Summer camp capitalism
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Asher Speer is preparing for the biggest job interview of his life, and he's feeling pretty nervous about it. There are potentially dozens of other qualified candidates in the running, and Asher hasn't had a job in a very long time.

How long have you been unemployed? 11 years. And why is that? I'm a child. I can't have a job. Yeah, we should mention, Asher hasn't worked for 11 years because he is, in fact, only 11 years old. I mean, I can do stuff like mowing people's lawns and stuff, but these dang laws prevent me from a real paying job.

Dang you, child labor laws. Dang you. Asher cannot wait to get his first W-2. So this summer, when he and his parents were looking into potential fun camps, they decided to send him to a place where he can pretend to join the workforce. Where in the world are we right now?

We are at J.A. BizTown summer camp. They happen all over the country. This one's in Portland, Oregon. What does it look like in here?

Slight chaos. I mean, there's about 80, 90 kids, so. This is not the kind of camp where you go canoeing or hop on a horse. We did not see a child make a single friendship bracelet. No, no. J.A. Biztown is a camp where kids between 10 and 14 years old learn to fill out paperwork or open a checking account. Let's talk about debit cards. They learn how to track their personal spending. Should you give your pen to anybody? No.

No, definitely not. And how to calculate the interest on a loan. Anyone know what an Excel spreadsheet is? Yeah, it's a spreadsheet that adults use for lots of things. In a lot of ways, BizTown is about giving kids a glimpse into adulthood. All of these lessons lead up to the centerpiece of camp, a day-long simulated economy inside of a fake little town.

BizTown. And BizTown runs on child labor. The kids there take on jobs. They can be a CEO or a chief financial officer or a regular worker bee. One of the most coveted jobs is anchor at the fake TV station, BZTV. A lot of people also want to run for mayor. As for Asher Speer...

I'm very much hoping that I get CEO of Unitas or KeyBank. Asher is looking to be at the center of the financial action. He wants to be the CEO at one of the two banks that fuel this whole miniature economy. Technically, one's a bank and one's a credit union. Why do you want Unitas or KeyBank? Because the CEO is going to manage all the loans and I want to manage business loans because it's fun.

Asher and the other kids here pick their top three jobs, they fill out an application, and then it is time for their job interviews. We catch up with Asher and a line of other kids, all nervously clutching their paper application forms. How are you feeling?

Scared. Just need to make a break. When it's Asher's turn, he heads to a storefront in the corner of Biztown. He sits down across from his interviewer, who's an adult volunteer at the camp. Why do you want this job? I'm good with money management. I do stocks on the side. I also have great leadership and social skills.

All around BizTown, Asher's fellow applicants are playing out similar scenes. What skills do you have that will help you in a job at JA BizTown? I don't have a fear of public speaking, so I shouldn't freeze up and I am pretty good with improv and puns. I can speak with a loud and clear voice and pronunciate stuff. I'm really good at spelling and I am very confident.

Some of the kids are really selling themselves. I'm a fast typer, so I can get things done in an instant on computers. Others go with radical honesty. All right, are you a leader? No, I'm not a leader. Interviewers, this is your one-minute warning. One minute warning.

The counselors score the applicants and sort them in what else? An Excel spreadsheet. Adults do use them for lots of things. Then the kids gather to learn their vocational fate. They sit crisscross applesauce at the center of BizTown. The head counselor calls out their names one by one to come retrieve the envelopes containing their offer letters. And the kids wait for the signal to rip them open.

I have too much energy. Like, I have the zoomies like my dog. They really build up the suspense, huh? Yeah. Just like hand the envelopes out faster. I want to know my job. Finally, the big moment arrives. Please remember, we will not change your jobs. This is one week out of all the weeks in your life. You will have lots of opportunities to try other jobs. You ready? Yes! Are you set? Yes! Yes!

I got my top job. - Community wellness center. - CFO at KeyBank. - Yay! - I'm shaking.

All around the room, the kids are frantically waving their offer letters in the air. Some seem disappointed. But our aspiring banker, Asher Speer, he got exactly the gig he wanted. CEO of BizTown's local credit union. CEO of Unitas, my dream job. Oh my gosh, how are you feeling? Good. I've been wanting this job for like my whole life.

