OUR GALTIAN OVERLORDS, BY THE NUMBERS

Some stats from a New York Times money writer:

The most startling statistic came from the World Wealth Report, the granddaddy of analyses of the rich, conducted by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. In 2010, the report estimated, a mere 103,000 people of the nearly seven billion people on the planet controlled 36.1 percent of the world's wealth. (This was up from 35.5 percent in 2009.) North America, the report went on, had the largest number of so-called ultrahigh-net-worth individuals, with 40,000 people worth more than $30 million....

The World Wealth Report, released Wednesday, found that last year was not just a good year for the really wealthy. It was also a good year for the merely rich. The number of people with more than $1 million to invest was 10.9 million, up 8.3 percent, while the amount of money they had, $42.7 trillion, had risen by 9.7 percent....

A report released in May by the Boston Consulting Group said that the United States still led the world in the number of families worth more than $100 million, 2,692. But it said that China experienced the fastest growth rate, with a one-year jump of 30 percent, to 393 families....

Oh, but I'm sure this concentration of wealth is all being horribly constrained by all that socialism, both in China and in the largest nation in North America, which is run by a capitalism-hating Kenyan socialist. In both of those countries, rich people just can't get a break, can they?

One more stat:

A study due for release next month from Zogby and Insite Security of people with more than $3 million found that most had a negative view of the global economy and many were worried that the United States would not be able to improve its fiscal situation anytime soon.

When I read this, I was reminded of a joke someone (Denis Leary?) made a number of years back, when Keith Richards filmed an anti-drug ad: Keith, we can't do drugs! You did them all! That's hoe I feel about money: We can't create any more wealth in this economy, rich people -- you have it all!