An Investment Manager's 2014 Update on the Top 1%

The following analysis of the increasingly rapid way in which wealth and income are flowing to the top 0.5% in America since 2011 is an update of a document that a well-placed member of the sprawling financial services industry, whom I refer to simply as "the investment manager," wrote for WhoRulesAmerica.net in mid-2011; it was followed by an addendum addressed to critics in January 2012. You may want to view the original document before reading this update. This investment manger writes from the perspective of someone who is concerned with ensuring high long-term incomes for her/his clients when they retire. These clients include the successful physicians and other highly-paid professionals in the bottom half of the top 1%, as well2009, stimulating speculation and Wall Street profits — while punishing conservative investors and savers with record low interest rates. The US government's bail-out programs, student and car loan subsidies, state support, and countless other expenditures have cost future taxpayers around $7 trillion. Much of this money has already been spent; at best, it created anemic economic growth on Main Street, while greatly helping Wall Street and masking a weak underlying recovery in the US economy.

The years 2009-2012 saw an enormous transfer of wealth upwards to the top 1% and, particularly, the top 0.1%. According to economists working with Census data at the Pew Foundation, from 2009 through 2011 (the latest available data), the net worth of the top 7% gained 28% while the bottom 93% dropped 4%. These