This week I went for it, I got it. And what's that going to mean? I manage every single person's loans. You're going to make and break dreams. Why do you want to manage all the loans? I just like money. Money. Money. Money.

Hello and welcome to Planet Money Money's Money. I'm Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. And I'm Sally Helm. Summer camp is one of the classic American rites of passage, a place where kids come to make new friends, take on new challenges, and learn a little bit about who they are.

But what if it were also a place where they came to learn how to survive in a ruthless free market economy? Today on the show, Planet Money goes to capitalism summer camp. We follow the money through this miniature economy as the kids scramble to get out of debt to the banks. It's Shark Tank meets Lord of the Flies. Available balance, negative $24. We're encrypting debt.

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Less than 24 hours after receiving their job offer letters, 80 or so kids gather at the center of Biztown. They are ready to take this dollhouse economy into their own tiny hands. J.A. Biztown citizens, attention! J.A. Biztown citizens!

The national anthem starts to play. They cover their hearts. Some of them salute. And just to paint the scene here, BizTown looks kind of like the set of a kids' TV show. It's essentially a warehouse with a ring of tiny storefronts facing a town square.

There are generic shops like a cafe and an old-timey general store called the Mercantile. There are also brand name businesses, companies that have actually paid the camp for the privilege of setting up shop here. There's a little Walmart painted with the real Walmart blue with the real logo up top. There's a UPS store, even an Allstate Insurance.

And today, all of these real-looking stores will be run entirely by children. Coincidentally, some of the sponsors here also sponsor NPR, Key Corp, UPS, and Comcast. Anyway, as the final notes of the national anthem ring out... J.E. Benatoni!

The kids fan out across the room and take up their positions. The CFOs scoot into chairs behind their little desks. The Walmart sales managers put on child-sized blue vests, pretending for the day to be a part of the American workforce. And that is kind of the point of BizTown. The nonprofit behind the program, Junior Achievement, bills it in part as a way to give kids all over the country a basic understanding of the free enterprise system.

Camp counselor John Duffy explains BizTown like this. The core economic lessons that we're teaching is that the system relies on all parts of the whole that

by taking care of yourself, you're taking care of the rest of society too, because they're relying on you. You know, I think it's a very like standard capitalist model. It's like free market capitalism with some training wheels. Absolutely. 100%. And the first central economic lesson here is that the biz town economy runs on debt. All the businesses start their day with zero dollars.

Before they can do anything, they have to take out a loan from one of BizTown's two banks. The goal for every CEO and CFO is to pay back that loan with interest by the end of the day. To get their business out of debt before they get picked up by their parents.

So the first thing that all of the CEOs and CFOs have to do is figure out the size of the loans they'll need to take out. Do some math. We walk over to the old-timey mercantile store. It is decked out with an old kettle, a little tiny rocking chair. There's an old-timey barrel in the mix. There we find 11-year-old store manager Penny Petralia and her CFO Isla Hather. They're adding up numbers and calculating their expenses for the day.

So we have advertising costs, property tax, health care, rent, philanthropy, office equipment, business insurance, business sign.

Once they tally up their operating costs, the CEOs of each business then have to get their loan applications approved by one of BizTown's two banks, KeyBank or Unitas Community Credit Union.

And that is where we find 11-year-old banking CEO Asher Speer. Holding court as a string of preteen CEOs stream through with their loan agreements. Asher, how many papers do you think you've signed today? Easily 20. Is your hand getting tired? I'm good. I've trained for this. You've trained for this how? I sign stuff all the time. I need more pencils.

Now, Asher isn't doing due diligence on these loans. He's not asking for collateral or pulling anyone's credit score. No. His job here is just to make sure that each CEO has done their math correctly. If it all checks out, he is able to approve their loans and transfer the funds.

And Asher is taking all of this super seriously. Not only because he wants to do a good job, but because in his mind, Unitas Credit Union is in a head-to-head competition with BizTown's other financial institution, KeyBank.

