Key Points

  • The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44.6 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter.
  • All of the gains came from stock holdings thanks to an end-of-year rally.
  • Economists say the rising stock market is giving an added boost to consumer spending through what is known as the “wealth effect.”

The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44.6 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, as an end-of-year stock rally lifted their portfolios, according to new data from the Federal Reserve.

The total net worth of the top 1%, defined by the Fed as those with wealth over $11 million, increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter. All of the gains came from their stock holdings. The value of corporate equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 1% surged to $19.7 trillion from $17.65 trillion the previous quarter.

While their real estate values went up slightly, the value of their privately held businesses declined, essentially canceling out all other gains outside of stocks.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    tHe EcOnOmY iS dOiNg GrEaT

    No, the stock market is doing great at making the rich richer. The economy is fucking broken. On purpose. The crushing of the working class to enrich the 1% is capitalism working exactly as intended.

    • m13@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I’m sure the wealth will trickle down any moment now. Been waiting about 40 years now. Must be happening soon.

      • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        It only trickles down in blood, dear. And only that you shed. Kill your masters, kill for your masters, or die for them. Those are your options.

    • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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      7 months ago

      Some much computational energy and human talent is wasted on finance coming up with imaginary and derivative products that do nothing but make rich people richer.

      It’s nothing but speculative wealth that doesn’t actually exist, but the federal government prints bonds to underwrite this garbage. Then morons talk about how the feds print money that cause inflation, but are too stupid to realize why.

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      And no one will listen to you because America has a stake in the stupidity of its people.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Thank you! Economy is just who does what work and how we hand out the fruits. Money is just a bullshit abstraction they introduced.

      We need to reset ownership. If it doesn’t work for you, burn it down. Its what they do.

  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    We just shouldn’t allow individuals to have over a billion dollars, just 100% tax on anything over a billion when combined assets exceed that number. Both because there’s no good reason for any one person to have that much money and because as pathetic as American campaign finance laws are it’s a legit national security risk for someone to have that kind of money to throw at their pet causes.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I would lower that to $100 million. I don’t think there’s even a good reason for anyone to be that rich, but if we’re going for a crazy upper limit…

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      If you had a billion dollars and never earned a penny more, you would actually find it hard to spend it all before you die. It could probably fully support several generations of your family. I’m totally fine with saying, “Congratulations! You maxed out the money counter in the game of Life!”

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Make it a million, with an M. Adjusted for inflation after inception, and including stock income. I’ve been saying it for years. Good luck convincing those in power who it would actually effect to enact it though.

      • force@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It is possible to become a millionaire without exploiting others in the same way the 1% do. I would find a limit somewhere in the tens of millions more reasonable

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It should be trickling down any second now. Meanwhile, the Kellogg’s CEO is telling people to eat cereal for dinner because they are poor.

    • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Source

      “Let them eat Corn Flakes” appears to be Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick’s advice to cash-strapped shoppers who are spending the highest portion of their income on food than at any point in the last 30 years.

      In an interview with CNBC last week, WK Kellogg CEO Pilnick said the company was advertising cereal for dinner to consumers looking for more affordable options. “Give chicken the night off,” the ad’s cheery tagline reads.

      “The cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,” Pilnick said. “If you think about the cost of cereal for a family versus what they might otherwise do, that’s going to be much more affordable.”

      That same guy, further known as “Asshat”, made more than $4M in 2023. What a fuckin asshole.

      I wonder what his advice would be on other topics.
      “Man, I wish I could buy a house so that I have a stable living condition and a roof over my head.”
      Asshat: “A cardboard box on the street seems to be trendy way to be thrifty and obtain all you’re asking for! I sell them, give me money!”

      Next time he complains about something, we should give him similar advice.
      Asshat: “Man, I wish I could own a yacht like the other rich guys in my golf club.”
      Us: “This rowboat seems to be trendy way to be thrifty and obtain all you’re asking for! I sell them, give me money!”

  • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Nice! Good job all. It sucks that our wealth is being harvested by a few psychos but dam we are working our asses off and generating vasts amounts of it. For someone else but still damn, super impressed.

  • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    And here I am terrified to spend a penny.

    Maybe the billionaires will buy each other’s shit and we can all just die already and let them play with resources without us.

    I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Going to bed for my back to back 16 hour shifts over the next two days.

    Good night fellow poors.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      Be the change you want to see in the world

      But it won’t accomplish much, we have terrorism (or freedom fighters depending on your side) as is and the ruling class isn’t swayed

      • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        “Terrorism” is a nonsense word. State terror forces who exist to brutalize and terrorize populations into stillness so much like the fucking grave are never terrorists. If I post myself consentually making out with another adult I find hot, I’d be one in like fifteen time zones.

        Its nonsense, and if we want to go to the ‘real’ definition of terrorism; using violence to scare people into your agenda; that’s literally all a state is.

        Not raking an intentional editorial position on any kind of violence here; just that innocence is no protection, and truth is no defense.

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Terrorism is the use of force to achieve a political objective by a group of people not internationally recognized as a state

                • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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                  7 months ago

                  I already answered that the first time you said it

                  Because when the states came up with the rules they decided to give them exclusions

                  For states the general equivalent is war crime and the resolution is that the common person that belongs to the group isn’t punished as much as the leaders or people who commit those actions

    • Bipta@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      It’s too late. We need to be even more aggressive now to correct the egregious imbalance.

    • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Sadly that wouldn’t have an impact on this. This is just unrealized stock wealth until it’s actually sold afaik. I think we shouldn’t allow people to take out loans on their stock holdings though. Or however it is people like Elon and such get their low risk loans to play with while keeping their money in the market.

      • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The market adjusts.

        When Elon was forced to buy Twitter, all those loans came due as Elon Musk had to sell TSLA stock to pay for capital gains, then sell TSLA stock to bring down his margin and stay good, then finally sell TSLA stock to pay for Twitter.

        There’s no free lunch anywhere. Elon Musk is the kind of guy who takes insane risks (and honestly, its beginning to look like its all collapsing). Yes, USA has a lot of opporunity and we provide a lot of loans for dumbasses to hurt themselves, but that’s a good thing in the great scheme of things. Eventually, it always collapses. It does take 10 to 20 years sometimes for the bad effects to build up though.

        Or however it is people like Elon and such get their low risk loans to play with while keeping their money in the market.

        That was interest-rate policy. Today loans are 10%+ for such effects. Our mistake was keeping rates too low for so long. But that’s different than our tax policy.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    … But it’s the poor mother pulling herself up by the bootstraps, making the perilous journey north to work comparatively-shit jobs to help give her kids a brighter future that is apparently the problem to righties — who, by the way — we all benefit from their cheap labor in the first place…

    $20 spent to a person making 100,000/year…

    … Is the same as a single-billionaire spending $200,000.