Recession hit U.S. wealth almost twice as hard as global average
In the 1986 animated classic An American Tale, Fievel the mouse and his family immigrate from Russia in 1885 to the U.S., where “the streets are paved with cheese.” But if Fievel were looking for a more prosperous life today, he might be better off staying on his side of the Atlantic. According to a global wealth report released on the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brother’s bank, it’s Europe—not North America—that can now claim to be the richest region in the world. The report, authored by the Boston Consulting Group, found that during the recent downturn wealth dropped 22 per cent in the U.S.—almost twice the worldwide average. Though the U.S. is still the richest nation in the world, it’s no longer part of the the richest region. By comparing the value of assets held by the asset management industry, the group found that while North America had $29.3 trillion, Europe had around $32.7 trillion.