Make more money than that. Okay, so the goal is beat KeyBank. Yes. Beat them. And in order to beat them, Asher wants to collect all of his debts before KeyBank can collect theirs. His business rival is the CEO of KeyBank, Elise Nicholas. On the other side of town, she's going over her own stack of loan applications. Inside what looks like a real KeyBank branch.

with fake marble columns and a big red key logo over the entrance. Elise is already in the thick of it. She's going over the loan application from BizTown's cafe when she discovers a problem with their math. The cafe, their loan amount is $129, and they wrote $159. Okay, so it says loan rejected successfully.

We tell Elise what we heard over at Unitas Credit Union. They're sort of hoping to beat you guys today. Do you feel that way? Definitely. I mean, me and Ash were talking when we first got our jobs, and we agreed that we were business rivals. Now look, there is nothing in the rules that says KeyBank and Unitas are in competition. But clearly, both of these CEOs just cannot resist the urge to win.

So Elise is taking her loan approvals extra seriously. She bolts off to the cafe to tell them to resubmit their loan. Excuse me, where is your guys' CFO?

Your loan was rejected because the information was wrong. So I think you have to review it and re-enter the information. Just then, Asher from the credit union rushes into the cafe to check up on his competition. How are you not stressed? I'm stressed. I had to reject a loan. You rejected the cafe's loan? Yes, they were wrong. Eventually, the cafe does get the math right. Elise and Asher approve loan after loan until finally, Asher has just one more left.

Then the next phase of BizTown will begin. And then they just have to pay their debts. All right, so you're almost done with getting them all into debt. Now you need to get them to pay back. Bingo. Finally, all the CEOs have secured their loans. Now the kids can focus on actually running their businesses and generating revenue. And just like in the adult world...

As the money starts flowing out, you can see the gears of the economy grind into motion. The workers get to work. Employees at UPS, wearing the company's signature brown uniforms, start distributing supplies to the businesses. Utility workers in hard hats and vests start making the rounds to read the town's fake gas meters.

the construction workers appear to just be building a single Adirondack chair. Do you know if this is a wrench or not? That is a wrench. Can confirm. Finally, the councillors announced that it's time for the first shift of workers to get their paychecks and go on break. All right, everyone. So we're going to start our first red group break. So if you're not in the red group, you're going to keep working.

A third of the kids line up under fluorescent lights at the bank or the credit union to get their money. And that is where we find Edhem El-Awadi, CEO of The Office Supply Company, in line at the bank holding his executive-level paycheck. I got $8.82. How does that feel? It's nice because other people make less, and I got the most paying job. All right, so you're at the top of the food chain? I'm at the top of the food chain, yeah.

The kids are all paid in the local currency, which are called BizTown bucks.

They look kind of like Monopoly money. And as a CEO, Adhem is in the highest pay grade in BizTown. CEOs get paid nine bucks per pay period. That is before taxes, which are indeed deducted. CFOs make $8.50. And everyone else, the cashiers, the construction workers, the meter readers, they all make a minimum wage of $8 flat. This, of course, is one of the big places where the BizTown economy diverges from the real one.

The CEO at the UPS in Biztown, for example, makes exactly one Biztown buck more than the lowest paid delivery work. While in real life, the CEO of UPS has recently made more than 500 times the starting pay for UPS drivers. All right, so Adhem, highly paid CEO, but not that highly paid. He steps up to a child bank teller. Account number? 240. 240.

gets his money. And yes, I would like cash back, $2. Got you. And immediately heads off to the cafe. And this is where we see the next part of the BizTown economy spring to life, as some of these workers transform into consumers. Popcorn? Yes.

The cafe is already bustling. They're serving real sodas, Rice Krispie treats, and popcorn. The cafe workers, again, all children, they are overwhelmed.

Holy moly. Oh, it's already that messy? It's madness. And at one of the cafe tables, we run into Isla Hather, the CFO of the old-timey mercantile store. She is happily munching on her first bag of popcorn. The person at the, um...

who took my order was like, what do you want? Did they seem stressed at the cafe? Yeah, I think I'm glad I've never signed up for a job like that. That sounds very bad. The service industry, it can be tough when things get slammed. Yeah. How are you feeling about your job so far? Our company is in like $200 of debt, but pretty good. Do you feel like you'll be happy or sad depending on how things turn out for the business? I mean, you can ask the CEO, but like as long as I get everything I need.

