Some More On The Crème de la Crème v. The Remaining 99 Per Cent

Bottom 99% Real Income Growth...Fraction of Total Real Income Growth (or Loss) captured by Top 1%

Full period 1993-2010
Clinton Expansion 1993-2001
Recession 2000-2002
Bush Expansion 2002-2007
Great Recession 2007-2009
Recovery 2009-2010

6.4%... 52%
20.3%...45%
-6.5%...57%
6.8%... 65% (Hence U.S. median income declines)
-11.6%..49%
0.2%... 93% (Hence U.S. median income declines)

"Before the [financial] meltdown, median incomes had already dropped in the 2002-2007 business cycle, which was unique for a developed capitalist economy in the last three generations. Since then, things have got worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US weekly median incomes have fallen by two per cent since the US recession officially ended in mid-2009. Incomes are supposed to rise in a recovery.

This time that holds true only for the crème de la crème. Earlier this month, Emanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, the Berkeley economists, showed that the top one per cent of Americans captured 93 per cent of the growth in 2010. That was up from 65 per cent in 2001, the first year of the previous recovery. Meanwhile, real incomes did not budge for the remaining 99 per cent."

Financial Times