According to the authors of the Global Wealth Report, the world's wealth has doubled in ten years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330 trillion by 2017.
The richest 20% of Americans owns 93% of non-home wealth. 60% of the population - own just 0.2% (one-fifth of one percent) of all wealth outside the home.
From 2002 to 2007, two-thirds of all income went to the richest 1%. Then, in the first year after the recession, a startling 93% of all new income went to the richest 1%.
From 1983 to 2007, the percentages of net worth and financial wealth of the richest 5% INCREASED by almost 20%. And the percentages for the poorest 80% of the population DECREASED by almost 20%. A few people -- 5 out of 100 -- got very rich, but everyone else lost ground.
For Americans with incomes over $10 million, nearly half of their income comes from capital gains and dividends. The stock market has grown three times faster than the GDP.
In 2009, for example, the average salary of the 400 richest U.S. households was $22 million. Their average capital gains income? $92 million.
For the period 1980 to 2010 taxes fell 5% for the poorest households. They fell about 7% for the typical household. And they fell 14% for the richest households. It is fair to say that between President Carter and President Obama, taxes have fallen by twice as much for the richest families as for the median family.
Americans are burdened with over $11 trillion in consumer debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit card liabilities.
In the UK a study shows company executives across Britain have pocketed an average 12% increase in their salaries in the last financial year and that the average pay of chief executives trebled over the past decade.
The former chief executive of Halifax and Bank of Scotland Sir James Crosby, Gordon Brown’s banking advisor and a director of the Financial Service Authority, was asked a series of questions by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. 10 per cent of HBOS loans had gone bad, twice that of the next worst bank - Royal Bank of Scotland - and more than three times more normal banks such as HSBC or Barclays.
“You were a founder ceo of the merged business (Halifax and Bank of Scotland) and set the first strategic plan. If you look at that plan it is ambitious possibly aggressive in terms of its overall targets.” Mr Crosby said this could be true “with the benefit of hindsight”. He was then asked: “Do you recognise that this was incompetent lending.” Sir James said: “With the benefit of hindsight it wasn’t good lending.” Mr Tyrie then repeatedly made the point before Sir James finally accepted that “with the benefit of hindsight it was incompetent”.
However it was not with the "benefit of hindsight" that the banker unloaded two-thirds of his shares in HBOS in two years before its near-collapse. He was simply “balancing his portfolio”, he said.
Crosby nearly £8m while chief executive of the bank, retired on an index linked pension of £570,000 and in spite of his admitted incompetence he went on to be a £1m a year chief executive of Boots which he left after less than a year and is now the boss of Coral’s, the bookmaker.
The financial crisis has been as economically devastating as a world war and may still be a burden on “our grandchildren”, Andrew Haldane, Bank of England's executive director for financial stability, explained .
“In terms of the loss of incomes and outputs, this is as bad as a world war,” he said. “It would be astonishing if people weren’t asking big questions about where finance has gone wrong. If we are fortunate, the cost of the crisis will be paid for by our children. More likely it will still be being paid for by our grandchildren. There is every reason why the general public ought to be deeply upset by what has happened – and angry.” Banks remained one of the major impediments to the recovery because they need to own up to their bad debts to restore confidence and get credit flowing again. Failure to come clean would mean “the fog will persist”, he said. “Investors will be much less willing to put their money into the banking system. They will lack confidence in the banking system and will either charge very high rates for lending that money to banks or will just withdraw their money entirely,” he said. (eg Spain formally requested €39.5bn of European funds to recapitalise its struggling banks).
Haldane also admitted that “with hindsight” the Bank of England should have done more to deflate the bubble ahead of recession.
The richest 20% of Americans owns 93% of non-home wealth. 60% of the population - own just 0.2% (one-fifth of one percent) of all wealth outside the home.
From 2002 to 2007, two-thirds of all income went to the richest 1%. Then, in the first year after the recession, a startling 93% of all new income went to the richest 1%.
From 1983 to 2007, the percentages of net worth and financial wealth of the richest 5% INCREASED by almost 20%. And the percentages for the poorest 80% of the population DECREASED by almost 20%. A few people -- 5 out of 100 -- got very rich, but everyone else lost ground.
For Americans with incomes over $10 million, nearly half of their income comes from capital gains and dividends. The stock market has grown three times faster than the GDP.
In 2009, for example, the average salary of the 400 richest U.S. households was $22 million. Their average capital gains income? $92 million.
For the period 1980 to 2010 taxes fell 5% for the poorest households. They fell about 7% for the typical household. And they fell 14% for the richest households. It is fair to say that between President Carter and President Obama, taxes have fallen by twice as much for the richest families as for the median family.
Americans are burdened with over $11 trillion in consumer debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit card liabilities.
In the UK a study shows company executives across Britain have pocketed an average 12% increase in their salaries in the last financial year and that the average pay of chief executives trebled over the past decade.
The former chief executive of Halifax and Bank of Scotland Sir James Crosby, Gordon Brown’s banking advisor and a director of the Financial Service Authority, was asked a series of questions by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. 10 per cent of HBOS loans had gone bad, twice that of the next worst bank - Royal Bank of Scotland - and more than three times more normal banks such as HSBC or Barclays.
“You were a founder ceo of the merged business (Halifax and Bank of Scotland) and set the first strategic plan. If you look at that plan it is ambitious possibly aggressive in terms of its overall targets.” Mr Crosby said this could be true “with the benefit of hindsight”. He was then asked: “Do you recognise that this was incompetent lending.” Sir James said: “With the benefit of hindsight it wasn’t good lending.” Mr Tyrie then repeatedly made the point before Sir James finally accepted that “with the benefit of hindsight it was incompetent”.
However it was not with the "benefit of hindsight" that the banker unloaded two-thirds of his shares in HBOS in two years before its near-collapse. He was simply “balancing his portfolio”, he said.
Crosby nearly £8m while chief executive of the bank, retired on an index linked pension of £570,000 and in spite of his admitted incompetence he went on to be a £1m a year chief executive of Boots which he left after less than a year and is now the boss of Coral’s, the bookmaker.
The financial crisis has been as economically devastating as a world war and may still be a burden on “our grandchildren”, Andrew Haldane, Bank of England's executive director for financial stability, explained .
“In terms of the loss of incomes and outputs, this is as bad as a world war,” he said. “It would be astonishing if people weren’t asking big questions about where finance has gone wrong. If we are fortunate, the cost of the crisis will be paid for by our children. More likely it will still be being paid for by our grandchildren. There is every reason why the general public ought to be deeply upset by what has happened – and angry.” Banks remained one of the major impediments to the recovery because they need to own up to their bad debts to restore confidence and get credit flowing again. Failure to come clean would mean “the fog will persist”, he said. “Investors will be much less willing to put their money into the banking system. They will lack confidence in the banking system and will either charge very high rates for lending that money to banks or will just withdraw their money entirely,” he said. (eg Spain formally requested €39.5bn of European funds to recapitalise its struggling banks).
Haldane also admitted that “with hindsight” the Bank of England should have done more to deflate the bubble ahead of recession.
1 comment:
Lord Stevenson, former chairman of HBOS during his turn of questioning.
conceded that "with *the wisdom of hindsight* I wished the pace of asset growth" had been slower in 2006.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/04/former-hbos-chairman-lord-stevenson-mps
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