Taxpayer In The Middle

Katie sends me this chestnut, from her Blackberry, somewhere in Manhattan. Oh dear.

Of course baby-boomers are big investors in shares. According to the Federal Reserve, the average 50-year old has $174,000 in IRA or 401K retirement plans. But that is skewed by the mega-rich - the median is more like $60,000. This only tells a part of the story though: in fact, the Fed likes to measure "comprehensive wealth" which includes present values of salaries, pension funds, social security insurance, welfare benefits and so on. Houses and cars are thrown into the bucket. By this measure, the wealth of the average 50-year old is $900,000, of which only a quarter has anything to do with financial assets; worryingly, however, almost half of the rest comes from property and wages. The first keeps falling, and the other requires years of work.

"Whoever wins this election, Bush's impact has changed the world. This man has left us with three wars — in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror — and the legacy of the pre-emptive strike. These are legacies that will haunt his successor for years. It's good for people, before the election, to think about who they elected eight years ago and about where we are as a country right now."
Oliver Stone, promoting his film "W."