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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Family net worth plummets nearly 40%
Monday, June 11, 2012 3:50 PM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote: The average American family's net worth dropped almost 40% between 2007 and 2010, according to a triennial study released Monday by the Federal Reserve. The stunning drop in median net worth -- from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 -- indicates that the recession wiped away 18 years of savings and investment by families. The Fed study, called the Survey of Consumer Finances, offers details on savings, income, debt, as well as assets and investments owned by American families. The results, though more than a year old, highlight the marked deterioration in household finances brought on by the financial crisis and ensuing recession. Much of the drop off in net worth -- to levels not seen since 1992 -- was attributable to a sharp decline in housing values, the Fed said. In 2007, the median homeowner had a net worth of $246,000. Three years later that number had fallen to $174,500, a loss of more than $70,000 on average. Families who reside in the west and south, where the housing market was especially hard hit by the recession, were worse off than their peers in the rest of the country. Making matters worse, income levels also fell during the tumultuous three-year period, with median pre-tax income falling 7.7% as earnings from capital gains all but disappeared. The loss of income and net worth appears to have impacted savings rates, as the number of Americans who said they saved in the prior year fell from 56.4% in 2007 to 52.0% in 2010 -- the lowest level recorded since the early 1990s. http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/11/news/economy/fed-family-net-worth/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 3:37 AM
CAVETROLL
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 4:22 AM
ANTHONYT
Freedom is Important because People are Important
Quote:I wonder what the net worth of the ultra-rich did during the same time?
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 4:36 AM
STORYMARK
Quote:Originally posted by CaveTroll: Over 3 years in and it's STILL Bush's fault?!?!?!?! When does your messiah start taking responsibility. So far he's all credit, no blame. Or, I should say, all brag.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:29 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 5:16 PM
6IXSTRINGJACK
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: You expected otherwise, Mark? Good old blind partisanship, it sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil of the right...seems like ESPECIALLY when THEIR "messiahs" are wrong. Knee-jerk is so right on; they don't even look at what they're reading, they just jerk (does that make them jerks?). (Note I put "messiah" in quotes, meaning "not really", as opposed to our righties who keep calling Obama "our" messiah, god, or all the other things I can't remember.) ] Hehe... My personal Messiahs are simply temporary transitional forms of perfection and beauty... fleeting moments over the decades and centuries like Cleopatra or Marilyn Monroe, or Britney Spears 8 years ago, or Megan Fox 4 years ago, or Selena Gomez today, and whatever characiture of pop-worship makes the mainstream tomorrow.... When it comes to politics, I hang my coat and leave my personal bullshit at the door. Obama is the worst president we've ever had. GBW was the worst before, and easily comes in a close second today. As "bad" as he was, Nixon is only wishes he could be the "Wii" to the PS3 and XBox 360 today to those two traitors. Look in the mirror though..... I've personally thrived in the "recession" that many lefties are claiming is a depression. When I was laid off in late 2009, my avergage credit score was 745. Today, my credit score is 790. I've only made barely 1,000 bucks this year that wasn't retirement withdrawls, and I begin my new job next week. I've paid over 4k in taxes this year.... over 4 times what I've made so far, and I'm not on government aid. I'm lucky i'm not a high school drop out, although in this job market, I may as well be. They'll give any idiot with paper for an associates or bachleors degree a foot in the door before they give it to me, even given my experience.... Companies are panicking.... Good thing I don't have to.... I'll make my $208 bucks a week before taxes and smile.... Sure, it's less than what I need to keep this ship sailing, but without it, I'd be broke by mid-November this year. I can stay afloat for at least 4 more years with this job. If I get a woman here making just what I do, we'd have enough to take an extravagant vacation every year. Stop blaming the administrations.... (which sounds funny since I hate Obama) It's not Obama's fault.... It wasn't GWB's fault.... It was YOUR fault... "Take my advice... do as I say.... save a little money for a rainy day" A quote from an old Disney cartoon that stuck with me for decades on a holiday where we were able to see Disney Channel cartoons for free even though my parents didn't pay extra for it. I have ZERO pity for "broke" people today... especially those who still somehow have enough to pay fifty bucks a month for internet access. Keep complaining.... all the way to Chapter 13, since that's all you'll probably qualify for.... You're one of the many reasons I don't feel bad that I put over 14 K in the bank towards my house while I was on unemployment.... It's time for you to dismount your high horses, and try to make friends with those who are on the bottom that care enough to make a difference.... I can't advise a better place for you to meet these people or friends of these people outside of the RWED of FFF.... that's why we're tagged with Red Flags....
