Midas Touch: The Curse of Gold

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Combined wealth of world’s billionaires climbed to USD6.0 trillion in 2016

Legend held that billions of people on Earth died of starvation because the billionaires turned everything into gold, with the masses scavenging the waste left behind…

Background:
The total wealth of the world’s billionaires grew by USD892 billion (17%) from USD5.1 trillion to USD6.0 trillion, and their numbers rose by 145 (10%) to 1,542 in 2016. “This continued the long-term trend of billionaire outperformance that was twice the 8.5% rise in the MSCI AC World Index, and far more than the 5.8% nominal GDP growth figure,” a report said.

[Report prepared by FIRE-EARTH affiliated scientists.]

• Details available via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

 

Rapacious Rich and Pitiful Poor Drifting Further Apart

10% Wealthiest households hold half the total wealth, the bottom 40% have only 3%

The gap between rich and poor has risen to its highest levels since the 1980s, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.

In most countries, the gap between rich and poor is at its highest level since 30 years. Today, in OECD countries [34 nations,] the richest 10% of the population earn 9.6 times the income of the poorest 10%. In the 1980s, this ratio stood at 7:1 rising to 8:1 in the 1990s and 9:1 in the 2000s. In several emerging economies, particularly in Latin America, income inequality has narrowed, but income gaps remain generally higher than in OECD countries. During the crisis, income inequality continued to increase, mainly due to the fall in employment; redistribution through taxes and transfer partly offset inequality. However, at the lower end of the income distribution, real household incomes fell substantially in countries hit hardest by the crisis.
[OECD (2015), In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All, OECD Publishing, Paris.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264235120-en]

The average Gini coefficient across OECD was 0.32, according to the report. The US and UK had high rankings with coefficients of 0.40 and 0.35 respectively. Chile scored highest at 0.50, the most unequal wealth distribution, while Denmark scored the lowest at 0.25, meaning closer to equal income distribution across the 34-nation OECD club.

[The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution, for example, a measure of how well income is distributed across a nation. A coefficient of zero means perfect equality, where all values are the same, e.g., everyone has the same income, while one, or 100%, would mean maximal inequality among values, e.g., only one person has all the income, and all others have nothing.]

Higher wealth inequality limits opportunities

“Wealth is much more concentrated than income,” says OECD. About 10% of wealthiest households in rich countries hold half of total wealth, “the next 50% hold almost the other half, while the 40% least wealthy own little over 3%. At the same time, high levels of indebtedness and/or low asset holdings affect the ability of the lower middle class to undertake investments in human capital or others.”

The report suggests the widening gap in education leads to a less effective workforce in the most unequal countries.

However, Joe Stiglitz of Cloumbia Business School told BBC News that the problem goes beyond lack of training and education.

“What we’ve seen, particularly in the last 15 years, is that even those who are college graduates have seen their incomes stagnate. The real problem is the rules of the game are stacked for the monopolists, the CEOs of corporations.”

“CEOs today get pay that’s roughly 300 times that of ordinary workers – it used to be 20 or 30 times. No increase in productivity justifies this change in relative compensation.”

“Injustice: Why social inequality persists”

According to a report published by a geographer at UK’s Sheffield University, in 2010, “of all the 25 richest countries in the world (excluding very small states), the US and the UK rank as second and fourth most unequal respectively when the annual income of the best-off tenth of their population is compared with that of the poorest tenth.”

Starting with the most unequal, the income ratios of the top five 10% richest to 10% poorest were:

• 17.7 Singapore
• 15.9 US
• 15 Portugal
• 13.8 UK
• 13.4 Israel

And the most equal were:

• 6.9 Germany
• 6.2 Sweden
• 6.1 Norway
• 5.6 Finland
• 4.5 Japan.

Related Links

• 80 richest people wealthier than the bottom half of world population January 19, 2015

Humans Defeated by No. 1 Mortal Enemy

The super rich continue doubling their wealth

• 80 richest people are wealthier than the bottom half of world population.

• The number of richest people in the world has more than doubled since the financial crisis, up from 793 in March 2009 to 1,645 in March 2014. Their  aggregate net worth is $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion just a year ago, according to Forbes.

• No of billionaires in Britain doubles in 5 years, their wealth up 2.2 folds since 2005.

• There is an “unprecedented increase” in rates of severe material deprivation, according to Unicef’s global report.

• More than one in four children in the UK are now living in poverty.

The United States

U.S. has the second highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world, according to a 2013 UNICEF report.

In 2013, about 50 million Americans were living in food insecure homes including 16.7 million children—an all time record.

Australia

One in Six of All Australian Children Live in Poverty

New Zealand

One in four Kiwi children, or more than 265,000, are living in poverty. But the corporate media say New Zealand is the 8th Happiest Country. “[Presumably among those with the highest rates of suicide.]”

