Member-only story
Did This Happen by Accident to 89% of America’s Stock Market Wealth?
Two well-known facts about the US stock market: (1) The Top 10% owns 89% of all US stocks. (2) 58% of adult Americans own stock. But . . .
Related and recent articles
• (Part 1) The 5 Most Important U.S. Economic Events Over the Last 50 Years
• Has U.S. Healthcare Really Become a Mob Protection Racket?
• The Social Contract Broke in the U.S. Years Later Than in Japan
• WTF! Our Taxpayer Money Will Pay for Intel’s $130 Billion in Stock Buybacks and Dividends?
• The Samuel L. Jackson Approach to Dealing with Centrist Democrats Post-Roe and Pre-2022 Midterms
• Pressing Where It Hurts: How to Win Fights That Matter
(Subscribe to receive email notifications when I post new articles.)
These two well-known, often-quoted stats are both at least technically true.
But whether technically true or not, they are each deeply misleading.
Two goals for today
- Look at how ownership of the U.S. stock market actually breaks down.
- Step through the “thinking chain” that took me from the two facts (above) to conclusions that go to a very different place than what popular “facts” would have you think.
I promise — you’re not going to see this on CNBC or Fox Business, and you’re certainly not going to read about it in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times Business section.
How do regular working Americans think about the U.S. stock market?
Here is what people generally take away from the well-known “facts” that (1) 58% of adult Americans own stock; and (2) the Top 10% owns 89% of all US stocks:
- Lots of Americans own stock.
- It’s in the interest of “most Americans” that the stock market does well since “so many Americans” own stock.
