“This is the decade in which wealth inequality has increased the most in U.S. history,” said Moritz Schularick, a professor of economics at the Bonn Graduate School of Economics in Germany who has written about the distribution of wealth in the United States. “The driver has been the very unequal gains in the very sharp performance of the stock market relative to the sharp drop of the housing market.”
Bull Market Hits a Milestone: 3,453 Days. Most Americans Aren’t at the Party.By Matthew Phillip
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For most of this bull market, the individual investor has largely sat out
". . . Even as the S. & P. 500 charges higher, retail investors continue to exit the equity markets. Between mid-March and late July, investors pulled some $40 billion out of American mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, while pumping some $80 billion into the safety of bond funds, according to Bespoke Investment Group, a stock market research firm . . ."
Bull Market Hits a Milestone: 3,453 Days. Most Americans Aren’t at the Party.By Matthew Phillip
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Stocks crossed a major threshold on Wednesday, when the 10-year-old bull market arguably became the longest on record.
It ranks among the great booms in American market history. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has soared more than 320 percent since emerging from the rubble of the financial crisis in March 2009, creating more than $18 trillion in wealth.
But the gains haven’t been spread among the masses. Stock market wealth is heavily concentrated among the richest families.
For most of this bull market, the individual investor has largely sat out
". . . Even as the S. & P. 500 charges higher, retail investors continue to exit the equity markets. Between mid-March and late July, investors pulled some $40 billion out of American mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, while pumping some $80 billion into the safety of bond funds, according to Bespoke Investment Group, a stock market research firm . . ."
The moment to worry is when there is broad agreement that the market can only go higher. That would suggest there is little fresh money available to drive stocks to new heights.