New data from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which provide a comprehensive view of American wealth in the first half of this year, also point to significant differences in wealth by race, age and class, Bloomberg said.
–
The wealth of one percent of the richest Americans is now $ 34.2 trillion ($ 791.4 trillion). By contrast, the assets of 50 percent of the poorest, or about 165 million people, amount to only $ 2.08 trillion. This represents 1.9 percent of all household wealth. According to Bloomberg, the value of the assets of the 50 richest is almost two trillion USD and has increased by 339 billion since the beginning of the year.
–
The Fed estimates that ten percent of the richest households own 69 percent of the country’s wealth, or $ 77.3 trillion. At the end of the 1980s, their share of total wealth was 60.9 percent. One percent of the richest own 30.5 percent of the property, up from 23.7 percent in 1989. On the contrary, the share of the lower 50 percent fell to 1.9 percent from 3.6 percent.
–
Covid-19 has deepened inequality in the United States. Job losses mainly affected workers in low-wage services, and the non-white population was disproportionately infected with coronavirus. Many upper-middle-class people can then work from home and watch their retirement accounts grow after the US Treasury Department and the Fed begin pumping financial aid into the economy and markets.
—
