Welcome to the longest U.S. economic expansion in history, one perhaps best characterized by the excesses of extreme wealth and an ever-widening chasm between the unfathomably rich and everyone else via trhunnicutt
NEW YORK - Last month Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour sold his guitar collection for $21.5 million, including one piece - his famed “Black Strat” Fender Stratocaster - that went for nearly $4 million to the owner of the U.S. National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts.
And it is not just instruments or paintings in high demand among the world’s billionaire set. Auction houses themselves now appear to be prized vanity purchases: Just a few days before the Pink Floyd auction, Franco-Israeli cable magnate Patrick Drahi, whose firm Altice earned significant money in the United States, made a $3.7 billion bid for Sotheby’s, which had just hosted the Monet sale.
Big-money deals are getting bigger, from corporate mergers and acquisitions, to individuals buying luxury penthouses, sports teams, yachts and all-frills pilgrimages to the ends of the earth. And while these deals grab headlines, there is a deeper trend at work. The number of billionaires in the United States has more than doubled in the last decade, from 267 in 2008 to 607 last year, according to UBS.
Still, a decade ago, this kind of growth was not thought possible. The U.S. financial system was in a shambles and people feared bank failures could permanently undermine capitalism. Policymakers scrambled to stabilize markets and boost asset prices when U.S. housing markets unraveled. They did less to tackle income and wealth inequality.
“Under-resourced areas are not getting any better; the housing opportunity for them is not getting any better,” said Carolyn Valli, CEO at Central Berkshire Habitat For Humanity, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at a recent economic policy event. She said high healthcare costs and a lack of large employers mean fewer jobs in some areas. Food, utilities and housing costs, meanwhile, remain high. “It doesn’t feel like a boom yet.
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