Two out of five impoverished kiwi kids live in working families, yet for “each kiwi child in poverty, NZ Govt spends $10,000 (NZ$13,000)  on the military [to stop Ottoman Empire advancing on Otago!]”

The United Kingdom

The richest people in Britain more than doubled their wealth over the last decade, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2015*.

In contrast, 78 per cent of UK teachers surveyed (sample size: 2,452) said they “had seen pupils lacking energy and concentration as a result of eating poorly, 69 per cent had seen pupils coming to school hungry, and 80 per cent had seen pupils attending school in inappropriate winter clothing,” said a report.

The 1,000 wealthiest individuals and families in Britain now have a combined wealth of more than $838 billion (£547.126 billion), according to the list.

The figure has more than doubled since 2005 (£547 billion in 2015 compared with under £250billion in 2014), despite the global economic recession.

The 2015 list includes 117 billionaires, up from 104 last year, and more than twice the number of 53  just five years ago.

A minimum of about $153 million was required to make it into the UK’s top 1,000 richest people list this year [c.f, $23m in 1997,] said the report.

At least 80 of the UK’s wealthiest are based in London, making the capital home to more billionaires than any other city in the world.

In Eat your heart out, Alice!  Fire-Earth said:

The number of richest people in the world has more than doubled since the financial crisis, up from 793 in March 2009 to 1,645 in March 2014. Their  aggregate net worth is $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion just a year ago, according to Forbes.

In Richest one percent to own 50 percent of world’s wealth, Fire-Earth said:

80 richest people are wealthier than the bottom half of world population.

World’s richest 1% owned 48% of global wealth in 2014, with the remaining 52% shared between the other 99% of adults on the planet. “Almost all of that 52% is owned by those included in the richest 20%, leaving just 5.5% for the remaining 80% of people in the world,” says Oxfam, a British-based “anti-poverty”organization, in a new report.

The top 1% are projected to have more than 50% of total global wealth by 2016,according to data collated by Credit Suisse.

Wealth of the 80 richest people in the world has doubled in nominal terms in the 6 year-period between 2009 and 2014, while the wealth of the bottom 50% has decreased over the same period.

These 80 individuals have more wealth than the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of the global population (more than 3.5 billion people).

In 2010, the number of richest individuals who owned same amount of wealth as bottom half of the world’s population was 388.

“Global wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small wealthy elite.  The richest 1% of adults in the world have been increasing their share of total global wealth.” says the Oxfam report.

“The very richest of the top 1%, the billionaires on the Forbes list, have seen their wealth accumulate even faster over this period. In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $1.3tn. By 2014, the 80 people who top the Forbes rich list had a collective wealth of $1.9tn; an increase of $600bn in just 4 years, or 50% in nominal terms. Meanwhile, between 2002 and 2010 the total wealth of the poorest half of the world in current US$ had been increasing more or less at the same rate as that of billionaires; however since 2010, it has been decreasing over this time.”

The number of richest people in the world has more than doubled since the financial crisis, up from 793 in March 2009 to 1,645 in March 2014. Their  aggregate net worth is $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion just a year ago, according to Forbes.

“This group of people is far from being globally representative. Almost 30% of them (492 people) are citizens of the USA,” said Oxfam.

What’s NOT immediately obvious in the Oxfam report is that about 0.00000001 percent of the population, or one in 100 million people, has a  monopoly over the global economic and therefore political power, i.e., absolute power.

[Note: The Sunday Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch.]

 Related Links

• Who made the wonderland so surreal? December 18, 2014
• Eat your heart out, Alice! December 17, 2014
• 10 Worst Corporations Posted on May 11, 2010
• UK Food Poverty Causing Massive Rise in Malnutrition Cases August 23, 2014
• 1 Mn More Brits Bite Poverty, as Govt Spends $12 Billion on Obsolete White Elephant July 3, 2014
• Poverty Spreads among the Exceptional Nation September 18, 2013

Richest one percent to own 50 percent of world’s wealth: Oxfam

Updated January 20, 2015

80 richest people wealthier than the bottom half of world population

World’s richest 1% owned 48% of global wealth in 2014, with the remaining 52% shared between the other 99% of adults on the planet. “Almost all of that 52% is owned by those included in the richest 20%, leaving just 5.5% for the remaining 80% of people in the world,” says Oxfam, a British-based “anti-poverty”organization, in a new report.

Share of global wealth of the top 1% and bottom 99% respectively; Credit Suisse data available 2000–2014. Source: Oxfam report/ WEALTH: HAVING IT ALL AND WANTING MORE

The top 1% are projected to have more than 50% of total global wealth by 2016,according to data collated by Credit Suisse.

Wealth of the 80 richest people in the world has doubled in nominal terms in the 6 year-period between 2009 and 2014, while the wealth of the bottom 50% has decreased over the same period.

These 80 individuals have more wealth than the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of the global population (more than 3.5 billion people).

In 2010, the number of richest individuals who owned same amount of wealth as bottom half of the world’s population was 388.

