Thursday, October 06, 2011

THE CLASS DIVIDE

The severe economic slump in the USA has led to mounting unemployment and mortgage re-possessions but the billionaires are still doing very nicely. "Despite the stalled economy, the nation's wealthiest are worth a combined $1.53 trillion, nearly equivalent to the GDP of our neighbor Canada. Their total wealth is up 12% in the year through August 26, when we took a snapshot of everyone's net worth, meaning these affluent folks did slightly better than the markets; the S&P 500, for instance, was up 10% in that time." (Yahoo Finance, 21 September) The figures compiled by Forbes.com show that Bill Gates is worth $59 billion and Warren Beattie $39 billion. RD

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