US Household Net Worth Jumped $7 Trillion In Q4
Following the worst year for humanity in at least seven decades, Americans were richer than ever, Fed data out Thursday showed.
I'm speaking about aggregates, of course. For millions of Americans, 2020 was a financial catastrophe from which they haven't yet (and may never) fully recover.
But thanks to surging equities and home prices, total US household net worth jumped almost $7 trillion in the fourth quarter (figure below).
Stocks obviously ran higher into year end. The S&P jumped 12%
Is this another “mean/median”statistic? What is the number if we take out the top 10%? What is the average per household in the “bottom ” 90%?
Sometimes mean distortion doesn’t matter. It’s clear from all sorts of statistics that the negative financial impacts of the last year have fallen disproportionately on the lower half of the income distribution. Adjusting an increase in HHNW by skimming off the inconveniently outsized gains of the wealthiest (a questionable approach) doesn’t make anything clearer. Nor does it change the complexion of which segments of fthe population are benefitting and which suffering in the current/recently past economy.
Follow the money. Leave the culture wars for later….
When Bill Gates walks into a bar, everyone in the bar, on average, becomes a millionaire. Not trying to get into any culture wars, just trying to figure what the $ 7 trillion amount really does.
How’s the bottom 80% doing? How bad is the damage? To quote Cho en lai wnasked what he thought of the French Revolution “Too soon to tell”