Wealth of richest 400 Americans surges to $2.29 trillion! Yowsa! Yowsa! Yowsa!

[Octafish]

Let the good times roll!



Wealth of richest 400 Americans surges to $2.29 trillion

By Andre Damon
World Socialist Web Site, 6 October 2014

The wealthiest 400 people in the United States had their combined net worth grow thirteen percent to $2.29 trillion this year, amidst a surging stock market and record corporate profits. The figures come from the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, compiled every year since 1982 by the American business magazine of the same name.

As Forbes noted last week, the net worth of these 400 individuals is “about the same as the gross domestic product of Brazil, a country of 200 million people.” The average net worth of the Forbes 400 hit $5.7 billion, up by $700 million over the past year.

The new figures of wealth in America were generally buried in the media. Neither the New York Times nor the Wall Street Journal published an article. Nor has it been a topic in political campaigns, one month before the midterm elections. Neither big-business party has an interest in calling attention to the extraordinary levels of social inequality in the US, with endless claims that there is no money for basic social services.

Last week marked the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which established the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as the bank bailout. Since then, the wealth of the richest sections of society has soared while the annual income of the typical household has fallen by five percent.

SNIP...

[font color="green"]* Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the richest man in the US for 21 years in a row, had his wealth increase $9 billion in one year, to $81 billion. Gates’ wealth has increased by a staggering $31 billion in the past five years. To put this figure in perspective, since 2009 Gates’ wealth has increased by nearly 30 times the annual budget of the city of Detroit, currently in bankruptcy.[/font color]

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/06/forb-o06.html

So, while on paper these are the greatest boom times in history, most of the boom in terms of hard cash has landed in the pockets of Haves and the Have-Mores.

[smirkymonkey]

1. Oh, thank god! I was getting worried about them for a bit.

[Octafish]

12. Here's some new job openings perfect for those who like to look after them.

The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

By Mark Ames, AlterNet
Posted on June 2, 2010, Printed on June 2, 2010

What happens when Americans plunder America and leave it broken, destitute and seething mad? Where do these fabulously wealthy Americans go with their loot, if America isn't a safe, secure, or even desirable place to spend their riches? What if they lose faith in their gated communities, because those plush gated communities are surrounded by millions of pissed-off Americans stripped of their entitlements, and who now want in?

SNIP...

The floating castle is a longtime dream of libertarian oligarchs -- a place where they can live their lives in peace free from the teeming masses of starving losers and indebted parasites and their tax demands. Since they’ve grown so rich off of America, they have enough spare change to fund projects like the Seasteading Institute, run by Milton Friedman's grandson, Patri Friedman, and financed by the bizarre right-wing PayPal founder, Peter Thiel. It couldn't have come a moment sooner for Milton Friedman's grandson, who was best known until recently for running a grotesque advice blog for married swingers, PUA4LTR (Pick Up Advice For Long-Term Relationships). Actually, Patri Friedman ran that pick-up advice blog with his wife--the two of them are apparent big-time cyber-swingers, apparently--posting blog entries saying things like "Why Should Husbands Become PUAs? Because otherwise, your wife will talk like those wives on the blog My Husband Is Annoying."

Both Thiel and Milton Friedman's grandson see democracy as the enemy--last year, Thiel wrote "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" at about the same time that Milton Friedman's grandson proclaimed, "Democracy is not the answer." Both published their anti-democracy proclamations in the same billionaire-Koch-family-funded outlet, Cato Unbound, one of the oldest billionaire-fed libertarian welfare dispensaries. Friedman's answer for Thiel's democracy problem is to build offshore libertarian pod-fortresses where the libertarian way rules. It's probably better for everyone if Milton Friedman's grandson and Peter Thiel leave us forever for their libertarian ocean lair--Thiel believes that America went down the tubes ever since it gave women the right to vote, and he was outed as the sponsor of accused felon James O'Keefe's smear videos that brought ACORN to ruin.

While Thiel and Friedman are busy cooking up their libertarian dystopia, the Frontier Group investment firm -- an offshoot of the Carlyle Group -- has already entered the realization phase with the Utopia floating castle. Frontier Group, was founded by some of the same big names from the notorious Carlyle Group--the private equity firm that brought together right-wing oligarchs like George H. W. Bush and other top American officials with their billionaire pals in Saudi Arabia like the Bin Laden family, who together raked in enormous profits thanks to the War on Terror that their kids Dubya and Osama launched.

