Attention, Nieman Marcus Shoppers…

Wall Street Journal: Post-Recession, the Rich Are Different: “Lyndie Benson says she now mentally calculates the price per wear’ of designer clothing.” But 62 percent of wealthy people surveyed don’t wait for items to go on sale.

But Wal-Mart is Having a Furniture Sale

SF Chronicle: $65 million will buy you an unfinished mansion on S.F.’s Gold Coast. It would be one of the most expensive houses ever sold in San Francisco – a neoclassical villa with a four-story floating staircase and glass atrium, a facade of French limestone and a roof of 19th century Florentine tile is on […]

Weeping About $250,000 Income

SF Chronicle letter to the editor: Clinton’s health-care plan is unfair. Hillary Clinton’s health proposal to tax those who make more than $250,000 to cover the cost is just plain wrong. She considers working couples, doctors, lawyers and business people who are in this tax range as wealthy. This is unfair to those who want […]

Real Estate Bubble Babies

Washington Post: Sunbelt City in Grasp of Housing Undertow. Or talk to the Shevlins, a real-estate agent and a carpenter, whose combined incomes dropped from $350,000 to less than $60,000 in two years. Now they are down to a middle-class income.

That Tuition Must be Millions a Semester

CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviewed Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide, the huge mortgage and financial company whose stock has been taking a beating as the housing bubble has started to deflate. He’s been selling enormous amounts of stock in the last year, making about $129 million, or about a third of the $406 million he’s collected […]

Only $25,000 an Hour, Sniffle

Michael Kinsley, channeling a private equity baron: So now they want to take away our special tax break and tax our income like everybody else’s. Let’s get real. Last year I made $300 million and paid 15 percent of that in taxes, leaving me with $255 million. If I had to pay 35 percent like […]

How Sad for Them

NY Times: In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich. (M)any such accomplished and ambitious members of the digital elite still do not think of themselves as particularly fortunate, in part because they are surrounded by people with more wealth — often a lot more. When chief executives are routinely paid tens of millions of […]

When $200,000 a Day Just Doesn’t Cut It

Wall Street Journal: Why $70 Million Wasn’t Enough. Mark McGoldrick earned about $70 million in pay last year — nearly $200,000 a day — placing bets using Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s money. He was one of Goldman’s highest-paid employees. Turns out it wasn’t enough. Send your donations right away.