Number Of Millionaires Grew Amid Recession

EW YORK (Reuters) - The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades.

A stock market rebound helped the world's ranks of millionaires climb 17 percent to 10 million, while their collective wealth surged 19 percent to $39 trillion, nearly recouping losses from the financial crisis, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Capgemini world wealth report.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[HouseProletariat]

10:45 PM on 06/26/2010

And people wonder why the G20 protesters are so angry.

[JBS]

06:15 PM on 06/26/2010

Why am I not surprised?

[plausibleD]

03:24 AM on 06/26/2010

"In North America, the ranks of the rich rose 17 percent and their wealth grew 18 percent to $10.7 trillion."

Interesting. The national debt is around 13 trillion and the millionaires alone (not the "half-millionaires mind you) have 10.7 trillion in wealth... interesting...
Who should pay off our national debt again? Oh that's right its supposed to be our children...

[pachel]

05:03 PM on 06/27/2010

No our grandchildren, pay attention

[4Tees]

12:36 AM on 06/26/2010

As the rich get richer more wealth is hoarded and taken out of the productive economy. Contrary to the claims of so many highly biased "experts", hoarded wealth in the hands of a few is not good for investment; in fact is is the surest way to kill an economy. Only when the majority of wealth is continuously recirculated in a productive manner can an economy grow or even be sustainable, and this productive recirculation is optimized when the wealth of a society is distributed far more evenly than it is today.

[liberalissima]

08:30 PM on 06/25/2010

Well, of course it would! It is my conviction that not only would probably most super rich benefit from recessions and even depressions because as prices fall, their humongous wealth allows them to buy, buy, buy while prices are low, and then sell when they rise sufficiently, thus earning them greatly increased profits -- but also perhaps because the incredibly rich, who really run the country and the world might actually create recessions exactly for that reason. The lesser rich, as in the weaker in animal herds, fall by the wayside while those elite rich, as the article mentions, simply get richer. That is fundamentally how the whole system of free market capitalism works, is it not?

[pachel]

05:00 PM on 06/27/2010

You are so fanned

[bynddrvn5]

07:52 PM on 06/25/2010

Hard to believe in a country where you can get a Payday loan at 400+% interest and Wall Street can willingly lie to investors. Yet, a "regular" person will be thrown into jail over a minor debt issue. Debtor prison can't be too much farther behind.

[pachel]

05:04 PM on 06/27/2010

Start with Education.

[Carl Caroli]

06:32 PM on 06/25/2010

No shortage of rich folks, huh? They must be taking all the good jobs...

[pachel]

05:00 PM on 06/27/2010

For them and their friends..

[LynnW49]

06:27 PM on 06/25/2010

"The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades."

Do ya think? Must have taken hours of intense research to come to that conclusion.

[trobts]

11:01 AM on 06/25/2010

....and all is well in America! NOT!

[pachel]

05:05 PM on 06/27/2010

For some

[Janine547]

07:28 AM on 06/25/2010

This is HP's attempt at another "class evny" story about how the rich are bad. If you have money and live a comfortable lifestyle you are the devil.

[castlerider]

08:22 AM on 06/25/2010

Oh, boo hoo.. Are you another poor millionaire?

Hey bright eyes, what they're highlighting here is the much larger then you (or anyone) fact that much of the struggles that so many more people are finding themselves confronting is a subliminal result of why economies very often tumble... Because one area of the economic spectrum is not there to hold it up, but are left in a position where they actually benefit ... Sort of like when everyone must leave a parking lot, but the few that remain get the best places to park when the show starts again, since they still have a ticket.

A real good reason why when the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire later this year, they will hopefully not be re-instituted. The wealthy can handle holding up their end just fine...

[rhymney]

10:38 AM on 06/25/2010

This article isn't a class envy story, the comment section is. The story is actually an optimistic one. The Dow Jones Ind. Index was at 14,198 in Oct. 2007. It had fallen to 6,547 by March of 2009 and is at 10,126 today. the recovery of millionaires can mostly be attributed to this price action. So down roughly 50%, up about 50% but overall still down 28%. However the stock market is a leading economic indicator. Its rise precedes economic recoveries. I think the article is basically saying, things are starting to get better, it just will take awhile for us to see it.

[picaman]

01:14 AM on 06/25/2010

And the number of first time applications for state or federal assistance?

Every 1 millionaire = ? impoverished people

[pachel]

05:06 PM on 06/27/2010

Without federal assistance our economy would sink deeper...with federal assistance our econmy would shrink.

[rhymney]

10:54 PM on 06/24/2010

The article points out that these same people lost even more money in 2008-2009 recession than they have recovered. The gains were from the stock market coming back, but if you look at a chart of the indexes, investors have had a lost decade. That said, corporate executives still rake it in in earnings, despite whatever the market does.

[joebaggadonuts]

09:20 PM on 06/24/2010

Makes it almost seem as if they wanted this to happen?

[LynnW49]

06:28 PM on 06/25/2010

Indeed.

[pachel]

05:02 PM on 06/27/2010

This is how history repeats itself...

[rbchilds]

06:09 PM on 06/24/2010

Although I am not rich, I have made loads of money during this recession/depression/altered reality state. Just the other night, while playing Monopoly with my granddaughter I bought Park Place and Boardwalk. I ended up with like a gazillion dollars, I wonder if the Super Market will accept them, they should be worth their equivalent in green backs.

[LynnW49]

06:30 PM on 06/25/2010

Awesome. We know who to call when things get so tough we need to rent a room on Baltic Avenue.

[edwoodjr]

05:18 PM on 06/24/2010

Why is this a surprise? Part of the cause of the recesion was the transfer of a great deal of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the upper middle and already rich classes through shoddy, unethical dealings.

[trobts]

11:03 AM on 06/25/2010

I certainly hope it comes to bite (the greedy wealthy) in the arse! It can't come soon enough for me and the poor souls that are unemployed (through no fault of their own).

[pachel]

05:03 PM on 06/27/2010

Don't wait for karma..