental conditions in the area. That was journal reporter Cajal VS. Thank you, Cajel. Thank you, Alex. You're going to want to check out the striking visuals in Cajel's Story,

which publishes this evening on WSJ.com. And finally, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season is expected to make landfall tonight on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Hurricane East Ais has become a Category 3 storm, and officials are anticipating dangerous conditions around the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola, as well as southern Mississippi and Alabama. The National Hurricane Center says the storm should weaken by Saturday afternoon. And that's what's news for this week.

Tomorrow you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News and Markets? Then on Sunday we'll be discussing how Gen Z voters feel about President Trump and whether that presents an opportunity for Democrats headed into the midterms. When we talk about movement of a group in the electorate, we often say, is the party that's getting them, did they buy them or are they renting them? Well, young people were just rented by the Republican Party in 2024 and they're shifting away. That's in What's New Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning.

Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansy with supervising producer Tali Arbell. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Isha Al-Musley is our deputy producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor. Lytal Malad is our senior director of shows. And Samantha Hennig is the Wall Street Journal's head. of Multimedia. I'm Alex Ossela. Have a great weekend and thanks for listening.