MidnightCall Magazine
News From Israel MagazineThe Rich Get Richer
The ranks of the world’s millionaires grew 6% last year, as people in the emerging economies of India and China grew richer, according to an annual survey by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch.
The number of people with over $1 million to invest, not including the value of their homes or consumable goods, rose 6% to 10.1 million last year, the firms said in their World Wealth Report. The world’s millionaires increased the value of their assets by 9.4% to $40.7 trillion, less than the 11.4% rise in 2006.
India and China posted the biggest gains in millionaires, advancing by 23% and 20%, respectively.
Growth in the number of millionaires slowed to 2.1% in the UK, and about 4% in the US, according to the report. That was outpaced by an 8.7% rise in the Asia-Pacific region and 16% jump in west Asia.
The number of ultra-high net worth individuals, or people with net assets of at least $30 million, rose 8.8% to 103,320, according to the survey. High net worth individuals will amass wealth of $59.1 trillion by 2012, or annual growth of 7.7%, the survey predicted.
Wealthy individuals didn’t forgo expensive purchases last year. The Forbes cost of living extremely well index, which tracks the annual cost of a basket of goods including art and jewelry, rose 6.2% in 2007, compared with a year earlier, according to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.
Sales of some luxury goods have remained resilient in the face of tightening in global credit markets. Porsche SE, the maker of the 911 sports car, said that sales in the 10-months to May 31 rose 0.7%, with profit growth matching revenue gains, as drivers bought more Cayenne models.
-Times of India, 25 June 2008, pg. 23
This report confirms the fantastic progress that is being made around the world, especially in non-Western countries, as more people are getting rich than ever before. This, too, is part of the great deception of the end times. Power, success, and riches are the driving force behind the new global world order, which is none other than the worshiping of materialism. When judgment finally comes, people will be incapable of repenting: “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21).
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