GLOBAL NOTES #11
by Jerry Harris
. Transnational capitalists own half the world
The richest two percent of the world’s adults own 50 percent of the world’s assets. If the world’s wealth was evenly distributed each person would have $20,500 of assets. Instead the poorest half of the population holds only one percent of wealth. This year the 170,000 employees of the big five US investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns) pocketed $36 billion in bonuses. Their overall compensation of about $60 billion was equivalent to Vietnam’s gross domestic product. Marc Faber, author of “Gloom Doom & Boom” notes; “Something is a bit bizarre in the world. The liquidity of the global middle class is not there but the liquidity of Goldman Sachs partners is soaring.” (more…)