“Global wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small wealthy elite.  The richest 1% of adults in the world have been increasing their share of total global wealth.” says the report.

Number of billionaires it takes to have accumulated the same amount of wealth as the bottom 50% of the global population.  Source: Oxfam report/ WEALTH: HAVING IT ALL AND WANTING MORE

“The very richest of the top 1%, the billionaires on the Forbes list, have seen their wealth accumulate even faster over this period. In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $1.3tn. By 2014, the 80 people who top the Forbes rich list had a collective wealth of $1.9tn; an increase of $600bn in just 4 years, or 50% in nominal terms. Meanwhile, between 2002 and 2010 the total wealth of the poorest half of the world in current US$ had been increasing more or less at the same rate as that of billionaires; however since 2010, it has been decreasing over this time.”

The number of richest people in the world has more than doubled since the financial crisis, up from 793 in March 2009 to 1,645 in March 2014. Their  aggregate net worth is $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion just a year ago, according to Forbes.

“This group of people is far from being globally representative. Almost 30% of them (492 people) are citizens of the USA,” said Oxfam.

What’s NOT immediately obvious in the Oxfam report is that one percent of a tiny fraction of the world population (about 0.00000001, or one in 100million people) have a monopoly over economic and political power (absolute power).

 Related Links

• Who made the wonderland so surreal? December 18, 2014
• Eat your heart out, Alice! December 17, 2014
• 10 Worst Corporations Posted on May 11, 2010

Why Didn’t China Prevent the Loss of 86,000 Lives?

China Regime: As Evil as Evil Comes!

Are Earthquake Predictions in China Political?

The following excerpts are from an article written by Wu Weilin, Epoch Times Staff [ May 28, 2008 ] Full Article

Was the recent devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China predicted before it struck? Did the Chinese regime ignore earthquake warnings and thereby caused the loss of more than 86,000 lives?

“On July 28, 2006, the Director of the China Earthquake Administration, Chen Jianmin, was speaking on a program of the regime’s mouth piece, China’s Central TV station. He stated with certainty that earthquakes were predictable. But immediately after the recent devastation in Sichuan, Chinese officials claimed that the prediction of earthquakes was a tough task worldwide. Another commentator said that earthquake prediction in China is a political issue.” Said Wu Weilin of Epoch Times.

[Wrapping it up!] Soldiers march to scatter disinfectant in Yingxiu town of Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the earthquake, Sichuan province May 26, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer The image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

What Happened to the Predictions?

“According to Chen, China has been predicting earthquakes since the Xingtai earthquake back in 1966, which killed 8,064 people. ‘Through continuous scientific research and information gained from many actual cases, we can make a prediction on a certain type of earthquake.’ However, after the earthquake in Sichuan took place, Zhang Ziaodong from the China Earthquake Networks Center held a press conference at China’s State Department on May 13. At the conference Zhang denied the quake in Sichuan was predictable and said that predicting earthquakes was a ‘difficult task worldwide.'”

Why did the Chinese media stay quiet about this important issue? “A frontline reporter disclosed that Beijing had sent out rules on reporting the earthquake, ‘To propagate positive, constructive news and forbidding criticism and introspective articles.’ Recently, according to our source, Beijing has officially banned discussing the subject of earthquake prediction in public.”

“However, more and more information has indicated accurate prediction on the quake had been presented to Beijing on many occasions. The communist military had also taken preventative measures based on the predictions.”

Predictions Had Saved Lives Before, Why Not This Time?

“Chen also said during an interview with CCTV two years ago, that following an accurate prediction, a quake that took place in China on February 4, 1975, only took 1,300 lives instead of 100,000. Chen also gave examples from overseas, how predicting earthquakes had cut down the number of deaths – only three died in California in 2003 and 40 in Japan in 2004, two countries where earthquake prediction was released before the event.

“By May 24, 2008, the Sichuan quake was estimated to have killed 60,560, injured 352,290, and 26,221 people were still missing, according to information released from China’s State Department. A Chinese social economist, He Qinglian, commented about the difference in speeches coming out of Beijing about quake prediction before and after Sichuan, ‘In China, earthquake prediction is pure science and earthquake forecasting announcement is pure politics. This is how it works in China, whether in the past or present.‘” [emphasis added.]

Related Links:

• The Anguished Cries of China Quake Nurse
• Chinese paratroopers rescuing survivors or preventing plague?
• How Many More Survivors?
• Heavy Death Toll, Corruption, Criminal Incompetence
• Why Was the Girl Removed from Family?

• Chinese Leaders Incapable of Handling Quake Aftermath
• Bigger China Disaster Unfolds

• China’s grieving quake parents start to voice anger
• Beijing’s quick response to disaster won’t cover cracks of corruption
• Almost five million left homeless, China says
• Corruption blamed for rising death toll in China
• Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools

• Earthquake Predictions In China Are Also Political

./.