Inequality 101: 10 percent of Americans own over 80 percent of stock

While Trump Touts Stock Market, Many Americans Are Left Out Of The Conversation

March 1, 2017
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, NPR

President Trump likes to tout the booming stock market as evidence that he is already boosting the economy. He bragged about it in his speech to Congress on Tuesday night, and then got more to the point on Wednesday, when the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 21,000 for the first time.

To Trump, this is validation of the business-friendly policies he has pushed thus far. But there's something jarring about Trump's stock market talk as he promises his commitment to the middle class and laments the poverty level: Those stock market gains will overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans.

America's massively unequal stock ownership

Ignore for a second that stock index milestones like Dow 21K are inherently rather arbitrary. The broader point is that stock indexes have recovered nicely since the Great Recession — the S&P 500 (a more comprehensive look at the stock market than the Dow) has more than tripled from its trough in 2009.

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