The Divine Right of Capital

Notes

PREFACE

1. In 1998, “about 90 percent of the total value of stocks, bonds, trusts, and business equity were held by the top 10 percent of households,” according to Edward N. Wolff, professor of economics, New York University, in “What Has Happened to Stock Ownership in the United States?” unpublished paper, September 2000. Citing data Wolff compiled, Economic Policy Institute researchers note that the share of household wealth held by the richest 1 percent of individuals in 1976 was about 20 percent; in 1997, that 1 percent held an estimated 39.1 percent. Wealth was defined as net worth (household assets minus debt). See Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and John Schmitt, The State of Working America: 1998–99 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University ...