On Jun 15, 2011, at 9:01 AM, James Leveque wrote:
> http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/06/us-wealth-distribution-2011.html
>
> If you look at the second graph from the top, something I don't understand
> happens between about 2000 and 2003. The share of wealth for the top 1% took
> a nosedive from about 100 percent compared to 1979 to less than 60 percent.
> The top 20% also took a mild hit. But the bottom 80% saw an increase - it
> was small and was erased by 2004, but it's definitely there. Obviously the
> trend is major increases for the top 1% and a slow decline for most everyone
> else, but then there's this anomaly between 2000 and 2003. What happened?
That's income, not wealth.
What happened was the bear market. That concept of income includes capital gains (which the Census Bureau's annual number don't - the CBO combines Census and tax data to come up with this series). A very large share of the superrich's income is capital gains.
Doug