Pew Study: Nearly All Americans Lost Worth Under Obama-Led ‘Recovery’

by Ben Bullard 
According to a new statistical report, the only Americans who saw their money grow during the past two years of “economic recovery” touted by the Administration of President Barack Obama are those who weren’t hurting to begin with: the wealthy.
Everybody else? On the whole, they lost money. But who does that group include, exactly?
Why, nearly everyone.
According to the report, published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, 93 percent — that’s 93 percent – of the American population saw their households’ mean net worth fall by an average of 4 percent between 2009 and 2011.
Four percent isn’t negligible, but it’s at least small enough a number to defend rhetorically: “[W]e are poised to grow in 2013,” Obama dissembled in February, after a bad economic report indicated his spending-spree recovery policy might not be working.

But 93 percent isn’t negligible. That’s almost everyone — every household in the United States. Whether incomes in those households rose a little, stayed flat or fell, their net worth, on average, was less in 2011 than it was in 2009.
And here’s another number that isn’t negligible: 28 percent. That’s how much the net worth of the richest 7 percent of American households grew, on average, over the same time period.
In contrast with the unwashed masses, who got 4 percent poorer while the American Recovery and Investment Act went forward and the Federal Reserve printed money, the rich got 28 percent richer:

From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.

That’s because speculation under Obama is good business, while real goods keep seeing their worth shrivel. “Affluent households typically have their assets concentrated in stocks and other financial holdings, while less affluent households typically have their wealth more heavily concentrated in the value of their home,” the report notes.
Guess what the stock market’s done over the past two years? Now think about home values over the same time period. The money made by the richest 7 percent was still enough to lift the aggregate wealth of American households, both rich and poor, by $5 trillion, or 14 percent.