Who's in the Top 0.1 percent? — It's mainly "the corporate suits"

Paul Krugman has noted that there's push-back on the Occupyers' notion of the "top 1%" as the enemy. As Krugman says: "[T]he slogan 'we are the 99 percent' sets the cut too low".

(I've made the same point myself, especially here and here.)

We now have some data on the composition-by-professon of the Top 0.1% — where the real money and power are. Click here to see Table 1 from this study (pdf). It shows that data.

The Professor summarizes (my emphasis):

If you add together nonfinance executives, “financial professions”, real estate, and lawyers, you’ve got more than 70 percent of the total; plus some of the other categories are probably essentially business executives too. Basically, the top 0.1 percent is the corporate suits, with a few token sports and film stars thrown in.

Real wealth in America isn’t nuanced at all.

As we've pointed out a number of times, in the U.S., real institutional wealth is accumulated by banks, hedge funds, and consumer and energy corporations. Real personal wealth comes from looting those institutions.

In the age of minimalist top marginal tax rates, the easiest way to loot a company is from the executive suite. Done and done.

GP