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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The rich are even richer

The top 1 percent of Americans and Europeans own a much bigger slice of national wealth than is reported according to a senior economist at European Central Bank (ECB). A lot of wealthy people prefer to under-report their assets when asked.

 Philip Vermeulen, a senior economist at the ECB wrote. “The results clearly indicate that survey wealth estimates are very likely to underestimate wealth at the top.”

Germany’s top slice of society holds 33 percent of the country's riches compared with the 24 percent survey data previously indicated. While the richest Italians also hold a higher 20 percent of national wealth than the 14 percent earlier suggested.

According to him the top 1 percent of American citizens may hold up to 37 percent of the nation’s wealth. That’s higher than the 34 percent suggested by the 2010 US Survey of Consumer Finance Data from the Federal Reserve.

 When some have plenty, others starve. Gore Vidal once warned: "If the poor knew how the rich lived they would rise up and eat them."

Warren Buffett made $37 million a day in 2013, and there are children going hungry. Something is very wrong with this world. It's called capitalism.

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