While neither Bush nor the Bin Ladens are principals in the Frontier Group, its founding director, Frank Carlucci, is a name they know well, and you should too. Carlucci ran the Carlyle Group as its chairman from 1989 through 2005, right around the time that the wars started going undeniably bad, and floating castles started to look like a viable plan. But Carlucci's past is much weirder and scarier than most of us care to know: whether it's his strangely timed appearances in some of the ugliest assassinations and coups in modern history, or serving as Carter's number two man in the CIA, and Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, if Frank Carlucci (nicknamed "Creepy Carlucci" and "Spooky Frank&quot is the founding director of a firm that's building floating castles, it's a bad sign for those of us left behind.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/147058 /

Those who can afford it know they can trust Frank "Carlyle Group's Man in the Congo" Carlucci with their floating freaking assets.

[Dont call me Shirley]

27. Let them live on their libertarian castles, they'll end up like the kids in Animal Farm.

[DonCoquixote]

37. Do not let the label "video game" fool you

but this idea was satirized hard in the "Bioshock" series of games, where the enemies are a bunch of libertarians that made these cities. The third in the series "bioshock Infonite" is doubly sweet as it lambastes the Fox news Christian right.

[hifiguy]

50. Those will be very easy targets to hit.

And they will sink like stones.

[Rex]

2. But hey, if you work hard - you too can be a billionaire!

Uh huh...honest Abe.

[Octafish]

13. I know it, right?

Been busting my chops full-time since I was 15. Owe more than I own. Do have a nice yard, though it belongs to the bank.

[Rex]

35. We will always owe the company store.

All of us.

[woo me with science]

42. +1

[Octafish]

59. Yeah. Things could always be worse.

Octafish, the early days.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. It's a vacuum now.

[Octafish]

58. Who stepped in to fill the void with dollars? The Washington Greenrefs.

The bank bailout and the Forbes 400

Andre Damon
World Socialist Web Site, 8 October 2014

Six years ago this past Friday, the US Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which established the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the first of the bank bailouts. It was followed by a series of Federal Reserve and Treasury programs that allocated some $7 trillion in free loans to the financial system.

SNIP...

Earlier this year, Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury Secretary who now heads a private equity firm, published his memoir, which makes clear that every single substantial policy question related to the financial crisis was decided solely from the standpoint of maximizing the most predatory profit interests of Wall Street.

According to Geithner, by September 2008 it became clear to the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve that every major US financial institution was insolvent, and would go bankrupt without government intervention. Under these circumstances, the Federal Reserve and Treasury allowed Lehman Brothers to collapse, a move that had the effect, to use a phrase recalled by Geithner, of “shock(ing) the political world into taking the crisis seriously.”

SNIP...

Which brings us back to the Forbes 400. Beyond the total mass of wealth that the rich now control, the most salient fact revealed in the report is the manner in which this wealth has been, to use the word loosely, “earned.” As the magazine began its report, “Thanks to a buoyant stock market, the richest people in the US just keep getting richer.” A “buoyant stock market”—that is, through speculation on an historically unprecedented scale, aided and abetted by the government and the Federal Reserve.

Finance is increasingly dominant among America’s wealthy. While the finance and real estate sectors made up about 4.4 percent of the first Forbes 400 in 1982, they now make up 21 percent. Beyond those who derive their wealth immediately from the financial sector, the fortunes of billionaires in other sectors of the economy is increasingly based on share values. For example, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, currently 11th on the list with a net worth of $34.1 billion, had his wealth increase seventeen-fold from 2009 as a result of Facebook’s speculative initial public offering.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/08/pers-o08.html

When the referees get off the same bus as the opposing team, it's a sign the game is rigged.

When the final score approaches 100 to nothing, year after year after year, you know the game is.

[orpupilofnature57]

63. +1000 !!!!

Thanks, informative as ever Octafish .

[logosoco]

4. I don't understand economics or physics that well, but it seems to me

that when something gets too top heavy, the top falls off.

What is it going to take!!!!????!!!!

[NuclearDem]

5. Well hey now, I'm starting to think this whole "trickle down" thing

might have been just a load of nonsense!