And while that may not be exactly the kind of self-interest that Adam Smith had in mind in The Wealth of Nations, it does feel like all around the room you can see the invisible hand at work as the kids scramble to supply the demands of their peers. How much are those little squishy things? The squishy balls? $2.50. Can I use debit card for the 50 cents? We only accept debit card.

Squishy balls at Walmart are a hot commodity. So are the sodas and bags of popcorn at the cafe, of course. But the most coveted commodity in all of BizTown isn't really a commodity at all. It's a puppy!

Well, it's a stuffed animal puppy. Yes, it is available from BizTown's only non-profit, The Humane Society, for a $9 adoption fee. And as we look around the town, it starts to become clear that some businesses should be able to make a profit no problem. Well,

while others seem like they might be kind of doomed to default on their loans. I mean, the cafe? Packed. Walmart? Pretty packed, too. Confusingly, a storefront called the International Sign Company is swamped. Indeed, because they sell signs, but also apparently a coveted giant pencil. I wanted one. I mean, good luck. However...

Some of the stores are not really bringing in customers. Like, no one is spending their break at the copy and print shop. No one really seems to want any old-timey products from the old-timey mercantile store. And the company that seems most doomed to fail is Allstate Insurance. Yes. They are selling fake car and life insurance to the kids of BizTown. And keep in mind, children are maybe the worst possible market for insurance. They have no dependents. They are the dependents!

They haven't been alive long enough to understand long-term catastrophic risk. And a lot of them think of themselves as invincible. The Allstate employees are so strapped for customers that one of them actually pitches us on a policy. Can you guys buy some car and life insurance from Allstate, please? Sorry, I can't. I don't think I have any BizTown bucks. You think I need life insurance? I'm a little older than you guys, I guess.

As the day goes on, this cycle of consumption repeats over and over again. Yellow group, this is your two-minute warning. Yellow group, two minutes. Different groups of kids go on break and spend their paychecks. Green group, you are now on break.

By early afternoon, the most popular items are scarce. The cafe runs out of root beer. There are no more giant pencils. All the puppies are sold out for my break. No way. Yeah. All the puppies are gone? All the puppies. Had you been saving up for it? Yeah, I was saving up. Oh, man. What are you going to spend it on now? I don't know. I don't know. These very popular businesses have been raking in the money and steadily making payments on their loans.

But some of the businesses are struggling. And that is a problem not just for them, but also for our two bankers, Asher and Elise. Remember, they are competing to see which bank will get paid back first. So Asher decides to take matters into his own hands. He drops by the old-timey mercantile store to see what's going wrong. And he talks to Isla, the CFO. You weren't paying your loan. That's because we don't have any money to pay the loan.

Elise from KeyBank, meanwhile, has decided to skip her break entirely to keep working. Do you feel like you're a little bit of a workaholic?

I think next break I might probably enjoy it, but right now I really am on edge and want to get back to my job. The kids are getting more and more frazzled. And for CEOs and CFOs, the pressure to pay their debts is getting intense. I mean, the interest is piling up. And a few of them start to get...

creative in order to make more money. For example, the BizTown fire marshal, Novalis DePadua, who works at City Hall, he's decided to work straight through his break in order to catch as many businesses as possible with code violations. Still

It wasn't cleaned up! Let me see, let me see. You still want it! Navalis can issue fines for things like having a messy work space. Why are you going to work again? Because we need to pay off our loan. So you're just trying to get money for the city? And fines are $60. That's a lot of money. Oh, that's a lot. I'm trying to do a complete route very quickly so I can get back around so they won't have cleaned up by the time I'm around and I'll get a fine. So you're trying to make sure that you almost trick them, almost make it harder than it should be.

You're nodding. Another innovation? The Comcast CEO, Gabriel Samor, has decided to start offering additional Wi-Fi routers to the other businesses for free so he can start billing them for extra Wi-Fi. We've already charged every business for Wi-Fi, but we need more money than that. So Wi-Fi routers are free now because more Wi-Fi routers equals more bills. All right, so it's like a promotion. Mm-hmm.

