The High-Beta Rich: How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble, and Bust, by Robert Frank
The rich are not only getting richer, they are becoming more dangerous. Starting in the early 1980s the top one percent (1%) broke away from the rest of us to become the most unstable force in the economy. An elite that had once been the flat line on the American income charts - models of financial propriety - suddenly set off on a wild ride of economic binges.
The target market for the work I do training financial advisors and gift planners is the low beta rich: Self made people with closely held firms embedded in shops, farms, ranches, light fabrication companies, construction trades. They get almost no attention for their philanthropy and few can wrap their tongue around so many latinate syllables, but they are givers all the same. When the oil shock comes, and the lights flicker and go out, I want a friend who owns a generator and can fix a bicycle.
Have some compassion for the pampered few.
Posted by: penilestater | November 21, 2011 at 09:16 PM