The following chart is from the CalculatedRisk blog post of December 10, 2015 titled “Fed’s Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth Declined in Q3.” It depicts Total Household Net Worth as a Percent of GDP. The underlying data is from the Federal Reserve’s Z.1 report, “Financial Accounts of the United States“:
(click on chart to enlarge image)
As seen in the above-referenced CalculatedRisk blog post:
Household net worth was at $85.2 trillion in Q3 2015, down from $86.4 trillion in Q2. The decline was due to the decline in the stock market in Q3.
The Fed estimated that the value of household real estate increased to $21.8 trillion in Q3 2015. The value of household real estate is still $0.7 trillion below the peak in early 2006 (not adjusted for inflation).
I have written in previous posts on this Household Net Worth (as a percent of GDP) topic:
As one can see, the first outsized peak was in 2000, and attained after the stock market bull market / stock market bubbles and economic strength. The second outsized peak was in 2007, right near the peak of the housing bubble as well as near the stock market peak.
also:
I could extensively write about various interpretations that can be made from this chart. One way this chart can be interpreted is a gauge of “what’s in it for me?” as far as the aggregated wealth citizens are gleaning from economic activity, as measured compared to GDP.
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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation
SPX at 2052.23 as this post is written