Free Republic

How many millionaires, centimillionaires, and billionaires live in the world’s wealthiest cities?While such metrics are not all encompassing, these measurements of private wealth do help put the financial health and economic activity of some of the world’s wealthiest cities in perspective.Visual Capitalist's Raul Amoros and Nick Routley created the infographic below, using information from the Henley Global Citizens Report, in partnership with New World Wealth, to rank the world’s wealthiest cities. It leverages a comprehensive data set that tracks the movements and spending habits of high-net-worth individuals in over 150 cities around the world.Which cities and regions have the biggest...

This is a question that many people ask themselves in quiet moments but would never have enough nerve to say out loud. What is considered rich? As it turns out, the definition seems to be changing.What’s the Dollar Figure for Being Considered Rich?How much money do you need to be considered rich? According to Schwab’s 2022 Modern Wealth Survey (opens in new tab), Americans believe it takes an average net worth of $2.2 million to qualify a person as being wealthy. (Net worth is the sum of your assets minus your liabilities.)To get a clearer picture of where you rank,...

Elon Musk is no longer the wealthiest person, according to Forbes, after a decline in Tesla share price meant that LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault knocked him from his lofty perch.Musk held the title of the world’s wealthiest man since September 2021, when he overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Arnault made his fortune building the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, which includes brands like Louis Vuitton but also Tiffany, Tag Heuer, and Celine. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no longer the richest person in the world. He ceded that title to LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault at the close on Monday,...

Ranked: The World’s Richest Billionaires Over the Past 10 YearsThe last decade has seen a number of changes in the world’s richest billionaires list.For one, there are new faces at the top of the leaderboard that were never there before. One of the most obvious changes though, is that the richest billionaires have accumulated a lot more wealth in recent years.Using annual data from Forbes on the richest billionaires, we’ve visualized the wealth and ranking of the top 10 billionaires over the past decade.Who are the World’s Richest Billionaires?While the pecking order has fluctuated, the leaderboard remains very exclusive. Out...

. Middle Class Joe who came out of the black community just spent OVER $300,000 on his granddaughter’s wedding. This is noteworthy. They won’t say how much over $300,000. He has a grandkid he and Jill don’t recognize. Biden, swore at one point, he sent out $8,000 checks to the American people. In that Press Conference, he said about three times, $8,000 is a lot of money, Joe said sternly. The checks he referenced were actually $600. Joe has also claimed he was poor compared to his colleagues when he owned three Mansions and his Crackhead son had over $500...

The pro-Biden yahoos at The Hill are flailing over Americans blaming President Joe Biden for the obliteration of trillions of dollars from the embattled U.S. stock market. The Hill whipped out the exhausted “Republicans pounce” angle to harangue Biden’s critics in a story headlined: “Republicans pounce on ailing markets to criticize Biden.” The liberal outlet mourned that “[w]hile Biden has so far been able to dodge blame for the recent stock market declines in the wake of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, Republicans are increasingly tying the faltering markets to the White House.” Perhaps the outlet is trying...

Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes believes it is “foolish” to think the United States’ wealth was “justly earned,” a resurfaced video from 2021 revealed. “I didn’t even get to the point about Critical Race Theory,” Barnes said in a video released by WKOW ABC over the weekend. “That’s something else too. You know, it would be foolish to assume that the wealth of America was earned justly.” The 2021 event, held by the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce, was advertised as a question and answer session to discuss “issues of racism and systemic racism as they affect rural communities.” “Things...

Nearly half of U.S. mortgage payers own at least 50 percent equity, according to ATTOM’s Q2 2022 Home Equity & Underwater Report. This means that the balance of loans taken out against the home is less than half the estimated market value of the property.As Statista's Anna Fleck notes, the share of equity-rich homeowners has been rising continuously for the past nine quarters. While it hit 34.4 percent in Q2 of 2021, it rose to 44.9 percent in Q1 of 2022, and finally to today’s figure of 48.1 percent for Q2 2022.You will find more infographics at StatistaAccording to ATTOM,...

Pennies from Heaven. That is what the bottom 50% received from The Federal Reserve’s massive doses of monetary stimulus (or stimulypto). There was one big dose of monetary stimulus in late 2008 surrounding the financial crisis and housing bubble burst, another doses (aka, QE 2 and QE3) then the biggest dose of all with the outbreak of Covid in early 2020. President Biden should have mentioned on Jimmy Dimmel last night that The Federal Reserve has helped the bottom 50% with its endless monetary stimulus. But if you were fortunate enough to own a home (the top 1% are likely...