[progressoid]

45. Oh, I feel the trickling down.

[LeftofObama]

6. How are they supposed to survive on a paltry 2.29 trillion?

Where can I donate?

[Octafish]

38. You already are...The $32 Trillion Hidden Offshore Needs IRS Attention.

Wanna know where a lot of the money "lost" in the great Bankster Bailout has gone?

Check Out Who's Hiding $32 Trillion in Offshore Tax Haven Accounts

EXCERPT...

Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.

SNIP...

The information is still being sifted through, even as it's being released to the public, but here's some of what's been found so far:

■American Denise Rich, ex-wife of pardoned tax cheat Marc Rich, has been uncovered as the settlor and beneficiary of two large trusts based in the tiny Cook Islands. The ICIJ found that Denise Rich gave up her American citizenship in 2012. Her citizenship was convenient enough when President Clinton had the authority to pardon her ex-husband.
■French President Francois Hollande, ardent socialist and tireless champion of the 75% marginal tax rate, appears in these documents, mostly by association. His campaign co-treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, has been forced to reveal the name of his Chinese business partner in a Caymans-based distribution company. Augier says he used his offshore company to make a large investment in China.
■Australian actor Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile Dundee" fame, has lost about $35.3 million from an account that he used to offshore his "bonza" film royalties. His once-trusted tax adviser Philip Egglishaw ran off with Hogan's sizeable hidden offshore stash.
■French banking scion Elie de Rothschild, of the famous banking family, has been named in the leaks. He was instrumental in setting up some 20 trusts and 10 holding companies in the Cook Islands, all extremely opaque in nature. His heirs have, not surprisingly, refused comment.
■Brigitte Bardot's third ex-husband, Gunter Sachs, a millionaire industrialist, has been revealed as the owner of a huge, obscure wealth-masking machine: trust upon shell company upon holding company, almost ad infinitum, mostly based in the Cook Islands. The ICIJ has constructed an interactive map of Sachs' extensive offshore holdings and business networks. The network is fairly representative of the steps that many on this list have taken to hide their wealth away. You can marvel at its imponderable complexity here.

And these names are barely the tip of the iceberg. The shockwaves have already begun to spread through the corridors of wealth and power all over the world.

How Much is $32 Trillion?

It bears repeating: $32 trillion has been stashed away, off the books, by corporations and wealthy individuals.

CONTINUED...

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article40250.html

Offshore loot also represents money made from trafficking in drugs, guns and people. So...what can we do about it?

On My Mind

Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks

James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010

Let's tax offshore private wealth.

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.

Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.

SNIP...

This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--[font color="green"]0.001% of the world's population[/font color]. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.

SNIP...

Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.

CONTINUED....

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

Not only would that money balance the budget, erase the debt and fix the nation and world's problems from hunger and homeless to energy and education; it would free humanity to do better things than make war all the time. Might even help pay for saving the planet. But, no.

[Scuba]

7. So "trickle down" should kick in real soon now. Just be patient. 20-30 more years, tops. Trust us.

[daleanime]

19. Oh, I am so stealing that....

[rhett o rick]

8. Possibly the end to the greatest middle class democracy in history and the

Corp-Media is ignoring it as are our so-called representatives. They are scrambling to get their share of the corruption.

[woo me with science]

43. That's quite something to ignore. nt

[KamaAina]

9. Oh, now you've done it!

You've posted from World Socialist Web Site.

[Octafish]

11. For balance: ''Who Rules America?''

Wealth, Income, and Power

by G. William Domhoff
University of California Santa Cruz

This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.

Some of the information may come as a surprise to many people. In fact, I know it will be a surprise and then some, because of a recent study (Norton & Ariely, 2010) showing that most Americans (high income or low income, female or male, young or old, Republican or Democrat) have no idea just how concentrated the wealth distribution actually is. More on that a bit later.

As far as the income distribution, the most striking numbers on income inequality will come last, showing the dramatic change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.

