OT: Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says

Home Guy · 2012-06-12T12:42:41+00:00

Down and down into the toilet bowl you go...Bush really screwed you up as a country, didn't he?Maybe you'll learn a lesson about rampant military spending and reckless(if not retarded) foreign policy. But probably - you won't.================================== saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, FederalReserve saysThe recent recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans? wealth,according to government data released Monday, with middle-classfamilies bearing the brunt of the decline.The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010.That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.The data represent one of the most detailed looks at how the economicdownturn altered the landscape of family finance. Over a span of threeyears, Americans watched progress that took almost a generation toaccumulate evaporate. The promise of retirement built on the inevitablerise of the stock market proved illusory for most. Homeownership, onceheralded as a pathway to wealth, became an albatross.The findings underscore the depth of the wounds of the financial crisisand how far many families remain from healing. If the recession setAmericans back 20 years, economists say, the road forward is sure to bea long one. And so far, the country has seen only a halting recovery.?It?s hard to overstate how serious the collapse in the economy was,?said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody?s Analytics. ?We were in freefall.?The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle class. Onlyroughly half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economicrung during the downturn, the Fed found. Their median net worth ? thevalue of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt ?suffered the biggest drops. By contrast, the wealthiest families? mediannet worth rose slightly.Americans have tried to rebalance the family budget but have found itdifficult to...