Posted on 09/25/2013 12:47:57 PM PDT by whitedog57
Household net worth rose to $74.8 trillion in the second quarter, helped by the stock market, housing market and government accounting.
Household wealth in the U.S. increased from April through June, supported by gains in the stock and housing markets that are improving Americans finances.
Net worth for households and non-profit groups climbed by $1.34 trillion in the second quarter, or 1.8 percent from the previous three months, to $74.8 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today from Washington in its financial accounts report, previously known as the flow of funds survey.
Here is a chart of household net worth since 1998 plotted against the S&P 500 stock index (pink line) and the S&P Case-Shiller house price index (dashed line). The soaring stock and housing markets (at least in terms of price) are contributing to the recovery of household net worth.
networth
And the government has changed the way that it counts GDP and net worth. As part of the revisions, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will change the way pension payments are counted in GDP. Previous to the change, when a company paid money into a pension plan, the money was counted as wages in the GDP calculation. After the change, what companies have promised to pay in the future, not what they are actually paying, will be added to GDP.
According to the revised Flow of Funds report, US households as of this moment are wealthier by over $3 trillion, just because the re-definition of the Pension Fund line item, which is no longer counted as Reserves but the broader Entitlements. Compare and contrast with the old way.
Just like that, US households are wealthier by over $3 trillion!
Net Worth Old vs New_0
Too bad that real median household income continues to decline.
household-income-monthly-median-growth-since-2000
Between The Feds easy money strategy creating asset bubbles and government accounting, we should all feel wealthier!!!
The growing government/socialism of barack Obama is taking away our freedom and opportunity to make money
all we want is to be left alone, we don't need nanny government
democrats have been enslaving us for a long time ,slowly taking away our rights and freedom inch by inch , growing the government . when will we say we've had enough?
devaluation of the dollar
Soon we will all be trillionaires
Rich are getting richer.
Thats why Democrats are the party of the billionaires.
BTW, this also is a feature of Schumpeters account of why Capitalism will fail. The rich will capture the government, which will use its bureaucracy to impose a corporatist system (as we are seeing now). Where, of course, the rich will get richer, as innovation, entrepreneurialism and potential competitors will be shut out.
The following quarterly report shows ALL financial numbers from which all other reports are derived including the report of this thread.
Pssst. All these numbers are made up. Pass it on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.