Reply #81: Another Laff!: US household wealth rose in first quarter--Fed [View All]

[UpInArms]

(reminds me of that joke: If there are 9 men with zero assets or income sitting at a table and Bill Gates enters the room and sits down, the average wealth at the table makes every man a billionaire.)

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-21T160237Z_01_WAT003968_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-WEALTH-URGENT.XML

WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The net wealth of American households rose in the second quarter of 2005 as real estate, pension and mutual fund assets gained value, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

In its quarterly "Flow of Funds" report, the central bank said household balance sheet values rose to to $49.83 trillion in the quarter, up from a revised $48.89 trillion in the first quarter of the year.

The 2005 first quarter net worth was originally reported at $48.79 trillion. The data is not seasonally adjusted.

Elsewhere in the report, the Fed said borrowing outside the financial sector rose at an annual rate of 7.3 percent in the second quarter, as slower borrowing by federal, state and local government outweighed faster household borrowing. The rise in borrowing in the second quarter was slower than the 9.9 percent increase in the first quarter of 2005, and was the smallest rise since the second quarter of 2004.