Wealth of world's billionaires has doubled since 2009.

[woo me with science]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/11/pers-n11.html

Wealth of world’s billionaires doubles since 2009
11 November 2013

Even as workers in the US and other countries have seen their incomes plummet, the combined net worth of the world’s billionaires has doubled since 2009, according to a report published Tuesday by UBS and Wealth-X, a consultancy that tracks super-rich individuals.

The collective wealth of the world’s billionaires hit $6.5 trillion, a figure that is nearly as large as the gross domestic product of China, the world’s second-largest economy. The number of billionaires has grown to 2,170 in 2013, up from 1,360 in 2009, according to the report.
...
The wealth report reflects the parasitic growth of the financial sector throughout the world economy. Seventeen percent of billionaires got their wealth from the finance, banking, and investment sectors, more than any other, while only eight percent are associated with manufacturing.

The vast expansion in the incomes of the super-rich comes even as social services are being slashed in the US, Europe and throughout the world. Earlier this month, food stamp benefits were reduced for the first time in US history, and extended unemployment benefits are scheduled to expire entirely at the end of the year.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[FirstLight]

2. dammitt

i avoided DU for the rest of the day after my disastrous poverty post, and then come back and see THIS?

I need to just stop reading the news altogether, it's not good for my mental health


BTW - can I just say these billionares, millionares, etc need to be rounded up and put on an island somewhere, and their assets be redistributed...and it would be cool if that island was a leper colony too, assholes.

[woo me with science]

6. It is deliberate predation by the One Percent and the political class,

yet "the economy" is presented to us in the media as though it happened unexpectedly and beyond anyone's control, like weather.

[sabrina 1]

19. A few things that might have stopped this 'growth of wealth for billionaires

1) NO BAILOUTS for Criminals

and ...

2) Prosecutions and convictions of the corrupt, Wall St criminals who destroyed the world's economies.


Contrary to what Obama said about them 'what they did was not criminal, it was immoral' or whatever the excuse was for letting them off the hook and then rewarding them, the evidence of fraud was massive.

And now they are quietly trying to undo even the weak legislation to try to prevent them from doing it all again and most likely will succeed.

[progressoid]

3. Oooooo...I can feel it trickling down!

[woo me with science]

4. Nice and warm, huh?

But a tiny bit pungent.

[progressoid]

18. Yup...

[jsr]

5. The recession has been good to them.

Excellent, in fact.

[Octafish]

7. Austerity Works

The "We Fool You" and "We Shoot at You" departments are very well staffed.

[leftstreet]

8. Confiscate their assets, redistribute them n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

9. The low interest rates and easy money policies were supposed to

benefit US, but we see who's getting it. There's just been more cash flow into the markets, which are the only place you can make any money these days. It's a tale of two Americas, those who invest in the market and the rest of us. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when it comes crashing down again, and it will happen again. The government has done virtually nothing to make traders more stable and responsible. They're all as greedy as ever.

[woo me with science]

11. +1......But the government isn't doing nothing.

They are actively assisting the looters.

Wall Street Deregulation Garners Bipartisan Support Despite Devastating JPMorgan Report
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/wall-street-deregulation-_n_2910168.html

This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3653154

Wall Street will get away with massive wave of criminality of 2008 - Statute of Limitations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022516719

How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform
It's bad enough that the banks strangled the Dodd-Frank law. Even worse is the way they did it - with a big assist from Congress and the White House.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-wall-street-killed-financial-reform-20120510

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022246632

[polly7]

10. It almost seems like they're scrambling to

get to the top as fast as possible .... like they know there are crises around the world (caused by things like climate change) they will have no control over, and they really don't give a rat's butt about all those left behind.

In other words, we could fill a 300-seat plane with the 300 richest persons in the world, yet their wealth exceeds the combined wealth of three billion people: nearly half of humankind.

So the real question is: in a vastly unjust society, does democracy work? Or does it become just a formal mechanism to accommodate those inside the system, and ignore the excluded? Do those 300 sitting in the plane of extreme wealth have the same view of the world as the 3 billion poor left on the ground? And if not, does their view of the world counts as much as that of the 300 people on the plane?

http://www.zcommunications.org/sliding-back-to-a-victorian-age-by-roberto-savio.html

[CFLDem]

12. I always wanted to be a billionaire

but I'm too honest to make it...

[mother earth]

13. People are waking up, of course it's all pretty blatant now, isn't it?

Where is the people's representation? Dysfunctional democracy, predatory capitalism, and it's all on repeat, ad nauseum.

They're throwing the poor and the middle class under the bus, every politician needs to be ousted from office & campaign finance reform must be the priority.

[Barack_America]

14. This is going to end in the guillotine.

[Initech]

15. It's a ponzi scheme, and they're winning.

[aikoaiko]

16. How much is due to the market improving.

Wasn't the Dow under 8000 and now it's almost 16000.

[liberal_at_heart]

17. K&R

[Auntie Bush]

20. Why can't we have another tax bracket for all billionairs?

I wonder how much they pay in taxes...probably most all in secret offshore accounts or Swiss bank accounts etc.?

[woo me with science]

21. kick