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American Household Wealth Slumps 18 Percent

March 13, 2009 RSS Feed Print

It's official: We're poorer by almost a fifth.

The Federal Reserve reports American household wealth fell by $11.1 trillion, or nearly 18 percent, during 2008, with a huge $5.1 trillion drop occurring in just the last three months of 2008.

The drop, the largest ever quarterly decline on record at the Fed, is likely going to look worse as continued declines in stock and real estate prices erase even more wealth. It's also a much larger drop than the last big year-over-year decline in 2002, when the burst tech bubble sent household net worth down 3 percent.

The NYT has more.

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IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE ALL TAXPAYERS NET WORTH YOU COULD GIVE ALL TAXPAYERS A ONE YEAR TAX HOLIDAY INSTEAD OF THE $787 BILLION STIMULUS PACKAGE. IMAGINE IF ALL TAXPAYERS GOT TO KEEP THEIR ENTIRE CHECK FOR ONE FULL YEAR! WOULD THAT MONEY GO INTO THE ECONOMY, THE ANSWER IS YES OF COURSE. HOWEVER, WHY WOULD THE GOVERNMENT WANT TO GIVE THE MONEY BACK TO THE PEOPLE THAT ACUTALLY PAID TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE. IT OBVIOUSLY MAKES MORE SENSE TO GIVE THE MONEY AWAY TO SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS AND TO BUY FUTURE VOTES. AMERICAN POLITICS AS USUALLY, SCREW THE TAXPAYERS.

VERNE of FL 4:25PM March 14, 2009

If you remove the profit from an industry, ANY industry, you automatically lower quality and supply. Taking the profit out of healthcare will do the same. There is room for improvement (Zeke Emanuel's suggestion of product standardization seems particularly reasonable), but the extension of free healthcare (to the 50M uninsured) just amounts to an enormous giveaway from the workers to the welfare class. We can do things to make healthcare more effective, and perhaps more efficient (universal standardized medical records, etc.). However, the abandonment of actuarial science and premiums totally eliminate the incentives for high quality, low waiting, and efficient utilization. Listen to this idiot (comment 1), and we will all be paying more $$ for worse quality, long waiting lists to get treatment, and emergency rooms that are even more full of free-riders.

JC of NY 4:57PM March 13, 2009

then get universal single-payer health care in place. AFTER job losses, home-value decreases and a slumped stock market, HEALTH CARE now has the potential in the coming decades to send more dollars out of the hands of individuals (and into the open arms of corporations) than any other single thing.

Muser of NM 11:54AM March 13, 2009

American Household Wealth Slumps 18 Percent

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