Surprise, surprise: the rich got richer

The number of millionaires in the United States and Canada increased by 14 percent last year as the stock market rallied, according to a report by Cap Gemini Ernst Young and Merrill Lynch. Today, about one of every 130 Americans has more than $1 million of shares, bonds and other financial assets. Their riches rose 14 percent, to a total of $8.5 trillion. That growth was stronger than in Europe, home to the greatest proportion of wealthy people, and in Asia. Eight of the world's 10 richest people come from the United States, according to Forbes magazine. Bill Gates, 48, was the world's richest person for the seventh consecutive year in 2003 with a net worth rising 14 percent to $46.6 billion. Millionaires' wealth is likely to expand further. The report predicted global assets to swell to $40.7 trillion by 2008 from $28.8 trillion at the end of last year.
The U.S. Senate is also a growing millionaires club. No wonder theses guys
approved Bush's tax cuts plan for the wealthy as part of an "economic stimulus" package last year. A package, by the way, with which the President and his Cabinet is estimated to receive a total tax cut of $800,993 to $3.2 million per year.