What's going on?

So no one told US millennials life was going to be this way � clap clap clap clap � but research out this week showed 70% of young people are living paycheck to paycheck.

What does this mean?

According to analysis from LendingClub, a surprisingly high proportion of Americans aged between 25 and 40 are struggling to get by. The coronavirus-induced recession � the second for many millennials after the 2008 financial crisis � has dented their ability to build wealth, keeping earnings low even as the costs of education, housing, and healthcare keep rising. Even millennials who have great salaries aren�t immune: 60% of those making over $100,000 a year are reportedly struggling to balance their lifestyles with their pay packets. That stretched-thin feeling could herald a major economic headache further down the line too: if millennials avoid having kids because of the costs involved, it could hit the US population growth rate and, by extension, its economic output.

Why should I care?

For markets: Millennials eat danger for breakfast.
The extent of millennials� financial problems might explain why trading volumes among retail investors hit a record high last year: the stock market crash provided an ideal entry point for those looking to make some much-needed cash. Still, this move into risky day trading is completely at odds with the passive investing and exchange-traded funds that have been booming since they came of age, and it could easily end up backfiring.

Zooming out: Binancial misconduct.
The promise of once-in-a-generation returns has likewise attracted millennials to arguably the riskiest market of all: crypto. Financial authorities around the world, then, have been scrambling to protect overoptimistic investors, which might be why the world�s busiest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has been under the microscope. And following recent warnings from the US, Canada, and Japan, the UK finally showed its hand: it banned Binance from conducting any regulated activity in the country on Monday.