stock ownership distribution(ZT)

Second,the notion that a vast majority of American households are greatlyinvested in the stock market is erroneous. Less than half of allhouseholds hold stock in any form, including mutual funds and401(k)–style pension plans. From 2001 to 2004, the share of householdsholding stock declined—for the first time since 1989—from 51.9% to48.6%. Moreover, of those households that held stock, just34.9% had stock holdings of $5,000 or more. Furthermore, the ownershipof stocks was particularly unequal. In 2004, the top 1% of stockowner'sheld 36.9% of all stocks, by value, while the bottom 80% ofstockholders owned less than 10%. Additionally, stocks are a biggerpart of the asset portfolio for wealthier households. For those in thetop 1% of the wealth distribution, stock assets made up over 21% oftheir total assets, while stocks consisted of just 4.8% of all assetsfor households in the middle fifth of the wealth distribution. Whilestock performance is very important, on a daily basis it does notsignificantly affect average households. Another keyobservation is that household debt has consistently trended upward, andit was over 130% of disposable personal income in 2005. As expected,debt-ser-vice burdens continued to plague lower-income familiesdisproportionately and they increased from 2001 to 2004. By 2004, ittook about a fifth of income from a middle-income family to servicetheir debt. Approximately one in four low-income house-holds haddebt-service obligations that exceeded 40% of their income, as did13.7% of middle-income households. The opportunity to startanew through fair and reasonable bankruptcy laws is crucial for thosewho are faced with insurmountable debt. Personal bankruptcy filingssoared at the end of 2005 just before new, stricter laws went intoeffect. For the year, nine out of every 1,000 adults declared personalbankruptcy. Only time will tell how the new laws will affect the numberof bankruptcy filings, and ultimately how families will cope with largedebt burdens often caused by the loss of employment, unmanageablemedical bills, or divorce. That wealth differs considerably byrace is another primary observation of this analysis. Median wealth ofwhite households is 10 times that of black households. Home owner-shiprates also vary considerably by race. Less than half of black andHispanic households own their homes, when 72.7% of white households do.While approximately one-in-six households had zero or negative netwealth, broken down by race the numbers diverge considerably—13.0% ofwhite households compared to 29.4% of black households have zero ornegative net wealth.
RE: Where is US Wealth & Debt?????	mannfm11	NEW 12/8/2007 6:40:44 PM
Thereare a couple of great secrets. One of them is that stocks don't crashbecause average mom and pop sell or go up because they buy. The otheris that of all the stock the rich hold, they started out with most ofit.