Why aren’t even the wealthiest people having offspring? Because having kids isn’t about money, it’s about priorities.For the first time since 2014, and after decades of almost constant decline, the total fertility rate in the United States rose in 2021. But before you start popping bottles to celebrate, here’s what the birthrate looks like in graphic form, and no, that’s not a crude drawing of a ski jump.Source: Wall Street JournalIn response to this, Elon Musk, who has seven children, most of whose names you can pronounce, tweeted, “Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids...

Last year, a Pandora Papers leak revealed that Mr Zelensky, who campaigned on promises to “break the system” of oligarchic control and corruption in Ukraine (ER: to our knowledge, the very opposite has happened), set up a spider web of offshore companies in 2012. Zelensky’s office justified the move by saying they were a form of “protection” against former President Viktor Yanukovych.A Dutch political party has taken an interest in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s personal finances.“Zelensky has a fortune: various estimates put his wealth at around $850 million. He amassed most of it after taking office as president. Where does...

The Covid epidemic was bad enough with the government shutdowns and deaths. But was even worse is that all the Fed monetary stimulus and Federal government stimulus “relief” led to a reversal of fortune. In that, the share of net worth held by the top 1% grew and the gap between the 1% and bottom 50% hit an all-time high. Now that the 1% have fed at the Federal trough, The Fed is anticipated to raise rates by 100 basis points at the next two meetings. Remember, REAL average hourly earnings are getting crushed under Biden and his pro-1% policies....

“We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.” – Herbert Hoover This is financial tyranny. The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones who must foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity. We’ve been sold a bill of goods by politicians promising to pay down the national debt, jumpstart the economy, rebuild our infrastructure, secure our borders, ensure our security, and make us all healthy, wealthy and...

A majority of the world’s wealth is concentrated in just a few countries. In fact, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang details below, almost a third of household wealth is held by Americans, while China’s population accounts for nearly a fifth. Using data from Credit Suisse, this graphic by Eleonora Nazander shows the distribution of household wealth worldwide, highlighting the wealth gap that exists across regions. Top 10 Wealthiest CountriesTo help simplify things, this graphic shows how much household wealth each country would have if the world only had $100. As the graphic illustrates, the top 10 wealthiest countries would hold...

It has been 14 years since The Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke unleashed zero interest rate policies (ZIRP) and quantitative easing (QE) in late 2008. And Fed monetary stimulypto is still running strong after almost 14 year of monetary mismanagement and asset bubble stimulation. The Federal Reserve under Bernanke and Yellen raised their target rate exactly once under President Obama before the election of Donald Trump. After Trump was elected, The Fed raised their target rate 8 times, lowered it 5 times. There have been no rate hikes under Biden. There seemingly never-ending Fed monetary stimulus has resulted in the...

Perhaps the most overlooked engine fueling inflation is the “wealth effect,” the extra spending from Americans feeling flush as their stock portfolios and home prices jumped by trillions during a tag-team, Olympic sprint for both. By far the biggest share of the extra outlays on the likes of new cars, home improvements, and laptops comes from America’s top income tiers. Besides opening their wallets as their net worth swelled, those high-earners—who own the most expensive houses—tapped the fast-rising value of their manses as ATM-style fonts for cash. The sudden spike in their nest eggs and their cash-out refis keep the...

The bottom never had much to lose but they managed to lose a bit anyway. The top keep padding their wealth but remain the most impacted by recessions. The middle class is shrinking. The poor who spend every penny and them some on food and shelter get hammered by inflation.

The percentage of wealth owned by the top 1% keeps rising over time. Who's to credit or blame?Data Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed), Chart by MishThis data series compiled by the Fed started in the third quarter of 1989. The most recent data is from the third quarter of 2021.If you have not seen charts of this series before, the numbers may seem shocking. 1989 Q3 vs 2021 Q3 PercentagesTop 1% Then 23.6%, Now 32.1%90th to 99th Percentile Then 37.3%, Now 37.5%50th to 90th Percentile Then 35.6%, Now 27.9%Bottom 50% Then 3.7%, Now 2.5%Gains or...

Last April Pope Francis held mass at a nearby church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia in the center of Rome.During his homily, Red Francis told his flock that “sharing ownership is not communism but is pure Christianity.”Of course, shared ownership is exactly the definition of communism.Leo Zagami reported:Pope Francis left the Vatican this morning to celebrate Mass in the nearby church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia in the center of Rome where a group of prisoners and inmates were also present at the celebration as well as some so-called ”refugees” from the Middle East. So this was the...

Every year, a few vocal multimillionaires and billionaires publicly announce that there is nothing they would like more than to finally pay more taxes. Every such announcement attracts a great deal of media attention. After all, there is one rule journalists learn very early in their careers: “Dog bites postman is not a story, postman bites dog is.” This is a typical “postman bites dog” news story. Over the last few days, the media was again awash with reports that a group of more than 100 millionaires from nine countries have called on governments to make them pay more taxes....