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Wealth Of Most Americans Down 55% Since Recession
CBSNews.com ^ | June 2, 2013 | Constantine Von Hoffman

Posted on 06/02/2013 11:25:05 AM PDT by Biggirl

(MoneyWatch) Increasing housing prices and the stock market''s posting all-time highs haven't helped the plight most Americans. The average U.S. household has recovered only 45 percent of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; incomes; money
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1 posted on 06/02/2013 11:25:05 AM PDT by Biggirl
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To: Biggirl
Stupid CBS. The headline doesn't match the article. Only recovering 45% of your loss is not the same as losing 55% (unless the baseline was losing everything in the recession).

For example, if you start at 100, drop to 80 and then rise back to 89 you are down 11% but have recovered 45% of what you lost.

2 posted on 06/02/2013 11:29:30 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
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To: KarlInOhio

Elite liberals at the IRS are doing better. So are all the liberal trolls in Washington DC. DC’s zip codes are among the highest when it comes in income and raises...

Fun for those supporting kids in college and parents...

Liberals are such liars... and jerks.


3 posted on 06/02/2013 11:33:41 AM PDT by GOPJ (Swedes bring their cars..savages their flames..burning cars a metaphor. D. Greenfield)
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To: Biggirl

The MSM will report on the poor economic conditions but never connect the dots to the Democrats and Obama. Doublethink.


4 posted on 06/02/2013 11:35:11 AM PDT by Spok (Gun control is punishing the innocent for the acts of the guilty.)
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To: KarlInOhio

Math challenged. Especially since much of that original “wealth” never existed in reality, but was part of the housing bubble.


5 posted on 06/02/2013 11:44:06 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Biggirl
Interesting word problem here. Let's designate a moment in time before the recession as tbr, and the moment the recession ended, back in the summer of 2009 (I suppose) as ter; and let's represent "now" as tcur.

If my wealth was $100 at tbr, and it fell to $50 at ter, I lost 50% of my wealth during the recession. If my wealth is now $72.50, I would have recovered 45% of the "wealth I lost during the recession."

According to Constantine Von Hoffman, $72.50 is "down 55%" from $100, when - in fact - it is "down 27.5%" from $100, exactly half of what Ms/Mr Von Hoffman asserted.

The magnitude of this error gives us a hint as to the thinking of Ms/Mr Von Hoffman.

If my W(tbr) had been $100, and my W(ter) had equaled $0 - meaning I lost every penny during the recession - and I had then proceeded to rebuild my wealth over the four years since the miracle recover of 2009, getting back to $45 in the black today... my W(tcur) would be $45, which is "down 55%" from the wealth I enjoyed before the recession.

Thus, we see that - in order for the headline of this story to be true - "Most Americans" would have to have lost everything during the last recession, and, consequently, have become paupers.

6 posted on 06/02/2013 11:45:45 AM PDT by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: Biggirl

Darn those Republicans in the House!!!!


7 posted on 06/02/2013 11:49:36 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: KarlInOhio
Another factor is the loss in interest over these years. Assume someone should, in anything near a healthy economy, be earning at least 4% interest on savings. After six years, with compounding, that would increase by over 25% those savings. Also there's the money that didn't get added to savings while wealth was decreasing.

Let's say someone had $100,000 six years ago and planned to save $5000 a year. The principal before interest would now be $130,000 and with interest well over $155,000. Instead, it's $89,000 according to this article. Since my numbers are really conservative, it's safe to say the "average" (whatever that is) saver doesn't have much more than half of what they should have, because of the recession. For anyone over 50, it'll be just about impossible to catch up. For anyone under 50, most can't even get started saving.

I retired young and planned to live conservatively, assuming at least 4% interest on savings (low-balling by what rates were). I've stayed out of my minimal savings by working enough part time to generate what interest should've been. I'm going to have to stop that soon....don't want it draining my health and aging me. I used to make some money in the stock market by understanding the growth and potential of small cap companies...there hasn't been much of that with the recession.

What I'm saying is I'm pretty good with finances and fortunate enough to have had easily available part-time work. I just don't know how most people even survive, and how they'll ever recover. I can only conclude that it's been a deliberate plan to destroy a financially comfortable middle class.

