First, house prices have a bigger wealth effect on consumer spending, largely because more people own their homes than own shares.
Bank of America also had already taken in a bigger wealth manager, U.S. Trust, and had no need for the relatively small amounts of loans and deposits First Republic had to offer.
"When you live in that world of big wealth," Hussein explained, "there is a loss of purpose and a lot of: 'What am I doing?
That kind of money can change a place, even one as accustomed to big wealth as Greenwich.
Even so, correction is difficult, in part because the big wealth momentum booms leave behind a triple corruption: financial, political and philosophic.
Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum when labeled a small-hands man because he believes everything about him is huge: big wealth, big wall, big mouth.
Big beers, big wealth, big portions.
It commands the country's sole concentration of big wealth.
And they are exceptions.The big wealth gap polarises politics, too.
At Columbia, which is completing a $4 billion campaign that started six years ago, Lee Bollinger, the president, said, "Big ideas attract big gifts, because people of big wealth respond to opportunities for major institutional advancement and big opportunities for growth".
