On Nov 13, 2006, at 5:39 PM, Lance Murdoch wrote:
You have stated previously that the Survey of Consumer Finances shows that "much" of stocks (and maybe bonds) are certainly not owned by pension funds on behalf of workers, so I don't know why'd you say that here. Most of the stocks are owned by the 20% or so of the population that Barbara Ehrenreich called the professional/managerial class, with most of it at the very top, and for bonds even more so.
Um, I'm not sure where I said that. I've said that direct ownership of stocks is concentrated mostly among the rich, and that about half of all U.S. workers aren't covered by some kind of retirement plan, which means that about half are. About 20% of U.S. stocks are owned by pension funds, and another 20% by mutual funds. Since the shares held by pension and mutual funds are not controlled by or voted on by their ultimate beneficiaries, but by professional portfolio managers, their role in the ruling class remains to be defined. The SCF shows that about 50% of stocks are owned by the richest 1%, and 70% of bonds. That's well above the PMC. Doug
