RIch get richer, the poor get screwed

Another in long series of reminders that the wealth created by financial markets only raises the luxury yachts, leaving everyone else underwater in their wake.

The biggest gains in wealth are going to wealthy households that tend to save a big chunk of their incomes and spend a smaller proportion on basics such as food and clothing. "Those guys don't spend much," says economist Edward Wolff of New York University.

So Wolff looked at the net worth of the median U.S. household — those smack in the middle, where half of households earn more and half less. The median family's net worth is far more modest than the average: $61,000, Wolff estimates. That is $50,800, or 47 percent, short of where it was in 2007.

They make their wealth here, invest it overseas and hide it in offshore tax shelters. Their biggest investment is in buying politicians willing to enact their think tanks' policy prescriptions -- to only their own benefit. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of Americans are coping with devalued homes, diminished wages and benefits in a limping labor market and rising costs of living and the wealth holders want them to sacrifice more.

We are truly ruled by evil people.