Others might call that a scam. I don't know. They're getting double Wi-Fi. I don't know the problem. But with this frenetic push to make as much money as possible, by the late afternoon, Asher at Unitas Credit Union, he's still feeling the pressure when he looks at his books. You know, they are full of outstanding loans. None of the CFOs have paid their debts yet. How do you feel about the fact they haven't paid you back? I'm mad. They're not giving me the money. What happens to your business if you don't get the money back? We go in debt and then we die.

So you'll go under unless they pay you back? Yep. After the break, will the children of BizTown be able to get out of debt to their lenders? Or will a string of defaults cause the whole BizTown financial system to come crashing down? And we learn that things in BizTown might not be as they seem.

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Call, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Apparently I'm getting fined or something? Yeah, for $40. What? As the BizTown simulation enters its final quarter. Come on, Q4. Things are getting heated. Our bankers, Asher and Elise, are busy reminding their debtors that the clock is ticking.

And one by one, many of the businesses do start to pay off their loans in full. But in the final minutes, there are still a few stragglers struggling to get across the finish line. All right, paper company, how are we doing? Horrible. Loans are not looking good right now. Yeah, we need to do, we're due. The CFO goes to double check the company's account balance.

when she notices something strange. Oh, actually, never mind. We have... We can repay our business loan. Up to $100. Yeah, we can pay back our business loan. All right, do it right now. Yeah. So, yeah, everything's doing great. Everything's fine. How did that change so fast? I have no idea. I just know of my job. All I know is I love football, and I'm ready to punt it at someone. Somehow, the paper company has pulled

pulled it off. They have gone from hopelessly insolvent to profitable. Then we drop by the mercantile store to check in with CFO Isla Hather. Yeah, all day the mercantile has been struggling. And they are still about $100 in debt. But when Isla checks her company's account... Funds available for loan are paying $209. What?!

Okay, so some money has mysteriously appeared in your account? We just got random money, and none of us know how, so I'm just going to give it to the bank to hopefully repay a few things. A suspicious pattern seemed to be emerging.

Was this money coming from some sort of angel investor? Was it a last-minute bulk order of old-timey curios? Whatever the case, Isla types the remaining loan balance into her computer to send it over to Asher and his team at Unitas Credit Union. She holds her breath and then clicks confirm. I paid off! I've got to go find Penny. Isla tears across BizTown in search of her CEO, Penny, who she eventually finds mid-shopping spree. Penny! Penny! Penny! Penny! Penny!

All of our loans are paid. For some reason, we got $200. We have no dues. Honey, how does it feel? Good. I didn't expect that. Why did we get $200? I have no clue, but we probably paid off our stuff. I don't really know. I'm excited. Okay. What do you think is the lesson here? Just be hopeful, I guess. Just, like, don't give up. Just hang in there? Yeah.

I'm going to go Walmart because I still have $5. Some of these businesses have had a mysterious windfall. The kids seem to chalk it up to luck. Or hopefulness. And over at Unitas Credit Union, Asher Spear has been watching the loan payments come in. Finally, he gets word that they have all been repaid. We're done. You're done? Yeah, I'm just going to go tell Key Bank that we beat them.

- Oh, this feels good. - Asher strides confidently into the middle of KeyBank, where he finds his financial nemesis, Elise. - Hey, we beat you.

We paid back our loans quicker. Well, everybody else is paid off except Allstate. Oh, Allstate. They had an impossible task before them, selling fake insurance policies to 11-year-olds. The other businesses have somehow made ends meet, but not Allstate. In the last 10 minutes of the simulation, we go over to visit them. So far, they've only sold three policies to their kid customers for a total of around $15. We asked the CEO, Gwynny Hayden, how they're doing with the loans.

Not very well. Really? Yeah, and I'm kind of stressing out because we only have a little bit to pay it off, so yeah. Do you think you guys are going to still have time to make it? Gwynnie turns to her CFO, who nervously checks the computer in the corner. How much money do we need for the loan? $72.25. Oh, so you still owe $72. Yeah. And how much money do you have right now? Zero. Zero dollars, okay. Okay.

