Re: "Stock Market and the Real Economy"

["ÁÎ×Ó¹â Henry C.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I happen to have some slightly dated data on Gates.

Microsoft Stock Price:  $116.5625  as of Tue Jan 4 00:41:52 EST 2000
Bill Gates' Wealth:  $228.062 billion or $131.632 billion by acceptable
accounting standards for capital gain tax calculations.

No. of shares of Microsoft owned by Bill Gates:
1995 Microsoft Proxy Statement (141,159,990 shares adjusted for splits
in December 1996, February 1998, and March 1999)
Microsoft Stock Price: Nasdaq or Security APL

Gates' assets outside of MSFT shares are not public. Estimated to be at least
equals to holdings in MSFT ad a minimum diversification strategy.  His venture
capital investments in new start-up are incalculatable.

Fortune Magazine estimates that Gates' MSFT wealth expands at an average rate
of US$50 million per day or US$35,000 per minute. The gap between Mr. Rich and
Mr. and Ms. Average is 311 times as great in the Age of Gates as it
was in the Age of Rockefeller, and historians called that the Age of Robber
Barons.  We have returned to the Age of Wealth by Devine Right.

Henry C.K. Liu

Basil Moore wrote:

> Per
> I was disappointed that I could not find you at the Easterns? I did keep a
> look out for you.
> Did you come?
> This statistic below, capital gains greater than the wage bill, is really
> astonishing. The situation must be similar or perhaps even more  extreme in
> the States? (I read somewhere that the wealth of the three richest
> billionaires in the US was greater than that of the smallest and poorest 50
> countries!)
> Have you tried to calculate the total capital gains on stocks for the US
> using the Flow of Funds accounts?
> I intend to look it up as soon as I can break free from classwork.
>
> I am still mulling over your earlier email,
>
> Best Basil Moore
> At 03:06 PM 3/17/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >Basil,
> >
> >Since all stocks are available in the Flow of Funds accounts, you can
> >easily calculate the Haig-Simons-Lindahl income (Yh) by taking first
> >differences of households' wealth (Vh) and adding private consumption
> >(Ch):
> >
> >Yh = Vh(1) - Vh(0) + C(h),
> >
> >where (1) and (0) indicate opening and closing balances, respectively.
> >
> >
> >(As a curiosum, I might add that in 1999, the holding gains on equity
> >alone in my beloved home country Sweden, exceeded the whole of the
> >pre-tax wage bill. It would be interesting to see how a Gini coefficient
> >based on the Haig-Simons-Lindahl income concept would turn out...)
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Per
> >
> >Per Gunnar Berglund
> >
> >
> >>>> Basil Moore <bmoore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 03/16 11:27 AM >>>
> >Lonnie or anyone else
> >does anyone know if there been an official effort, by the BEA or any
> >other
> >agency, eg the Fed. to publish a broader Disposable Income series,
> >including capital gain income from asset revaluations?  For such a
> >series
> >unrealized capital gains would appear as "Saving".
> >Basil Moore
> >
> >At 09:53 PM 3/14/00 -0800, you wrote:
> >>At 11:12 AM 3/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >>>I would like to break into this discussion by noting that none of
> >the
> >>>empirical evidence so far has found any significant real effect of
> >>>rising stock market prices--whether through investment spending or
> >the
> >>>wealth effect on consumption.
> >>>
> >>>Lonnie K. Stevans
> >>>acslks@xxxxxxxxxxx
> >>>
> >>  Surely, the ability of entrepreneurs to raise copious quantities
> >>  of money is aided and abetted by the high stock market prices.
> >>  Also, the ability of new companies (dot.coms) to acquire old
> >>  companies (AOL-Times/Warner) is possible because of high,
> >>  and perhaps distorted, stock prices.
> >>
> >>  And my friends and I are admitting to spending more freely because
> >>  our stocks held directly and indirectly make our net worth higher,
> >>  even if a temporary illusion.
> >>
> >>  How did someone look for that "empirical evidence"?
> >>
> >>         Mason Clark
> >>
> >