>Is Wall Street Now Main Street?
>http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc657.asp
>May 17, 2000 -- This year's presidential election will
>be the first in which both major-party candidates
>recognize that stock owners constitute a majority of
>Americans who vote and may soon be a majority of the
>general public. The increase in the number of American
>investors has had a ripple effect on American politics,
>shifting the strategies and rhetoric of both parties
>
>
>does anyone know the truth of the above statement? the numbers i
>mean, we all know about the rhetoric.
>
>better yet, what data do they use (or could be using) to make that contention?
<http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0100lead.pdf>
Federal Reserve Bulletin - January 2000
"Recent Changes in U.S. Family Finances: Results from the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances"
Families may hold stock in publicly traded companies in many different ways-through direct ownership of shares or through mutual funds, retirement accounts, or other managed assets-and information about each of these asset types is collected separately in the SCF. When all these forms of stock ownership are combined, the data show considerable growth in stock ownership in every survey since 1989 (table 6). In 1998, 48.8 percent of families owned stock equity through some means. Since 1989, the ownership rate has grown 17.2 percentage points, with nearly half of the gain since 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, ownership rose for all family income and age groups; among these, the increases were largest in the $50,000-$99,999 income group and the 55-to-64 age group.