Record Highs, Rising Debt & the AI Boom

The S&P 500 keeps setting records. Underneath it, government debt is climbing, AI is rewriting the job market, and the economy is splitting into two very different experiences.

In this episode of Finance Footnotes, Zachary Mineur, CFA, CFP® and Brenton Stransky, CFP® walk through what’s actually driving the market right now — corporate earnings, Fed policy, Treasury yields, and investor sentiment — and then get into the harder questions underneath the headlines.

Does owning the market’s most popular stocks actually produce better long-term returns? Is AI creating jobs or eliminating them? And why does a record-high market feel so disconnected from how many people are experiencing the economy?

We also dig into the K-shaped economy, the growing U.S. national debt, and whether Millennials are finally closing the gap with Boomers or quietly passing them.