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Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

The 2008 financial crisis affected everyone, including the wealthy. In terms of reported net worth, young (<40) White, Asian or other Minority college grads were affected the most with a decline of 54.1% of wealth, compared to that of young African-American or Hispanic non college grads (15% decline).

That's not to say the pain felt was greater or even the same as those with less, but it is simply not true that somehow the wealthy remain unscathed from financial crisis. It doesn't even make sense at face value considering they have a large percentage of their wealth in the market and likely have a higher risk tolerance. In fact financial crisis reduces wealth inequality precisely because it affects the wealthy capital owner more

https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/j...

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I think parent poster is talking about wealthy people, not college grads with good jobs. They're talking people who can see a market opportunity and invest a few spare million, then make a 100% profit when the market rebounds a few years later.

These wealthy people don't have a crystal ball and we're likely highly invested in the market at time of crash.

> The top 1% had an average income of $1.26 million in 2014, a 19.1% decrease compared to $1.56 million in 2007, according to an analysis of tax data from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Paris School of Economics. It’s even worse news for the top 0.01%, whose average income fell to 27.4% from 2007 to a mere $29 million in 2014.

http://money.com/money/4264052/great-recession-impact-rich-1...

Talking about taxable incomes for the top .01% is silly. You should google the paradise papers or just do some basic reading. Wage workers have incomes that are a function of their job, the top .01% have income from a variety of sources and probably have tax specialists to help them adjust their income up or down to be most favorable given prevailing economic situation.

> You should google the paradise papers or just do some basic reading

Saying "you should google ..." is not a source. If you want to provide a source for your claim about some group, back it up. You're not making meaningful contribution to the discussion.

Yes, the very wealthy have a variety of sources of income (e.g. stocks) and those dropped greatly in value. Unemployment peaked at maybe 10% during the crisis. So some percentage of people lost jobs while the wealthiest who have most their wealth in capital that dropped 30%.

Ironically, having tax exempt investments hurts when your portfolio drops in value as you won't be able to write those off.

You are talking about the middle class. I am talking about people with more wealth than Bill Gates. The people who don’t have accountants and advisors, only own a one or two properties and maybe a million or so stashed for retirement; these people suffered more than Soros or Buffett.

> when the market rebounds a few years later.

mean while, all their existing investments plummets. Unless you see them pull out of their investments prior to the crisis, there's very little evidence to support this claim that a financial crisis is good for the wealthy.

If the wealthy has any choice, they would overwhelmingly choose not to have a financial crisis.

Short selling and hedging mitigate this risk significantly. It's easier to do this if you have money

If you dont have 100k liquid and you are playing in the stock market you are the person who is paying for everyone else to be there.

ever hear of options trading?

> mean while, all their existing investments plummets

That's not a huge problem if you can cut expenses and live off the dividend income and your other assets for a few years.

Timing market isn't quite as easy as it seems from looking back historical charts

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