Friday, March 08, 2013

The good ol' days are back for the rich

For the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed toward a retirement in which they will be financially worse off than their parents. Although the surging stock market is approaching record highs, most of these gains are flowing to well-off Americans who already are in relatively good shape for retirement. The good old days for the wealthy are now back. A survey from Northern Trust found that three quarters of millionaires surveyed said they are better off, or as well off, as they were in 2007 — the peak for both wealth and sheer numbers of America's millionaires. Most cited improved investment returns as their reason for feeling better off.

Income from working (wages and salaries, pensions and benefits) "has been declining as a share of total income earned in the United States for the past three decades," according to a new analysis on income inequality from a very unlikely supporter of economic justice: the Federal Reserve. It adds that the income share from "capital,"(income from ownership of assets, including interest, dividends and the capital gains from buying and selling stocks, bonds and other forms of property) in contrast, has been increasing. Few Americans, the Cleveland Fed shows, have significant quantities of such wealth.

No comments: