Aasof’s Reflections

NB Care needs to be taken in comparing statistics as they may not use the same criterion for a measured parameter.

Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management in their 2013 World Wealth Report (pdf), states that the HNWI population increased by 9.2% to reach 12.0 million, with aggregate investable wealth increasing by 10.0% to US$46.2 trillion (2% less than the 2009 estimation). Relatively stronger growth rates in higher wealth bands (US$5 million or more) led the growth of overall investable wealth globally. A brief view of this growth by geographical region is shown in the following slide show taken from the report.

A previous post included the following interactive graphic on global debt (including a global debt clock). Global government debt has created a taxation burden for those capable of servicing this government created debt. Debt burdens that are – for most part – greatest in Western democracies.

click to view

That HNWIs should seek to protect their wealth (as shown in the picture below) should not be a surprise. Governments always seek to buy electoral success with other peoples money,  Unfortunately, most non HNWIs are rarely able  to remove whatever capital they may have beyond the reach of such governments. Instead those whose wealth is held only in cash are in thrall to their government manipulating the purchasing power of their cash through its inevitable deflation.

There is of course the Tax Justice Network and similar initiatives, claiming to seek a more equitable distribution of a nation’s tax burden. Their objective being to prevent wealth that is created within a nation by HNWIs, from avoiding their ‘notional national tax obligations’. This is a complex issue on which governments take a narrow ‘nationalistic’ view, certainly not a global or regional economic view. Whatever a government’s view on equitable taxation may be, government consistently fail to finance their budget deficits with fiscal prudence. There is no indication that governments will do anything other than continue to increase its taxpayers national debt burden.