Thursday, March 12, 2015

Headline News: Gain in Americans' Net Worth is Lifting the Boats of the Affluent



The value of stocks and mutual funds owned by households jumped $742 billion during the quarter, when the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 4.4%. For the year, the index gained 11.4%..  Much of the nation’s stock-market gains goes to the wealthy, who tend to save the proceeds.   [Emphasis added.]

 
Related reading:
Wealth levels, wealth inequality, and the Great Recession.  (Russell Sage Foundation)
Declines in net worth from 2007 to 2009 were large, and the decline continued through 2013.  These wealth losses, however, were not distributed equally.  While large absolute amounts of wealth were destroyed at the top of the wealth distribution, households at the bottom of the wealth distribution lost the largest share of their total wealth.  As a result, wealth inequality increased significantly from 2003 to 2013.     

Related posts:
The very rich are not spending their money on job creation, suckers.  (3/5/2014) 
Wealth inequality in America: Far from what people think, so far from their ideal.  (3/13/2013)

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