No wonder the wealthiest ten percent feel so clever, and even perhaps triumphant.

The collapse caused by the widespread banking fraud has barely affected them, whereas it wiped out most of the last ten years of growth in the middle class and the poor.

In my considered opinion this is largely the result of policy and tax decisions that have been made by the government over the past twenty or more years, in which they fostered a financially predatory economy.

Financial bubbles are often wealth transfer mechanisms, and in this case it appears that you can also keep what you kill.

From Amir Sufi, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago.

Net Wealth Shock in US, by Net Worth Percentile