I can't say it's a regular occurrence that we focus on the investment world. After all, most teens and young adults aren't exactly active traders and most, quite frankly don't really understand or care to understand for that matter, how the capital system works. Ok, all that said, we've been intrigued by communications and feedback from our relatively small, but growing group of proprietary panelists from France with respect to the much publicized reports and activities of a young trader working for the giant French investment bank Societe Generale. His actions have reportedly forced the bank to take a multi-billion dollar loss in the most recent quarter. If you've picked up a copy of the LA Times, NY Times or WSJ lately, you would have seen story after story vilifying him. Honestly, we didn't think much of it, since we really have absolutely nothing to do with the space. It wasn't until Tuesday of this week, that we picked up on a growing chorus from our university-level French panelists seemingly endorsing the trader as a cult hero. At that point, we got a heck a lot more interested by what we reading and hearing, so we dug a little deeper. It turns out in the past week, there have been fan pages created on Facebook that already have thousands of members (the overwhelming majority are French university students) who are essentially broadcasting their discontent with a financial and political system in France that they feel is both elitist and in their words "behind the times of the world's marketplace." Pretty strong feelings and thoughtfully considered words from a bunch of kids who just got their driver license's a couple of years ago? We dug a little deeper. It turns out that France's unemployment rate for recent university graduates is at historically high levels. It seems there was a time that just about every young person in France with a secondary degree was almost guaranteed employment upon graduation. The university students blame the loss of jobs on the surge of immigrants who have migrated to France in recent years seeking a better life. The posts we've received go on an on, but clearly there is a large social trend unfolding among France's youth population. We're both intrigued and concerned at the same time. How this post helps all of you do your jobs better in the world of youth marketing, well, honestly we have no clue at this point. But, at the same time, as international representation of the Youth Trends panel grows, we feel it is important to provide of all of you the occasional "pulse" of individual market segments. It's really fascinating stuff!
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