Americans are $2 trillion wealthier
The Federal Reserve said today that household net worth grew by $2 trillion in the second quarter. That’s the first quarterly increase in two years. Where is all this money? In a piggy bank, under the mattress, in a basement safe?
No, a good chunk of it is in the stock market. From USA Today:
The value of Americans’ stock holdings rose 21.6% from the first quarter.
Net worth in the second quarter also was boosted by higher home prices. The value of real-estate holdings rose 1.8%, according to the Fed report.
It’s clear some people are jumping right back into the deep end of the pool. But not everybody. From CNN Money:
Household debt shrunk by 1.7% in the second quarter, the fourth consecutive decline. Debtloads had never contracted before until the current downturn.
The savings rate is near 6%. Americans have a long way to go to return to their net worth of two years ago (still 19% below), but perhaps, more people aren’t in a hurry to get there this time. That was our undoing before - the magical stock market, the house as ATM. It’d be nice to have a collective net worth that can’t just disappear in an instant.
- Sep 17, 2009 11:02 AM — Scott Jagow
- 3 comments
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Comments (3)
September 17, 2009 1:57 PM PT
It’s nice to see that Bernanke has a sense of humor. Either that or he wants to remind the upper class how much he and his buddies in the Treasury and the Bush / Obama regimes have helped them by creating another stock bubble to rescue their assets from the bursting bubble he and Greenspan previously created. He and team Obama can can tell us how much they feel the pain of average Americans beset by another jobless recovery caused by more financial manipulation and the misallocation of factors of production. Were Louis IVX alive today he would find much to admire in the workings of American democracy.
September 18, 2009 9:53 AM PT
When stocks and real estate are valued in US Dollars, the numbers sound nice. But when stocks and real estate are valued in Gold (the only REAL money), the numbers look pretty bad. In a word, whatever gains you think you made off asset valuation, you lost through dollar devaluation.
It’s a classic example of a politician calling himself a Fed chairman, talking out of both sides of his mouth. Fortunately for Bernanke, the average Homer Simpson in America is clueless on monetary matters, and many of them are news journalists.
September 21, 2009 11:35 AM PT
Duh? No one is “wealthier”, because of all the massive borrowing.