Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/28/2007 9:10:49 PM
From: andiron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

of total US household wealth of ~60 trillion, how much do you think is due to asset inflation..I think realistically it is ~30 T w/ realestate dropping from 20 to 10 T shortly...goodness gracious.

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/29/2007 1:06:35 AM
From: arun gera	Respond to of 110194

Grace, Here is another richness test. What is the ratio of American Household's net worth divided by Average Household's annual income? My guess it is a number between 2 and 3. That is not so great compared to residents of many other countries. -Arun >It was a flip remark, I apologise if you took it to heart. I just couldn't believe someone on a financial board was asking me for proof that Americans have high net worth (relative to the world). It did at least get you to do some investigation.>

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/29/2007 9:57:26 AM
From: forceOfHabit	Respond to of 110194

Grace, It was a flip remark, I apologise if you took it to heart...It did at least get you to do some investigation. So your goal in posting is to make flippant assertions, so patently false they induce incredulous readers to spend all of 5 minutes "investigating" them to detail their absurdity? OK, whatever. I just couldn't believe someone on a financial board was asking me for proof that Americans have high net worth (relative to the world). Should have gone with your instincts: no one was asking for any such thing. Here read the study yourself, my figures are the exchange rate figures from Table 10a pg47....if you need to feel poorer you can use the PPP figures from Table 11a on pg49: wider.unu.edu. An excellent reference, thanks for providing it. So presumably we have both learned your original estimate Having a net worth of $5,000 puts you ahead of 98% of the world's population. was way off? (By more than a factor of 30; in fact, according to your source, not even a net worth of $150,000 would accomplish this.) I think you will find that my original statement stands that Americans have not hurt their net worth by being cash flow oriented. In the first place, that was not your original statement. It was: Yes, they do [Americans approach life as a cash flow proposition] and being cash flow oriented has given them a very high average net worth in comparison to the rest of the world. Simply, your original statement is that being cash flow oriented has caused Americans' relatively high average net worth. Your recent (re)statement is that being cash flow oriented has not harmed Americans' (implicitly: pre-existing) high net worth. In any case, since you offer no support for either statement, I think I'll just ignore them as more flippant remarks intended to "get [me] to investigate". No thanks, its not that important to me. This exchange has helped me form an opinion on how much weight to give your "facts", how seriously to consider your "insights", and how much time to spend reading your posts. Best of luck with, ummm, well whatever it is you do. foh

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/29/2007 10:08:54 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Grace: Look at the distribution of wealth within America if you really want to see what is going on -- roughly 70% of the wealth in America is in the hands of the top 10% of the population -- the rest is divided among the next 90%. With a distribution like that you are going to have some people doing just great while most people are running hard just to stand still, and with no wealth. I would be willing to bet that the "average" resident in Shanghai probably has a higher net worth than half of the American population. Quoted from page 21 of the report you cite: <Table 9 shows that wealth concentration varies significantly across countries, but is generally very high. Comparisons of wealth inequality often focus attention on the share of the top 1 per cent. That statistic is only reported for 12 countries, a list that excludes China, Germany, and the Nordic countries apart from Denmark. Estimated shares of the top 1 per cent range from 10.4 per cent in Ireland to 34.8 per cent in Switzerland, with the USA towards the top end of this range at 32.7 per cent. (The sampling frame for the US survey excludes the Forbes 400 richest families; adding them would raise the share of the top 1 per cent by about two percentage points. See Kennickell, 2003, p. 3.) The share of the top 10 per cent, which is available for all 20 countries, ranges from 41.4 per cent in China to 69.8 per cent in the USA.>

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/29/2007 10:30:36 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Half the US population have a total of 2.8 percent of the wealth in America -- as per Table 9. If this is true, then half of America basically does not have a net worth. For them to know that the top 10% are having the time of thier lives is small consolation.

To: GraceZ who wrote (78245)	1/29/2007 10:33:48 PM
From: Fiscally Conservative	Respond to of 110194

Grace: That is simply amazing. "The actual figures are thus, according to this study published Dec 2006 The World Distribution of Household Wealth James B. Davies, Susanna Sandstrom, Anthony Shorrocks, and Edward N. Wolff conducted with 2000 figures: According to the study, net worth above $6318 puts you in a position better off than 70% of the world. A net worth above $14,169 puts you in a position of being better off than 80% of the world's population. A net worth at or above $61,041 puts you in the top 10% A net worth at or above $514.5k puts you in the top 1%." This puts everything in proper perspective,at least for me. We have much to be thankful for.