World's rich got richer amid '09 recession

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

22 Jun 2010, 1950 hrs IST,REUTERS

NEW YORK: The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades.

A stock market rebound helped the world's ranks of millionaires climb 17 percent to 10 million, while their collective wealth surged 19 percent to $39 trillion, nearly recouping losses from the financial crisis, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Capgemini world wealth report.

Stock values rose by half, while hedge funds recovered most of their 2008 losses, in a year marked by government stimulus spending and central bank easing.

"We are already seeing distinct signs of recovery and, in some areas, a complete return to 2007 levels of wealth and growth," Bank of America Corp wealth management chief Sallie Krawcheck said.

The fastest growth in wealth took place in India, China and Brazil, some of the hardest hit markets in 2008. Wealth in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific soared to record highs.

Asia's millionaire ranks rose to 3 million, matching Europe for the first time, paced by a 4.5 percent economic expansion.

Asian millionaires' combined wealth surged 31 percent to $9.7 trillion, surpassing Europe's $9.5 trillion.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6079456.cms

[notesdev]

1. No kidding

considering this Depression was caused by them stealing everything that wasn't nailed to the floor (and some things that were), this result pegs the surprise meter at zero.

[Blue_Tires]

2. that's the way it usually works...

i mean come on; it's not like any of the bottom 90 percent has been stacking chips, and if WE don't have it, someone else always does...

[Andy823]

3. Well

Wasn't that the plan all along? If the repukes couldn't win in 08, and they knew they couldn't, they had to do as much damage to the country as possible so Obama couldn't do what he wanted to do, but instead had to try and fix the mess Bush left him. They couldn't hurt their "rich" buddies, so the plan was to make the country as bad off as possible, but make sure their rich buddies could make a killing and get richer, and it looks like that worked out pretty well. Now if only the republican base, the ones without the millions and billions of dollars, could actually see what is going on, maybe, just maybe, the GOP would become a thing of the past. Of course that isn't going to happen. The republican base is so gullible and crazy they will never see what the republican plan is, a two tier system with the rich getting it all, and the rest of us, well lets just say that slavery was always something the rich liked!

[montanto]

4. Of course they did. eom

[Newest Reality]

5. The owners have their livestock,

that bleat and moo and bah in their mental pens awaiting their eventual, symbolic slaughter.

Let them eat Twinkies and work for below-subsistence wages, the owners say from behind their gates and walls, thoroughly immersed in the most decadent opulence and safe from harm.

The livestock now fear the psychological cattle-prod that comes in the form of a vague, easily manipulated word of power. They fear being cast as terrorists against the Master's technocracy, so they observe and remark, (often aghast and horrified) but dutifully stay in their places as they watch the walls of their mental confinement close in, fortified by a terror-driven mindset of fear and compliance.

Freedom begins wih an understanding of what a self actually is in relation to environment and nature. That may seem deeply mystifying and philosophically complex, but it most certainly is not. A simple understanding of the implications and realizations of what freedom is and how incredibly vast and available it is when our nature is know, will bring about the potential for its practice and promulgation. Slaves thinking they are free is a sad ruse that forms the substance for the very bars that imprison us right now.

[TheWatcher]

11. One of the best posts on DU.....Ever.

:thumbsup:

[wordpix]

12. excellent ---difficult to fight with the economy being what it is but

I could probably do without some things I now have---such as internet, phone and TV. I would probably enjoy life more, and it would certainly save money each month.

[pattmarty]

6. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? The rich get richer and...............

............the rest of us get "trickled down" on.

[primavera]

9. Yep, that's capitalism alright. n/t

[DRex]

7. Not in any way remotely surprising. nt

[bushmeister0]

8. Clearly time for some draconian belt tightening!

(For the "small people" that is.)

[glitch]

10. I believe you mean "lesser people".

Try to keep up. ;)

[Ed Barrow]

13. kick

[TBF]

14. Great post, K&R, nt

[Amonester]

15. Soylent green for everybody else! nt

:puke:

[Thor_MN]

16. 2009 Recession? Who is it that defines a Recession on the world economy?

I can't say for certain, but I don't think the US economy was in an official recession. The economy isn't great, but I don't think Recession can be applied. As for the world, is there an official definition of World Recession? Words matter, especially when having to defend against pablum created by the conservative powers that be for the conservative morons that keep them in power.

[inna]

17. It's even more extreme for the billionaires:

World’s billionaires grew 50 percent richer in 2009

2009 will be remembered by millions of ordinary people as the year they lost their job, their house, or the prospect of an education. For the rich, however, it was a bonanza.

The world’s billionaires saw their wealth grow by 50 percent last year, and their ranks swell to 1,011, from 793, according to the latest Forbes list of billionaires.

The combined net worth of these 1,011 individuals increased to $3.6 trillion, up $1.2 trillion from the year before. On average, each billionaire had his or her wealth increase by $500 million.

Four hundred and three billionaires reside in the United States. They constitute just 0.00014 percent of the country’s total population, but control 8 percent of the national wealth. Each of these individuals holds over 300 million times more wealth than the average US resident.

[cbdo2007]

18. Many of us middle classers are doing better as well.

Not everyone was hit very hard by the recession and many of us normal people have benefitted as well.

[conspirator]

19. No. Most middle class lost buying power with frozen salaries and rampant inflation

You are a minority. And if your salary kept growing above inflation all these years, then you are probably upper middle class now.