richest year ever

last year was the richest year in history:

The number of billionaires around the world grew by 19 percent since last year, up to 946,
with a total net worth increasing by 35 percent to $3.5 trillion,
according to a report released by Forbes magazine.

That's trillion with a "T."

Says Forbes Chief Executive Steve Forbes:

“This is the richest year ever in human history.
Never in history has there been such a notable advance.”



Of course this historic advance is largely confined to those who were already mind-bogglingly rich to begin with.
For working people as a whole, there’s at best a holding action and at worst a retreat.

The CBPP explained that the enormous gains at the top of the income pyramid caused a rise of income as a whole.
But median income dropped between 2003 and 2004, and has not risen appreciably since then.

In short, while the rich get richer, the middle class is shrinking, as economist Paul Krugman has pointed out.

What does it all mean?

Even if Bush wasn’t in Brazil peddling alternative fuels for South America

while we pay higher and higher prices for fuel oil,

the economy looks a lot better from the top