So much for raising the taxes on the rich.

[RickN]

Kind of hard to do when your economic policies are wiping them out.

Newsalert has posted a chart from a Wall Street Journal blog titled “Recession and the Rich.” The chart, based on 2009 IRS figures, shows that the number of taxpayers reporting annual income over $1 million fell 39 percent between 2007 and 2009; the number of super-wealthy individuals making over $10 million annually plunged 55 percent.

The carnage wasn’t confined to millionaires. The number of taxpayers earning over $200,000 per year also decreased by 612,000 – or 13 percent.

If you are tempted to join Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., in a bit of schadenfreude over the fact that nearly four in ten millionaires disappeared in two years, don't be. The chart also shows how the loss of these top income earners adversely affected the federal government’s bottom line.

In 2007, those making above $200,000 (but less than $1 million) paid $610 billion in federal income taxes. In 2009, it was only $434 billion – leading to a 29 percent decrease in government revenue.

Same for the 408,394 millionaires who paid $420 billion in taxes in 2007. Just two years later, their numbers had been dramatically reduced, and the revenue the U.S. government collected from them likewise decreased to $232 billion.

Since the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid 58.7 percent of all federal income taxes in 2008, the vanishing of millionaires is bad news for everybody.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexami...confidential/where-have-all-millionaires-gone

 

[Dale00]

Who is John Gault?

 

[farmerbyron]

The crash in 08 is to blame for much of these statistics. I would be more interested in the same data on a scale of Dec. 08 to now.

 

[R. Johnson]

Every time the fed prints more money .gov is essentially taxing the rich by making their cash worth less.

 

[RickN]

The crash in 08 is to blame for much of these statistics. I would be more interested in the same data on a scale of Dec. 08 to now.

I would too. I bet it has dropped a lot more since the 2009 figures.

 

[Hobbes]

It's convenient that the article chose to start in 2007(the peak of the bubble on wall street) and end in 2009(the worst of the recession and stock market lows).
Cherry picking numbers to make a misleading case indeed.
It's also telling that they chose to use AGI instead of net worth which is the standard definition.
The Koch brothers got their money's worth out of this tilted story for sure.


Here is an article from the WSJ 2 months ago.

U.S. Has Record Number of Millionaires

If further proof were needed of the two-speed recovery–the rich and the rest–now comes news that America has a record number of millionaires.

According to the annual World Wealth Report from Merill Lynch and Capgemini, the U.S. had 3.1 million millionaires in 2010, up from 2.86 million in 2009. The latest figure tops the pre-crisis peak of three million.

Merrill and Capgemini define millionaires as individuals with $1 million or more in investible assets, not including primary home, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables.

The wealth held by these millionaires also hit a record. North American millionaires had a combined wealth of $11.6 trillion, up from $10.7 trillion in 2009.

The number of Americans with $30 million is still slightly below the pre-crisis peak. In 2010 there were 40,000 North Americans with $30 million or more, up from 36,000 in 2009.

Why are millionaires doing so much better than everyone else? Financial markets. Remember, the rich depend on financial markets (which have rebounded) while the rest of America depends on jobs and homes for wealth–both of which remain in a slump. According to the report, global equity markets rose 18% in 2010. Since the wealthy have a larger share of their fortunes in stocks, they would have benefited most.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/06/22/u-s-has-record-number-of-millionaires/

 

[Glocktogo]

It's convenient that the article chose to start in 2007(the peak of the bubble on wall street) and end in 2009(the worst of the recession and stock market lows).
Cherry picking numbers to make a misleading case indeed.
It's also telling that they chose to use AGI instead of net worth which is the standard definition.
The Koch brothers got their money's worth out of this tilted story for sure.


Here is an article from the WSJ 2 months ago.

U.S. Has Record Number of Millionaires

If further proof were needed of the two-speed recovery–the rich and the rest–now comes news that America has a record number of millionaires.

According to the annual World Wealth Report from Merill Lynch and Capgemini, the U.S. had 3.1 million millionaires in 2010, up from 2.86 million in 2009. The latest figure tops the pre-crisis peak of three million.

Merrill and Capgemini define millionaires as individuals with $1 million or more in investible assets, not including primary home, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables.

The wealth held by these millionaires also hit a record. North American millionaires had a combined wealth of $11.6 trillion, up from $10.7 trillion in 2009.

The number of Americans with $30 million is still slightly below the pre-crisis peak. In 2010 there were 40,000 North Americans with $30 million or more, up from 36,000 in 2009.

Why are millionaires doing so much better than everyone else? Financial markets. Remember, the rich depend on financial markets (which have rebounded) while the rest of America depends on jobs and homes for wealth–both of which remain in a slump. According to the report, global equity markets rose 18% in 2010. Since the wealthy have a larger share of their fortunes in stocks, they would have benefited most.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/06/22/u-s-has-record-number-of-millionaires/

And how many trillions did the Fed print off for the big boys? It's easy to make more millionaires, just print more money!

 

[okie98]

Most of us have to be content to be Thousandaires!

 

[HMFIC]

My name is Elmer J. Citizen, thousandaire. I own a trailer and a bass boat.

 

[grizzly97]

I love how this country used to be proud of people making a successful life for themselves. Now they are called greedy and not paying their fair share. If you want the rich to help the economy, why ask them to pay more? Why not just ask them to open a new business that'll create jobs and more tax paying citizens? Or how bout this, go get a job or start your own small business. Oh wait, that would mean the money isn't free, you'd actually have to work for something. My bad. Sorry, rant off.