Lenny Dykstra was lauded for his heroics with the Mets and Philles. After his career, Dykstra became well-known as a post-career athlete success story. Then the truth started coming out... [more inside]
posted by reenum on Oct 27, 2009 - 22 comments

Maybe you shouldn't buy that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on May 16, 2009 - 63 comments

Dating A Banker Anonymous Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together – free from the scrutiny of feminists– and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. Via
posted by ColdChef on Jan 28, 2009 - 167 comments

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush. "The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup." [Via Firedoglake.]
posted by homunculus on Nov 18, 2007 - 70 comments

What it costs to live well in the United States. According to Forbes, living well for a family of four in New York City requires an annual income of $483,800, compared to $189,923 in Wichita, Kansas. Of course, living well, according to the methodology, involves a vacation home, a BMW 325i and a Lexus RX 330, weekends at the Ritz, and almost no savings, so you might want to skip one of these things if you are a few bucks shy. Also worth noting, the most expensive ZIP codes and houses in the United States (and the world). Are you living well?
posted by blahblahblah on Apr 25, 2006 - 83 comments

I'm the 24,519,565 richest person on earth! According to the Global Rich List, which says I make more than 99.506% of the people alive today. Only 24.5 million people between Bill Gates & myself...
posted by jonson on Oct 21, 2005 - 90 comments

How Rich is Too Rich For Democracy? At what point does great wealth held in a few hands actually harm democracy, threatening to turn a democratic republic into an oligarchy? It's a debate we haven't had freely and openly in this nation for nearly a century, and last week, by voting to end the Estate Tax, House Republicans tried to ensure that it wouldn't be had again in this generation. But it's a debate that's vital to the survival of democracy in America. In a letter to Joseph Milligan on April 6, 1816, Thomas Jefferson explicitly suggested that if individuals became so rich that their wealth could influence or challenge government, then their wealth should be decreased upon their death. He wrote, "If the overgrown wealth of an individual be deemed dangerous to the State, the best corrective is the law of equal inheritance to all in equal degree..."
posted by mk1gti on Apr 20, 2005 - 65 comments

Where Wealth Lives
"The top 1% of families, as measured by net worth, receive about 15% of income but own 30% of the nation's assets -- including stocks and bonds, homes, and closely held businesses. That's according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. The top 10% of families, as measured by net wealth, own 65% of assets, and the top 50% own a stunning 95% of assets..."
posted by kliuless on Apr 10, 2004 - 23 comments

Just how rich are you? The worlds 225 richest people have a combined wealth greater than the poorest 2.5 billion people. Where do you fit into the picture? via b3ta
posted by carfilhiot on Sep 5, 2003 - 63 comments

Soaking the Rich This post probably won't be very well received in this forum which is mostly consisted of lefties, but can you really justify stealing such a disproportionate amount from the rich?

Conventional wisdom holds, correctly, that income inequality has been increasing in recent years, though it still isn't as great now as in some past periods. But while incomes are distributed unequally, the federal tax burden is distributed far more unequally.
posted by VeGiTo on Apr 11, 2003 - 108 comments

Happiness has zip to do with money. Anyone heard of Geoffrey Miller? He has v. interesting things to say about the relationship between human nature, money and power. Here, he has another take on global anti-Americanism.
posted by theplayethic on Jan 17, 2002 - 21 comments

40 Richest Americans Under 40 And how was your year? Tiger just makes it with $160 million, but the ladies are shut out.
posted by owillis on Sep 6, 2001 - 22 comments

The global distribution of income is becoming ever more unequal. One of the proposed solutions? More charity by the ultra-rich.
posted by schoolie on Jun 18, 2001 - 10 comments

Rich to get richer thanks to new technology. The wealth of "high net-worth individuals" is set to leap by an annual 12 percent to $44.9 trillion by 2004 with technology windfalls pushing more people into the "ultra-rich" category, a Merrill Lynch and Gemini Consulting survey showed on Tuesday.
posted by sonofsamiam on May 3, 2000 - 2 comments

You've probably all seen this in email form. Now someone has charted the amount of money Bill Gates can drop on the ground and not pick up.
posted by mathowie on Jul 29, 1999 - 0 comments