Brave New Wealthy World: Winning the Struggle for World Prosperity

Chapter 4. Financial Assets: Catalysts of World Prosperity

A resplendent portfolio of financial assets is now the definitive emblem of economic success in the United States. Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds are not just baubles that rich people show off to impress the masses, however. These financial assets have become the prime mover of economic activity, the impetus that drives the wheels of progress and makes great cities hum and bustle. Their preeminence is relatively new, both as the gauge of success and as the motive force of economic activity. In bygone days, other possessions connoted economic success and symbolized status, and other prime movers drove the American machinery of production. For individuals, an earlier indicator of having ...