First, though, some definitions. Generally speaking, wealth is the value of everything a person or family owns, minus any debts. However, for purposes of studying the wealth distribution, economists define wealth in terms of marketable assets, such as real estate, stocks, and bonds, leaving aside consumer durables like cars and household items because they are not as readily converted into cash and are more valuable to their owners for use purposes than they are for resale (see Wolff, 2004, p. 4, for a full discussion of these issues). Once the value of all marketable assets is determined, then all debts, such as home mortgages and credit card debts, are subtracted, which yields a person's net worth. In addition, economists use the concept of financial wealth -- also referred to in this document as "non-home wealth" -- which is defined as net worth minus net equity in owner-occupied housing. As Wolff (2004, p. 5) explains, "Financial wealth is a more 'liquid' concept than marketable wealth, since one's home is difficult to convert into cash in the short term. It thus reflects the resources that may be immediately available for consumption or various forms of investments."

We also need to distinguish wealth from income. Income is what people earn from work, but also from dividends, interest, and any rents or royalties that are paid to them on properties they own. In theory, those who own a great deal of wealth may or may not have high incomes, depending on the returns they receive from their wealth, but in reality those at the very top of the wealth distribution usually have the most income. (But it's important to note that for the rich, most of that income does not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. See Norris, 2010, for more details.)

This document focuses on the "Top 1%" as a whole because that's been the traditional cut-off point for "the top" in academic studies, and because it's easy for us to keep in mind that we are talking about one in a hundred. But it is also important to realize that the lower half of that top 1% has far less than those in the top half; in fact, both wealth and income are super-concentrated in the top 0.1%, which is just one in a thousand. (To get an idea of the differences, take a look at an insider account by a long-time investment manager who works for the well-to-do and very rich. It nicely explains what the different levels have -- and how they got it. Also, David Cay Johnston (2011) has written a column about the differences among the top 1%, based on 2009 IRS information.)

CONTINUED w/links, sources, charts, etc...

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

[woo me with science]

40. Wow. Excellent resource.

Thank you.

[rhett o rick]

48. You deserve a big thank you for all the great data and articles you post. THANK YOU!!

I want to learn more about wealth. A quick look thru your posted article I saw the definition for wealth as being the value of your assets minus your obligations (roughly). But I think wealth isn't just the value, it's the relative value. If everyone owned the same, no one would be considered wealthy. And I think society has the right or obligation to determine the morality related to wealth.

I am looking forward to reading this article. Maybe it will answer some of my questions.

And once again a big THANK YOU for all the work you do posting great articles.

[daleanime]

18. So?

[KamaAina]

24. We used to have a poster who reposted from WSWS constantly.

It became a running joke. Eventually he got banned.

[daleanime]

25. For that?

[KamaAina]

46. He must have made some other faux pas.

[JEB]

10. Looks to me like America

would be better off without those four hundred.

[Octafish]

57. Let's put them in the 99-percent tax bracket. It's a fate worse than death for the greedhead.

On My Mind

Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting In First World Banks

James S. Henry
07.01.10, 09:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated July 19, 2010

Let's tax offshore private wealth.

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels--arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders--to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change and development? Simple: Levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot.

Many aboveground economies around the world are struggling, but the economic underground is booming. By my estimate, there is $15 trillion to $20 trillion in private wealth sitting offshore in bank accounts, brokerage accounts and hedge fund portfolios, completely untaxed.

SNIP...

This wealth is concentrated. Nearly half of it is owned by 91,000 people--0.001% of the world's population. Ninety-five percent is owned by the planet's wealthiest 10 million people.

SNIP...

Is it feasible? Yes. The majority of offshore wealth is managed by 50 banks. As of September 2009 these banks accounted for $10.8 trillion of offshore assets--72% of the industry's total. The busiest 10 of them manage 40%.

CONTINUED....

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

If they don't like getting a bad haircut, they can move to China -- without the dough.

[JEB]

60. That's a lot of loot.

From your link:
Let’s tax it. The pile of offshore anonymous loot is now large enough so that even a very modest 0.5% wealth tax would yield at least $75 billion a year.

How much is enough for these folks? They could pay at the 99% rate for a good long time before ever missing a meal.

On another note, I just read this article.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Leading-German-Journalist-by-Eric-Zuesse-Billionaires_Central-Intelligence-Agency_Energy_Oil-141007-640.html

[Octafish]

61. Thank you for the heads-up, JEB!

That article from Zuesse and the MOCKINGBIRD set should be an OP.

