The rich are not only getting richer, they are becoming more dangerous. Starting in the early 1980s the top one percent (1%) broke away from the rest of us to become the most unstable force in the economy. An elite that had once been the flat line on the American income charts - models of financial propriety - suddenly set off on a wild ride of economic binges.
Not only do they control more than a third of the country’s wealth, their increasing vulnerability to the booms and busts of the stock market wreak havoc on our consumer economy, financial markets, communities, employment opportunities, and government finances.
Robert Frank’s insightful analysis provides the disturbing big picture of high-beta wealth. His vivid storytelling brings you inside the mortgaged mansions, blown-up balance sheets, repossessed Bentleys and Gulfstreams, and wrecked lives and relationships:
• How one couple frittered away a fortune trying to build America’s biggest house —90,000 square feet with 23 full bathrooms, a 6,000 square foot master suite with a bed on a rotating platform—only to be forced to put it on the market because “we really need the money”.
• Repo men who are now the scavengers of the wealthy, picking up private jets, helicopters, yachts and racehorses – the shiny remains of a decade of conspicuous consumption financed with debt, asset bubbles, “liquidity events,” and soaring stock prices.
• How “big money ruins everything” for communities such as Aspen, Colorado whose over-reliance on the rich created a stratified social scene of velvet ropes and A-lists and crises in employment opportunities, housing, and tax revenues.
• Why California’s worst budget crisis in history is due in large part to reliance on the volatile incomes of the state’s tech tycoons.
• The bitter divorce of a couple who just a few years ago made the Forbes 400 list of the richest people, the firing of their enormous household staff of 110, and how one former spouse learned the marvels of shopping at Marshalls, filling your own gas tank, and flying commercial.
Robert Frank’s stories and analysis brilliantly show that the emergence of the high-beta rich is not just a high-class problem for the rich. High-beta wealth has national consequences: America’s dependence on the rich + great volatility among the rich = a more volatile America.
Cycles of wealth are now much faster and more extreme. The rich are a new “Potemkin Plutocracy” and the important lessons and consequences are brought to light of day in this engrossing book.
high-beta rich (hi be’ta rich) 1. a newly discovered personality type of the America upper class prone to wild swings in wealth. 2. the winners (and occasional losers) in an economy that creates wealth from financial markets, asset bubbles and deals. 3. derived from the Wall Street term “high-beta,” meaning highly volatile or prone to booms and busts. 4. an elite that’s capable of wreaking havoc on communities, jobs, government finances, and the consumer economy. 5. a new Potemkin plutocracy that hides a mountain of debt behind the image of success, and is one crisis away from losing their mansions, private jets and yachts.
The High-Beta Rich
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Fascinating.”—Financial Times
“The High-Beta Rich is one that deserves to be read, and not just because it provides the rest of us with a cathartic dose of schadenfreude at the expense of the super-wealthy. Robert Frank makes a new, contrarian argument with important implications for economic policymaking: modern wealth is a far more volatile substance than is commonly believed.” ¯The Economist
“Frank writes in a pleasingly breezy style and makes a convincing argument that the volatile earnings and spending of the high-beta rich have wound up distorting communities, the economy and government.” ¯Bloomberg
“While the recession continues to wreak havoc in the economic lives of the nation’s middle- and low-income population, Frank provides a cogent explanation of how megabillionaires have contributed to today’s economic conditions and heightened economic inequities. Furthermore, he shows that few are genuinely interested in job creation or the long-term prosperity of others.”
¯Publishers Weekly
“When most people write about the very wealthy, they cannot stop themselves from either sneering or drooling with envy. Robert Frank is different. He writes with great panache -- and insight, and curiosity -- about a slice of Americana whose behavior affects the rest of us more than we might think. A great read."
--Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics
“Robert Frank has uncovered one of the most important new forces shaping our economy: the increasing volatility of the wealthy. Filled with gripping human stories and ground-breaking analysis, The High-Beta Rich will change the way you think about wealth and the American economy. Funny, smart and memorable.”
--Nouriel Roubini, Economist, author of Crisis Economics
“Lively and insightful. Money, a primitive but useful motivator, also exacerbates the most basic human tendencies and amplifies a society's characteristics and cycles, like the US's overconsumption binge. The High-Beta Rich gives an excellent portrait of these excesses.”
--Nicolas Berggruen, billionaire financier, philanthropist
“The High-Beta Rich vividly illustrates how the wealthy and those they employ have become increasingly tied to the vicissitudes of the stock market and the macroeconomy . It is a cautionary tale for all."
--Steven Neil Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
"If you, like I, have had it up to here with the rich, you will love the chapter about the repo men who specialize in yachts."
