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Richest 1% in U.S. surpassing wealth of middle class: Report

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The U.S. economic expansion has enriched the top one percent of American households to the point that they now control more than half of the equity in the U.S. stock market, according to a new government study.

The very richest Americans have enjoyed huge returns over the past decade since the great recession, with assets of about $35 trillion in the second quarter, nearly as much as the $37 trillion held by the middle and upper-middle classes in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported, citing date from the Federal Reserve.

The rich pump money into stocks and use the interest rates from the stock market to invest money into exclusive hedge funds and private equity funds, said Stephen Colavito, chief market strategist at Lakeview Capital Partners in Atlanta.

“Many such funds require $5 million of investments to qualify,” Mr. Colavito told Bloomberg News. “The wealthier that the wealthy get, the more opportunity they have,” he said.

The one-percenters will soon surpass the middle and upper-middle classes, Bloomberg News said in an analysis. Household wealth in the upper-most bracket grew by $650 billion in the second quarter of 2019, while Americans in the 50th to 90th percentiles saw a $210 billion gain.

The top one percent of U.S. taxpayers had incomes starting at $515,371 in 2017, according to the latest data by the Internal Revenue Service.

The bottom 50 percent of American households hold just six percent of assets in the U.S. (PressTV.com)