UCB Study Shows the Top 1% Came Back With a Bang Seizing 93% of Income Growth in the Economic Uptick

While the 100% took a big hit during the Great Recession, the 1% came roaring back seizing 93% of the income gains in 2010, according to a study by UC Berkeley’s Economics Professor Emmanuel Saez.

In his new paper called Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States, Saez says that from 2007 to 2009 the “average income per family declined by 17.4%." He says it's the largest two-year drop since the Great Depression.

Saez is “well known for his study of inequality” according to Business Insider. The paper calls him the “intellectual backbone” behind the 99% vs. 1% concept.

While the 1% has benefited most from the tepid upswing in the economy, they initially suffered the most. This is because the 1% get more of their income from capital gains when compared to the population at large. 

But the study says that when the economy did pick up in 2010, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery. Incomes for the top 1% grew by 11.6% while the bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. 

The doubling of the stock market in the last three years is “responsible for most of the gains of the wealthy since the recession,” according to Bankrate.com.