8 posted on 06/02/2013 11:50:11 AM PDT by grania
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To: KarlInOhio

KarlInOhio, you know they are using the Louis Farakan math made easy lesson plan. Come on, have a heart.

BTW: You’re spot on.


9 posted on 06/02/2013 11:52:40 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Funny thing happened on the way to the Constitution burning, Lefties rights were violated...)
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To: Biggirl

Thank God for the California divorce courts giving away all my money and equity to my waiter chasing ex-wife. She laughed in my face when she walked out of courtroom with most of my hard earned real estate in 2006 and I roared when they almost all went into foreclosure in 2009.Karma


10 posted on 06/02/2013 11:59:54 AM PDT by Cyman
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To: Biggirl
Funny old CBS loves to live in a world of its own.  From the article:

The average U.S. household has recovered only 45 percent of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Anyone can go directly to stloisfed.org, divide total private net worth by the number of households from census.gov, and find out that average household wealth is down only three percent from the '07 all time high.  We'll see what the new numbers say --the next quarterly levels come out later this week.

11 posted on 06/02/2013 12:08:13 PM PDT by expat_panama
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To: Biggirl

Heck of a job, Bennie.

Because of Bernanke printing trillions in funny money, citizens have seen their shrinking dollars buy less food and fuel than ever, though the phony inflation numbers exclude food and fuel, our most basic necessities. With two generations being too poor to put away money for retirement and Social Security being cut by 20-25% in 20 years, this country will be going down the same disastrous hole that Greece is in now.


12 posted on 06/02/2013 12:12:19 PM PDT by txrefugee
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To: Sherman Logan
Great point.

Remove ridiculously inflated home values from the mix and this sort of article becomes silly.

These statistics are completely misleading because a disproportionate number of Americans have a huge chunk of their net worth tied up in an "asset" that is highly illiquid and whose changes in values have little or no impact on their lives. Supposed I bought a home in 1970 for $50,000 and watched it escalate in value to $600,000 in 2008. If the collapse of the real estate market drove the value down to $400,000 by 2012, this would appear to be a $200,000 "loss" on paper between 2008 and 2012 -- even though: (1) I never bought the home for $600,000 or sold it for $400,000; and (2) it's still worth 8x greater than what I paid for it.

13 posted on 06/02/2013 12:18:54 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I am the master of my fate ... I am the captain of my soul.")
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To: KarlInOhio
Stupid CBS. The headline doesn't match the article. Only recovering 45% of your loss is not the same as losing 55%...

--but stupid CBS even got that part wrong.  Here are the actual Fed & Census numbers:

  total net worth ($M) households (M) average household networth
peak mid 2007 $67,413,090 110 $612,023
bottom 2009 $51,408,620 111 $464,067
now $66,071,700 112 $590,884

Average households dropped $148K and got back $127K.  Even with parsing words we've recovered 86%.

14 posted on 06/02/2013 12:25:35 PM PDT by expat_panama
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To: Alberta's Child

Right. It’s like taking $1000 to Vegas, getting it up to $5000 and then losing all but $500.

Did I lose $500 or $4500?


15 posted on 06/02/2013 12:28:34 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: expat_panama
Were they talking about mean or median? Average household could mean either in the sloppy language of the media.
16 posted on 06/02/2013 12:29:41 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
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To: Biggirl

Obama’s plan is working.


17 posted on 06/02/2013 12:29:42 PM PDT by pallis
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To: Biggirl
On top of all this the spending power of the working classes has been curtailed by linking ‘cost of living raises’ to the ersatz inflation index put out by our government that doesn't take into account food nor energy, the two biggest items in a normal household budget.
18 posted on 06/02/2013 12:30:13 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah, so shall it be again,")
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To: Biggirl

“Wealth Of Most Americans Down 55% Since Recession”

His domestic policy is working as it looks like we’re becoming more equal with other countries and that’s only “fair”.


19 posted on 06/02/2013 1:00:39 PM PDT by bronxville (Margaret Sanger - “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,Â)
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To: Alberta's Child

You have to look at what it is listed on the tax roles.

If it is listed at $600,000 on the tax role and you are having to pay the taxes as if it’s worth $600,000 but you can only get $400,000, you are being taxed for $200,000 that no longer exist.

It’s still just paper, but you are still down.


20 posted on 06/02/2013 1:01:51 PM PDT by IMR 4350
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