January 16, 2026
Pitchfork emojis meet spreadsheet warriors
The wealth of the top% reaches a record $52T
Wall Street rockets, comments erupt with Bastille jokes and calculator wars
TLDR: Top 1% wealth hit a record $52T and the top 10% $113T, mostly thanks to soaring stocks. Comments split between fiery inequality jokes, calculator-driven fact checks, and warnings that if markets wobble, the big spenders at the top pull back—putting the broader economy at risk.
The rich just got richer and the internet is not chill about it. New Fed data says the top 1% now sit on a record $52 trillion, while the top 10% have $113 trillion. Cue the drama: one commenter quipped it “has ways to go before it reaches Bastille levels,” while another dropped a Gandhi zinger about need vs. greed. The vibe? Half outrage, half memes, with a side of “is this sustainable?” The math nerds showed up too. One user broke it down to about $15.3 million per person in the 1%, while another started subtracting shares of wealth between the 1% and 10%, sparking a mini flamewar over who’s counting what. Another commenter pushed a “rule of thumb”: the top 10% hold roughly half of assets—and nearly half of all spending. Translation: the “K-shaped economy” (some go up, others don’t) is very real. And since the top 10% own 87% of stocks, the whole thing rides on the market. As Moody’s Mark Zandi warns, a market stumble could spook the big spenders—and the rest of us feel it. Expect more spreadsheets, more snark, and possibly more Fed charts. The only thing climbing faster than portfolios? The comment count.
Key Points
- •Top 10% of U.S. households’ wealth reached a record $113 trillion in Q2, adding $5 trillion from Q1, per Federal Reserve data.
- •Top 1% wealth hit a record $52 trillion in Q2, up $4 trillion year over year (+7%).
- •Top 0.1% (net worth ≥ $46M) grew wealth 10% over the past year, nearly doubling since the pandemic to over $23 trillion.
- •The top 10% hold 67% of total household wealth; the top 1% hold 29%, and the bottom 90% hold 33%.
- •Top 10% hold over 87% of corporate equities and mutual funds; their holdings rose from $39T to over $44T over the past year.