Richest Americans got richer last year. Thanks, Obama!

This will be a pointless thread.

But thank the Federal Reserve. They have boosted asset prices by suppressing interest rates -- we have been at 0 percent on the overnight rate for 7 years. And through three rounds of quantitative easing which is like heroin to risk assets -- they drove down yields by buying the bonds themselves and bloating their balance sheet. It ostensibly was meant to helicopter money into an economy they messed up in the first place. ... which was supposed to help "Main Street" Americans. Of course, it does nothing of the sort. It actually takes a crisis they created. ... and kicks the can down the road in favor of an even bigger crisis later.

What it has done is lift the stock market, bond markets (junk bonds in particular, as people have to reach for yield to find any income in the manipulated world), real estate markets, art markets, rare wine market, etc. They took the risk out of risk assets, which made anyone who owned those things wealthier -- and pretty much risk free, in hindsight.

Of course, the only people who can afford those appreciating assets are people who already had money -- and aren't struggling to meet expenses. So the rich are getting richer thanks to our monetary overlords.

If it makes you feel any better, there are a lot of people with wealth on paper who are going to see it disappear like a fart in the wind at some point -- likely sooner rather than later, although who knows how long they can keep the house of cards they built from collapsing. It's all artificial and is going to come crashing down at some point -- likely when the market takes back the yield curve from the Federal Reserve, which is now backed into a corner.