America’s Wealthy Are Even Wealthier And Have A New Name: Point-Seveners

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/point-seveners-new-name-millionaires-club



The old cliché is true. The rich are getting richer. And there’s a new name for the upward transfer of wealth and richest people in America and worldwide—now called the “point-seven percent”—according to The Wall Street Journal, which, in its typical cheerleading way, boasts that Americans rule the top of the wealth pyramid.

“Forget the 1 percent—the statistic that 1 percent of people in the U.S. hold 40 percent of the wealth” brags Jason Bellini on a WSJ video report. “It became a rallying cry during the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now there’s a new number to consider: 0.7 percent. Globally, 0.7 percent of the people control 41 percent of the world’s wealth. Who are the 0.7 percent?”

Who, indeed, is the question. As Bellini reports, according to Credit Suisse’s 2013 global wealth report, the point-seveners are “all individuals whose net worth is over a million dollars. The wealth of this net group approaches $99 trillion dollars. Worldwide there are over 32 million millionaires.”

Now, before we delve into Bellini’s analysis or Credit Suisse’s article, “Global Wealth Reaches All-Time High,” let’s remember that the U.S. Congress is poised to begin a historic debate on cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That debate starts with the assumption that there’s not enough money around for social safety nets.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[RainDog]

2. Some interesting reads related to this

that I ran across the other day...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023909775

[xchrom]

3. +1

[CJCRANE]

4. Let's just call them the 1%.

No point splitting hairs.

[n2doc]

5. Yep. I'm sure the other 0.3% aren't doing too badly. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Misleading headline - 5.5% of American adults are in the >$1 million net wealth category

It's 0.7% of world adults - 32 million. But their data says 5.5% of American adults have over $1m (not the highest percentage in a country, though - for Switzerland it's 10%, and even in Sweden, which some DUers like to call 'socialist', it's 6.9%).

[KharmaTrain]

7. Also Misleading...

...it doesn't specify what those "assets" are. Not all "millionaires" are Richie Rich with money flying out of their pockets. Some are honestly "cash poor". I have a lifelong friend in that situation. His family has a lot of money tied up in businesses and real estate...on paper it looks real impressive, in real life, not so much. You can't eat property and when the markets tanked a couple years ago he was in pretty dire straits...his home, the family "homestead" lost over half its value and much of his portfolio was wiped out. Technically a "millionaire" but he lost his job but with few liquid assets. Even today with the economy doing better, he still has troubles finding steady work and is hard-pressed to pay for the maintainenance and property taxes on the house he inherited. While it seems like he should be on easy street...he's had to struggle as much as anyone I've known in recent years...

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. The full report does specify non-financial, liquid assets, equities and 'other' for countries

as a whole ('other' being mainly insurance and pension funds in most countries). So that, for instance, the 2012 US figure is
Non-financial - 31.9%, financial 68.1% of which: 14.5% liquid, 41.8% equities and 43.7% 'other'

Quite different from the UK, which was
Non-financial - 49.3%, financial 50.7% of which: 29.6% liquid, 12.5% equities and 57.9% other.