[xocet]

14. When is the ship of state going to capsize and will the captains of industry go down with the ship?

n/t

[johnnyreb]

15. Once they git AWLL of it-- it'll be trickle-down city!

[Uben]

16. Damn, just missed the top 400......

.....I was just $5.7 billion short. Oh well, maybe next year.

[daleanime]

17. K&fuckingR....

[liberal_at_heart]

20. K&R. We must hold both parties accountable for this, and we need a revitalized union.

[Initech]

21. When do we break out the pitchforks and torches?

[Major Hogwash]

22. Wow, that's a lot of moolah to leave behind!

Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2014, 11:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Because ya can't take it with ya!

[flamingdem]

23. Yes but you can have a lot of buildings and maybe an small city

named after you!

Maybe you could even have your body frozen in order to be able to use your moolah later.

[Major Hogwash]

29. Whoop-dee-doo!

If they ever named a building after me, it sure as hell wouldn't be much of a building!

[flamingdem]

30. Mine might be a shack

but it will have style!

[Major Hogwash]

32. I'd like to have 1 very large flourescent sign on mine.

In 10 foot tall letters!

The first part would be blue, and the second half would be red.
The first part would flash for 7 seconds, and then the second half would flash for 3 seconds.

The first part would say "Beer" and the second part would say "Nuts"!

[flamingdem]

33. I'm there! Sounds like a party

and a great place to have a jam

[Major Hogwash]

34. Oh, man, can't have a drum set up in it.

It's not a very big building, remember?



Did you know that Waylon Jennings was not allowed to perform at the Grand Ol' Opry because his band had a drummer with a drumset!
I freakin' could not believe that after I first heard that story.

[Dont call me Shirley]

26. These billionaires all suffer from severe mental and emotional illness, Sociopathy/Psychopathy.

[RobertEarl]

28. Sick folks, eh?

Good thing they don't try to run the world, or nothing.

'Cuz if they did the world would be pretty messed up with pollution everywhere, dead and dying wildlife, and all that.

Yep, thank goodness they are happy with just having all that cash and not bothering to run the planet. That would be real bad news.

[Dont call me Shirley]

41. Sociopaths are highly functioning people often charming and able to delegate authority.

They seek positions of power. Sadly, they have been ruling the world since the beginning of war.

And yeah, they are destroying this plant. And have set up a human social economic system which is insane.

[Duer 157099]

31. That floating castle thing may not be such a bad idea

Two thoughts:

1) all those billionaires in one place
2) Titanic

[LongTomH]

53. My first thought is: Pirate submarines

With torpedoes, of course!!!!!

[hifiguy]

54. Shiver me timbers,

that be an excellent plan!!

[pansypoo53219]

36. time to kill the greenspan FICA CAP NOW, they can fucking pay SOMETHING.

[woo me with science]

39. Hope and Change!

[Oilwellian]

44. Kick n/t

[librechik]

47. I wonder what the graph will look like after 100 more years of this

cuz I don't see anything coming down the pike to stop it, except the worst things that nobody would ever wish for, even to get rid of those parasites.

[woo me with science]

49. United States of Oligarchy,

diligently represented by both parties.

[hifiguy]

51. This is probably a significant underestimate.

I have seen unconfirmed but plausible reports that the worldwide 1% has literally tens of trillions deeply stashed around the world doing absolutely nothing. Time for the National Razor to get to work.

[LongTomH]

55. ".....doing absolutely nothing" is too right!

When we had top marginal rates of 91% (FDR, Truman, Ike) or 70% under JFK, we provided jobs and infrastructure:

• Rural electrification and the Tennessee Valley Authority
  
• Many of the public libraries in small town across the US
  
• The Interstate Highway System (under Ike)
  
• The Apollo program that put Americans on the moon
  
• The War on Poverty (Which WORKED despite what the conservative claim)

Since Ronnie Raygun slashed the top rates, our infrastructure has been collapsing, the War on Poverty is a memory, and our space program is on a declining curve of achievement.

[notadmblnd]

52. I'm sure that if you ask them, they'll tell you that they need more.

smh.

[woo me with science]

56. Bipartisan oligarchy. Bipartisan corruption.

[Ichingcarpenter]

62. Since I have you on ignore

I couldn't read the article or the post.
But I guess it was a good one.