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April 24th, 2013
06:56 AM ET
Rich get richer as bottom 93% see net worth fall – Christine Romans reports
During the first two years of the economic recovery, the rich got richer, while the lower 93% of Americans saw their mean household net worth fall 4% to $133,000. According to Pew, the wealthiest 7% saw their mean household net worth jump 28%, hitting more than three million dollars in 2011.
Researchers attribute the uneven recovery to the fact that affluent households own more stocks and other financial holdings that have been growing in worth. At the same time, the housing market, which is the biggest investment for many people in the lower 93%, has remained flat.
Christine Romans details the report results and discusses the impact a fake Associated Press tweet had on the market in today's Minding Your Business segment.
Question – is this an indication of volatility or wealth disparity? I note that this uses 2009 as the base-line. Assuming that this comparison is primarily a result of the stock market (the wealthy are likely more heavily invested there), are we only looking at the up-swing? The market dropped dramatically from October 2007 to March 2009. Presumably, the inverse of this comparison happened then (but I don't know). Can someone provide that analysis? It seems to measure wealth effect for the financial crisis, we need to measure from start to finish, not just the good part of the race.