No mysterious extra money for them. But a couple minutes later, one of the camp counselors comes to check in on the group. Can I speak with the CFO? Have you paid off your loan yet? The kids explain, no, we're $70 in the hole. The counselor tells them to sit tight and heads quickly back to a computer at the center of Biztown. We decide to follow her. So what's happening over here? Well, it sounds like Allstate didn't get enough income to pay off their loan.

Yes, and so we have the ability to subsidize, and so I'm going to add $75 to their account so that they can pay off their loan. So this is where the money's been mysteriously appearing. Yes, it has. That we've seen popping up in accounts. Yes, it has. So now I'm going to go tell them to see if they can pay off their loan, and they should be able to. Okay. That's a pretty successful day. I wouldn't call it a free market.

We're learning. Isn't that what the point of this is? The counselor walks back to Allstate where the kids suddenly discover their last-minute change of fortune. They send the money over to KeyBank.

All of the companies have paid back their loans thanks to this last-minute capital infusion. Some would call it a bailout. Yeah, but they're too cute to fail. Yes. And there is something undeniably joyful and positive seeing the kids finally breathe a sigh of relief as their financial woes fade into the background. But it also cast what we've been seeing at BizTown in kind of a new light. Because...

On the surface, when we first arrived, Biztown seemed like this straightforward introduction to the free market. But the fact that at the end of the day, there seems to be no way for any of the campers of Biztown to fail made it feel like they're coming away with a kind of rose-tinted view of how our economic system actually works. We asked camp counselor John Duffy to explain what we'd seen in those crucial final minutes.

The big magic wand at the end of the day is if they have put anything towards their loan, we give them a subsidy for the rest because we're

sometimes the salesmen at Allstate only sell three policies and they feel terrible about it. So then we come around with a subsidy and it's like, listen, you did what you could do. You did the work. So it's like from each according to their ability, you kind of give subsidies to each according to their needs? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that just socialism? Um, it's, it's, uh, yeah, probably.

And sure, John says, you could see what's going on here as a way of selling the free market to children with all the warm, fuzzy feelings of socialist equality. You know, capitalism with training wheels. But that isn't the entire picture. We realized BizTown is also kind of like an initiation into some of the essential economic rituals of adulthood. Filling out a job application, cashing a paycheck. It shows kids that we're all connected by the flow of money.

Attention, J.A. BizTown citizens! Attention, J.A. BizTown citizens! J.A. BizTown is now closed. We are going to take the next five minutes, and we're going to tighten up our businesses and try to make it look exactly like it did 15 minutes ago. After the last loan has been paid and the last stuffed puppy has been sold, the kids return to their little mini workplaces to clean up.

They're plugging in cables, putting pencils back in drawers, arranging the paperwork into neat piles for the next workers of BizTown. When you ask the kids themselves what they'll be taking away from their time at BizTown, the epiphanies feel bite-sized. What advice would you give to the next CEO of Unitas? If you can...

Don't freak out about paperwork. And use your breaks well. Get your money, get your popcorn, get your soda, sit down with some friends, drink and eat as quick as you can. So it sounds like all this advice is kind of like how to not be too stressed. Yeah. So next time you'd say do some things to be less stressed. Definitely. Yeah, next time Asher would be more relaxed. Maybe focus less on competition and more on another question.

Another goal that he had also had that day, which was to drink two different kinds of soda at the same time. Because at the end of the day, going to BizTown is a chance for kids to just vacation in the land of adulthood. They are not yet permanent residents. Even if someday they will have to join the big BizTown, where the rest of us live. ♪

This episode was produced by absolute genius James Sneed. It was edited by Jess Jang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Gilly Moon. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Special thanks to Shannon Wakeman, Barbara Smith, Gerilyn Breimer, and Tom Russell. I'm Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. And I'm Sally Helm. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.

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That's why, with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker-dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC.

This message comes from NPR sponsor Merrill. Whatever your financial goals are, you want a straightforward path there. But the real world doesn't usually work that way. Merrill understands that.

That's why, with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker-dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC.