Barry L. Ritholtz ([email protected].) founder and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, a financial planning and asset management firm, with $130 million in assets, is also an irreverent commentator and columnist for Bloomberg View and the Washington Post. His 2010 book, “Bailout Nation,” was judged one of the best books on the financial crisis by The New York Times. Beyond his commentary and published articles, Ritholtz also authors The Big Picture — a leading financial weblog, generating several million page views per month. The Big Picture covers Investing & Trading to Macro Economics, and everything else in between.
Here is his take on U.S. income distribution, aided by visual graphics designer Catherine Mulbrandon of Visualizing Economics:
“When it comes to the top 0.01 percent of earners, it is extremely challenging to describe the differences in terms of income. Words often fail to convey the massive range.
Fortunately for us, Catherine Mulbrandon of Visualizing Economics has put together a simple chart that shows just how fantastic the spread was in 2010 between those who are merely rich and the fabulously wealthy. This is an unweighted scale. It isn’t skewed for population. It merely ranks top incomes by dollars earned.
The top of the chart shows the highest earning hedge fund manager. Toward the lower quartile, we see the average compensation for the top 25 hedge fund managers. How these lower quartile folks even show their faces at the club is beyond me, given their pitiful earnings.
Then we get to the unwashed masses.
From the bottom up: 99 percent of all earners are represented by a red dot at the very bottom of the spectrum. The cutoff for the 99.99 percent is a touch above that. And not too far above that is the top Major League Baseball earner, a guy whose pathetic salary resides below even the average income of the top 25 hedge fund managers. On this chart, the rest of the ballplayers are a bunch of slacker ne’er do wells, earning toward the bottom of the scale. It’s no wonder Derek Jeter is retiring.”
A new report from MSN Money illustrates how the political elite is getting very rich by plundering honest Americans. America has 3,033 counties, and they identified the 15 richest jurisdictions from that list.
You may be wondering, by the way, about the location of the other counties in the top 15. Well, four of them are suburbs of New York City, meaning that they are home to rich Wall Street people who mooched from the taxpayers thanks to TARP bailouts and other subsidies.
Source: Created by Catherine Mulbrandon at VisualizingEconomics.com
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
