Are you worth millions of dollars? Then chances are last year was a pretty good year for you, despite, well, you know, the global economic collapse.
According to the most recent Merril Lynch/Capgemini report on world wealth, the number of millionaires rose 17% to 10 million and their collective wealth rose to $39 TRILLION, a staggering 19% increase over the previous year.
You just read that correctly. 10 million people control $39 trillion in wealth. The rich in North America alone hold $10.7 trillion of that, according to the report. Just to put that in perspective, Morgan Stanley estimated the total monetary value in US dollars of all worldwide wealth in 2006 was...$100 trillion. Ok, so that was in 2006 before the world financial meltdown. So, for arguments sake, let's assume that a quarter of all that wealth was wiped out in the 2008-2009 collapse. Even assuming a quarter of all worldwide wealth was destroyed, 10 million people...out of nearly 7 billion...control MORE THAN HALF OF ALL GLOBAL WEALTH!
Let that sink in for a minute.
