Stop Press: Headline - The Rich are Getting Richer

According to those in the know who ought to know, the rich continue to get richer in the land of the free and the home of the brave. And you'll never get rich by digging a ditch if you're in the army now. Below are some excerpts from:

Boom in
Financial Markets
Parallels Rise in Share
For Wealthiest Americans
By GREG IP

The richest Americans' share of national income has hit a postwar record....

The wealthiest 1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005....

The bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all income, down from 13.4% in 2004....

In an interview yesterday with The Wall Street Journal, President Bush said, "First of all, our society has had income inequality for a long time....

The IRS data go back only to 1986, but academic research suggests the rich last had this high a share of total income in the 1920s.

The IRS data don't identify the source of increased income for the affluent, but the boom on Wall Street has likely played a part, ... soaring stock prices and buoyant credit markets had produced spectacular payouts for private-equity and hedge-fund managers, and investment bankers.

Mr. Rauh said "it's hard to escape the notion" that the rising share of income going to the very richest is, in part, "a Wall Street, financial industry-based story." The study shows that the highest-earning hedge-fund manager earned double in 2005 what the top earner made in 2003, and top 25 hedge-fund managers earned more in 2004 than the chief executives of all the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, combined.

And the sidebar commentary had these bits:

Scholars attribute rising inequality to several factors, including ... advances in communications that enlarge the rewards available to "superstar" performers whether in business, sports or entertainment. [Say what?]

Democrats may use the data to exploit middle-class angst about stagnant wages. [Exploit??]