World's richest one percent continue to become wealthier
In November 2017, Credit Suisse released its 8th Annual Global Wealth Report which The Guardian reported on under the headline, "Richest 1 percent own half the world's wealth, study finds."
The wealth share of the world's richest people increased "from 42.5 percent at the height of the 2008 financial crisis to 50.1 percent in 2017, or $140 trillion," The Guardian reported, adding that "The biggest losers ... are young people who should not expect to become as rich as their parents."
"[Despite being more educated], millennials are doing less well than their parents at the same age, especially in relation to income, home ownership, and other dimensions of well-being assessed in this report," Rohner Credit Suisse chairman Urs Rohner said. "We expect only a minority of high achievers and those in high demand sectors such as technology or finance to effectively overcome the 'millennial disadvantage.'"
"No other part of the wealth pyramid has been transformed as much since 2000 as the millionaire and ultra-high net worth individual (known as UHNWI) segments," the report said. "The number of millionaires has increased by 170 percent, while the number of UHNWIs (individuals with net worth of USD 50 million or more) has risen five-fold, making them by far the fastest-growing group of wealth holders."
There were 2.3 million new millionaires this year, taking the total to 36 million.
"At the other end of the spectrum, the world's 3.5 billion poorest adults each have assets of less than $10,000," The Guardian reported. "Collectively these people, who account for 70 percent of the world's working age population, account for just 2.7 percent of global wealth."
"Tremendous concentration of wealth and the extreme poverty that results from it are problems that affect everyone in the world, but wealth inequalities do not receive nearly as much attention as they should in the establishment press," Project Censored noted. "The few corporate news reports that have addressed this issue — including an August 2017 Bloomberg article and a July 2016 report for CBS's MoneyWatch — focused exclusively on wealth inequality within the United States. As Project Censored has previously reported, corporate news consistently covers the world's billionaires while ignoring millions of humans who live in poverty."
