"Five months ago, readers would not have recognized S.W.F. as meaning sovereign wealth fund," said Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, referring to the funds set up by Russia, Norway and others to invest their oil profits.
The biggest sticking point in reaching a broader accord to relieve Greece of some of its crippling burden of debt is Germany, where Mrs. Merkel has steadfastly resisted using European resources — meaning the wealth of Germany and other relatively prosperous members of the union — to write down Greek debt.
This all means that Mammon (which isn't actually a word at all in Norwegian but one of murky, possibly Greek, etymology from the New Testament, meaning material wealth or greed that's personified) is a series you might want to give a go when it turns up on More4 this evening.
Solon's estimate was that if your father was twice as rich as mine, you are likely to be 40% richer than I am, meaning that wealth and privilege would last at least three generations.
Meanwhile, angel investors don't necessarily have enough capital, particularly those who may be respected operators but haven't yet enjoyed a major liquidity event yet, meaning their wealth continues to be tied up in their companies.
The next 4% own an additional 27% of the nation's wealth, meaning that the top 5% own 62% of our total wealth.
For individuals who already have all the earthly possessions that can possibly be amassed, could there be a better way to give meaning to vast wealth?
Those patterns repeat when looking at measures of wealth, meaning the value of a family's assets, like its house and savings account, minus the value of its debts, like mortgages and credit card balances.
To liberals, a lot of conservative thinking seems like a failure of logic: why would a conservative be against equal rights for women and yet despise the poor, when to liberate women into the world of work would create more wealth, meaning less poverty?
According to data compiled by economist Edward Wolff in 2007, 99% hold about two-thirds of American wealth, meaning the top 1% has nearly a third.
