Janet Yellen: Average Net Worth of 62 Million U.S. Households is $11,000

[eridani]

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/10/janet-yellen-average-net-worth-of-62-million-u-s-households-is-11000/

It took 200 years of hard data in a bestselling book by Thomas Piketty, awesome graphs and charts in Robert Reich’s documentary, “Inequality for All,” and years of scolding from Wall Street on Parade, but Fed Chair Janet Yellen has finally, and correctly, arrived at the idea that the nation’s economic ills are deeply rooted in the fact that U.S. “income and wealth inequality are near their highest levels in the past hundred years.” That was the message Yellen delivered on Friday in a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, replete with stomach-churning figures from the Fed.

Make no mistake about it, coming at the end of a week that saw dramatic up and down spikes in the stock market – Yellen was sending a pivotal message to the Wall Street wealth hoarders – your billionaire standing could be as ephemeral as a day lily if we don’t fix this income and wealth gap.

Yellen quieted the crowd with this opener: “The past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression.” Using data from the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances, Yellen punctuated her message with these hair-raising figures:

“The wealthiest 5 percent of American households held 54 percent of all wealth reported in the 1989 survey. Their share rose to 61 percent in 2010 and reached 63 percent in 2013;

“The lower half of households by wealth, held just 3 percent of wealth in 1989 and only 1 percent in 2013. To put that in perspective…the average net worth of the lower half of the distribution, representing 62 million households, was $11,000 in 2013.”

“This $11,000 average is 50 percent lower than the average wealth of the lower half of families in 1989, adjusted for inflation.”

A “major source of wealth for many families is financial assets, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and private pensions…the wealthiest 5 percent of households held nearly two-thirds of all such assets in 2013…”

[progressoid]

1. Rec!

[Warpy]

2. That's only if they're driving a paid for car

Most families I know are scraping by on wages that have fallen far behind inflation in houses that might not be underwater, but have given them no equity to borrow against if disaster strikes.

Savings? Forget it. The 1% interest lags far behind the inflation we all see at the gas pump and in the grocery store.

401K? It became a 201K in 2008 and fees have eaten up much of what it regained since then.

Too many people my age (old Boomer) are retiring on Social Security plus a patchwork of dead end minimum wage jobs just to pay living expenses, taking the entry level jobs away from teenagers because they can't survive any other way. Kids graduating college are scrambling for retail jobs that will go to paying the vig on student loans while they live at home instead of striking out on their own like they're supposed to.

This country has become a hell for working people.