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The Rich Have Never Been Richer: US Household Assets Hit $99 Trillion
Moments ago the Fed's latest Flow of Funds report confirmed what the Philly Fed noted recently (and what blogger and Citadel trader Ben Bernanke vehemently denies): that the Fed keeps making America's uber rich ever richer, when in the first quarter thanks mostly to yet another $1.1 trilion increase in the value of financial assets (read stock market), the asset holdings of US households (or at least a very small subsection of them) rose by $1.6 trillion to a record $99 trillion, which net of $14.2 trillion in debt, means US household net worth is also a record $84.9 billion.
This is what a snapshot of the US balance sheet as of Q1 looked like.
Of course, saying US "households" implies all of them. This is anything but the truth.
As the following simple chart shows, the richest 10% benefit vastly more than everyone else from the relentless "wealth effect" generating melt up in stocks, courtesy of some $22 trillion in "assets" monetized by central banks.
Yes, ordinary middle-class Americans are seeing the value of their 401(k) and other pension-related investments go up, but since these are largely untouchable until retirement, it means that the relentless increase in direct equity holdings has benefitted just the richest few Americans. For everyone else, this is truly nothing more than a confidence game propped up by the biggest equity bubble in history.
And in case there is any confusion, America's top 10% are encouraged to send their thank you cards to the Marriner Eccles building: of the $17 trillion increase in net worth since the last peak, financial assets, i.e., the Fed, is responsible for $16 trillion of this.
As for housing, that tangible asset for "everyone else"? At its past bubble peak in Q4 2006, real estate it amounted to $24.9 trillion: nearly a decade later, with the total value of US real-estate at $24.1 trillion, it still has to surpass this number. This likely confirms that what the Fed, which is clearly concerned with stock valuations, wants to do in order to "spread the wealth effect" is to stop the relentless growth in stocks and divert some of that wealth over to US housing. Good luck with that.
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What the fuck is a few thousand people going to spend $50 trillion on?
I took out real estate and the small percentage of stocks the majority holds.
$50 trillion just sitting there growing the elites fortunes ever greater. They can't come close to spending it, so why do they need to inflate the stock market and destroy everything else just to turn $50 trillion into $60 trillion.
Its not the money they want, no it's your soul.
And I'll bet you'll find that missing $8.5 trillion in DoD funds among those trillins!
laws are for the slaves, not the royal elite ruling class
Laws are for thee, not for me
- Gov official
They aren't gains until you cash in your chips. Tick. Tock.
When they come to sell all this $99Trilion stuff, who will be the buyer?
+1 K. Most of it is wealth on paper only. It has to be sold one way or another in order to be realized. Good luck with that!
Even as US debt and unfunded liabilities cross $250 trillion per Kotlikoff
Economist Laurence Kotlikoff: U.S. $222 Trillion in DebtDecember 1, 2012
http://www.realclearpolicy.com/blog/2012/12/01/economist_laurence_kotlik...
That was in 2012. US debt is easily over $250 trillion today.
On paper I'm worth a bit of money. In reality I can get my hands on only a small fraction of it. I suspect many people are like me.
Lemme see... the bulk of my "wealth" is real estate these days (more so thanks to the Fed). If I sell, where will I go? The only way I realize a fraction of that wealth is if I move somewhere less inflated. Or downsize (or both). But, like I said, only a fraction of that wealth can be realized, less transaction costs, real estate fees, moving costs, etc.
And if it means moving away, I would have to find another job. So would my wife. Etc. and so on. With new wages weighted against a different cost of living.
merely one more reason why cash must be outlawed say the poli-whores
$99 trillion!
That's great! Now we can confiscate all that wealth, and we'll have about HALF the amount we've promised to ourselves in Social Security benefits! We now have an entire population of people who think that everyone else will be forced to take care of them! We are all Marxists now!
It's just a question of time! Calamity is certainty! Plan and prepare accordingly!
I fail to see how any asset which is in the form of debt owed by others is an asset in the current circumstances. Unless you own a house, a business or some other real and tangible asset, the rest is just fantasy when it comes to the crunch.
It's an illusion of wealth. And just as fast as it was created out of thin air it will be taken from you.
If I hear "Ya gotta work hard to get ahead" one more time!!
lemme do the math: $85Tn/320m US residents = $265k in net assets per resident.
This means that an average family of 4 has net assets for more than $1m. We're all millionaires and didn't even notice!
makes one want to party like it's 1999
So a 25% 'one-time' (wink, wink) wealth tax will net almost $25 trillion. Shit, that's more than the Federal deficit plus the aggregate QE since 2007. We're rich, bitches!
keep working that angle and the Gov will pay you in lead