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 5:31 PM
1KIKI
Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 5:43 PM
Quote:Originally posted by 1kiki: 6ix Do you suppose you could say what you mean in a well-chosen few words? Like "I, I, I, I, me, I, I, wonderful, I ... and everyone else is a loser." It would really cut down on the scrolling I have to do, and anyone who reads your posts would get your meaning in a much much shorter time.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 5:55 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:04 PM
Quote:Originally posted by 1kiki: well, I'm not drowning in debt - in fact, I have none. Which makes you demeaning people you know nothing about - for example demeaning me over this supposed debt you presumed I have - look petty and foolish. Just saying you could give your ego a rest, and give the rest of us a break from your endless and very lengthy hosannas to yourself. BTW - should the economy crash - and I mean REALLY crash in a way we haven't yet seen - you'll find out just how tissue thin your self-reliance is.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:15 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:23 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:51 PM
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 7:02 PM
Quote:And as for the Amish, really, do you think I've never seen the Witness when I was a child? Who do you both really think you're talking to?
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 5:16 AM
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 5:44 AM
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 5:53 AM
Quote:Dont hate me because you're one of the few that agree Niki
Quote:Add President Clinton to the long list of people who deserve a share of the blame for the housing bubble and bust. A recently re-exposed document shows that his administration went to ridiculous lengths to increase the national homeownership rate. It promoted paper-thin downpayments and pushed for ways to get lenders to give mortgage loans to first-time buyers with shaky financing and incomes. It’s clear now that the erosion of lending standards pushed prices up by increasing demand, and later led to waves of defaults by people who never should have bought a home in the first place. President Bush continued the practices because they dovetailed with his Ownership Society goals, and of course Congress was strongly behind the push. But Clinton and his administration must shoulder some of the blame. http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2008/02/clintons_drive.html]
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 4:22 PM
RIONAEIRE
Beir bua agus beannacht
Thursday, June 14, 2012 7:33 AM
Quote:Let's imagine that yesterday there was a front page story in The New York Times that read the following: "The recent economic crisis left the top 1% of Americans in 2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve Monday. "A hypothetical family richer than the median net worth of the top 1% of the nation's families had a net worth of $77.3 million in 2010, compared with $126.4 million in 2007, the Fed said. The crash of the stock market, in addition to the collapse of housing prices in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Upper East Side of New York City, Beverly Hills, Highland Park in Dallas and the North Shore of Chicago, directly accounted for three-quarters of the loss." What do you think the reaction would be to that? The elite would call for the suspension of habeas corpus, the government would call out the National Guard, invade Honduras and the Supreme Court would announce that it is in session 24/7 to take any action deemed necessary to help their friends. The Wall Street Journal would have a black border on the newspaper. The Financial Times would go from pink to gray. CNBC would play funeral music for nine months. Steve Schwarzman would compare it to the H-word. Cable networks would roadblock all coverage. Minimum wage laws would be suspended, the 40-hour work week would be thrown out, perhaps they would even do away with child labor laws to get productivity up so profits could increase to make up for lost revenue. OK, we know that story did not appear in Wednesday's New York Times, and we would certainly agree that a massive loss of wealth in the top 1% would wreak economic havoc on the country. But there was, if anything, a worse story on that front page with only minor variations from our hypothetical scenario. The story said that the recent economic crisis left the average American family in 2010 with no more wealth than in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, reducing their net worth by almost 40%. And the response of the national elite, the people Paul Krugman refers to as "very smart people" or I like to call the "chin-scratchers," was a barely audible whimper. To put it bluntly, the middle class in this country has been screwed, blued and tattooed. Rising health care costs, job insecurity, declining real estate values, massive cuts to public education and public safety (no Mitt, we don't need fewer police officers, we actually need more of them and yes, the federal government has a large hand in this.) It is a depressing state of affairs when about two-thirds of our fellow citizens are caught in an economic trap that is wrecking their lives financially and emotionally. And the reaction to all of this has been limp at best. There is an entire industry devoted to denying that this is even a problem. I read a piece written by Andy Kessler in The Wall Street Journal, stating that thanks to "consumption equality," the wealthy work their 60- to 80-hour weeks inventing things for the masses, but there's not much they can buy with their money that the middle class can't afford. You can only afford a product, because some rich person invented it for the masses, just like they did with smartphones, hard drives and affordable air travel. Who cares if you can't afford to send your children to college or pay for your health insurance premium or what you owe on your house is more than what it's worth? Hey, you can buy them a cell phone, now that they don't cost $4,000, and talk to them as they stand in line for a job interview at McDonald's. Where are our nation's institutions that should be raising holy hell about this? Lets start with my own Catholic Church: They are spending all of their time hunting down masturbators and birth-control takers. Academics: Have you ever heard of the Princeton Center for Middle Class Studies? Not hardly. The press: There is much more coverage on George Zimmerman's wife than on the destruction of the middle class in this country. The lobbyists: Give me a break. When was the last time you heard of a lobbyist for the middle class? The point here is that we are reading the most significant economic story of our time and its effect on the psyche of the people who should know better is minimal. In the words of Warren Buffett, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." The big scandal in America is that our middle class is shrinking, and no one seems to care. Maybe someone somewhere somehow should consider doing something else. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/opinion/carville-middle-class/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 about sums it up, for me.
Thursday, June 14, 2012 7:39 AM
Quote:Was wondering why nobody seemed interested in the fact that family net worth had lessened by nearly 40%.
Thursday, June 14, 2012 8:17 AM
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