Losses Total $1.33 Trillion So Far (Green Shoots Sprouting! Recession Almost Over)

The AP reports the following figures (so far this year) for loss of wealth due to the stock market manipulations. My question is: "What's the gain of those who orchestrated and benefitted from this magnificent deception and how much are the energy greedsters making right now?" We know that Alan Greenspan, John Paulson and the rest of the Dirty Dozen made out handsomely, but what are the figures for the rest of that mythic upper 1%?

American households lost $1.33 trillion of their wealth in the first three months of the year as the recession took a bite out of stock portfolios and dragged down home prices.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that household net worth fell to $50.38 trillion in the January-March quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2004. The first-quarter figure marked a decline of 2.6 percent, or $1.33 trillion, from the final quarter of 2008.

Net worth represents total assets such as homes and checking accounts, minus liabilities like mortgages and credit card debt.

The damage to wealth in the first quarter came from the sinking stock market. The value of Americans' stock holdings dropped 5.8 percent from the final quarter of last year.

Another hit came from falling house prices. The value of household real-estate holdings fell 2.4 percent.

The latest snapshot of Americans' balance sheets was contained in the Fed's quarterly report called the flow of funds.

Despite the drop, the speed at which net worth shrunk slowed to start the year. During the recession's deepest point in the October-December period, Americans' net worth fell 8.6 percent, according to revised figures.

Aren't you feeling sad for the rich who lost so much of their holdings that we hear about (constantly) everyday on CNBC and the rest of the faux financial news channels? We definitely gotta get that part of the market cranking again. Right, Tim? And is there any chance at all that the real culprit/malefactor/ hellhound of the American Terror Visitation will be a focus of the Senate intelligence committee's investigation of torture? Don't bet on it. Suzan ____________