“Today the Fed released its estimates of household net worth as of the end of December 2020. Net worth has reached a new record high in nominal, real, and per capita terms.
...the private sector of the US economy currently has a net worth (total assets minus liabilities) of more than $130 trillion. That's up $12 trillion from a year ago, for a growth rate of 10%. Financial assets have done the best, but noteworthy is the relatively small increased in household liabilities since just before the Great Recession: liabilities have gone from $14.5 trillion at the end of 2007 to only $17.1 trillion as of a few months ago, for a growth rate of only 1.3% per year. Real estate holdings, meanwhile, have gone from $25.8 trillion (that was just after the peak of the housing boom) to $35.8 trillion at the end of 2020, for a growth rate of only 2.6% per year.
…Sadly, total federal debt held by the public is now roughly equal to our annual GDP (roughly $22 trillion). This is the highest level of debt by far since just after WW II. But relative to our net worth as a country, it is only slightly higher than it has been for most of the past decade. This is not a picture of impending disaster, but I sure wish we weren't going to be borrowing another $4-5 trillion this year.
...the private sector, fortunately, has been very prudent. ...private sector leverage: total household liabilities as a percent of total assets. Leverage today is as low as it has been since 1976, and it has declined by a huge 40% since the peak in early 2009."
(This is a very wealthy country dated 03/11/2021 by Scott Grannis, Chief Economist with Western Asset Management from 1979-2007 via http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com)
Read full article here: http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2021/03/this-is-very-wealthy-country.html