--Joe Queenan, Columnist, author of Closing Time
“The High-Beta Rich is one that deserves to be read, and not just because it provides the rest of us with a cathartic dose of schadenfreude at the expense of the super-wealthy. Robert Frank makes a new, contrarian argument with important implications for economic policymaking: modern wealth is a far more volatile substance than is commonly believed.” ¯The Economist
“Frank writes in a pleasingly breezy style and makes a convincing argument that the volatile earnings and spending of the high-beta rich have wound up distorting communities, the economy and government.” ¯Bloomberg
“While the recession continues to wreak havoc in the economic lives of the nation’s middle- and low-income population, Frank provides a cogent explanation of how megabillionaires have contributed to today’s economic conditions and heightened economic inequities. Furthermore, he shows that few are genuinely interested in job creation or the long-term prosperity of others.”
¯Publishers Weekly
“When most people write about the very wealthy, they cannot stop themselves from either sneering or drooling with envy. Robert Frank is different. He writes with great panache -- and insight, and curiosity -- about a slice of Americana whose behavior affects the rest of us more than we might think. A great read."
--Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics
“Robert Frank has uncovered one of the most important new forces shaping our economy: the increasing volatility of the wealthy. Filled with gripping human stories and ground-breaking analysis, The High-Beta Rich will change the way you think about wealth and the American economy. Funny, smart and memorable.”
--Nouriel Roubini, Economist, author of Crisis Economics
“Lively and insightful. Money, a primitive but useful motivator, also exacerbates the most basic human tendencies and amplifies a society's characteristics and cycles, like the US's overconsumption binge. The High-Beta Rich gives an excellent portrait of these excesses.”
--Nicolas Berggruen, billionaire financier, philanthropist
“The High-Beta Rich vividly illustrates how the wealthy and those they employ have become increasingly tied to the vicissitudes of the stock market and the macroeconomy . It is a cautionary tale for all."
--Steven Neil Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
"If you, like I, have had it up to here with the rich, you will love the chapter about the repo men who specialize in yachts."
--Joe Queenan, Columnist, author of Closing Time
About the Author
ROBERT FRANK is the Wealth Reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, "Richistan." His blog, The Wealth Report, was named by Time magazine as one of the nation's most influential business blogs. He is one of the nation's leading authorities on wealth and is a frequent contributor to NPR, ABC News, and Fox Business.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is an excellent book about a little known subject: Plutonomy. The Plutonomy theory was advanced in 2005 by three Citigroup stock analysts, including Ajay Kapur mentioned in the book. Their research report was called "Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances." This theory was so controversial that Citigroup removed it from its website. The main point is that the rich (typically defined as the top 1% of earners) control a very large and rising share of national consumer spending. Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics uncovered that the top 5% of American earners account for 37% of consumer spending (up from 25% in 1990). This same group has also the lowest savings rate at 1.4% vs 8% for the rest of Americans. Therefore, their spending habits have a disproportionate impact on the overall economy including our savings rate and related Current Account Deficit.
Robert Frank advances the Plutonomy theory further by tying Ajay Kapur's work with the working paper of two Northwestern University economists, Jonathan A. Parker and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen titled "The Increase in Income Cyclicality of High-Income Households..." Fusing those two works, Robert Frank states that since 1982 the rich have become risk takers and gamblers. This is because starting in 1982 government policies have favored risk taking by lowering interest rates, inflation, and taxes, and deregulating the financial markets. The combination of those policies contributed to an excessive extension of real estate credit and a succession of real estate and stock market bubbles caused in part by the High-Beta Rich exploiting the mentioned government policies.
One of the most powerful insights from this book is that the High-Beta Rich are very vulnerable and associated with a rapid turnover among their ranks. Among the top 1% of American earners (income > $380,000), only half made the cut more than once over a ten-year period (pg. 217). Frank also shows two charts early in the book that compare the gains and losses in income of the top 1% in the U.S. vs all taxpayers. Before 1982, the fate of both groups was similar. Then, after 1982 the two groups diverged radically. Whether up or down, the changes for the top 1% became a high multiple vs the norm. The top 1% boosted their income a lot more during expansions. But, their loss was also far greater during contractions. This is because the High-Beta Rich have a surprisingly low savings rate and are very leveraged. Their leverage does multiply both their gains and their losses. The mentioned economists uncovered that before 1982, the top 1% had a Beta of less than 1 (meaning they took less risk than the general population and their fortune was less volatile). But, after 1982 their Beta jumped to between 2 and 3 as they took on far more risk than the general population. Their high Beta is due to a greater concentration of their wealth in volatile assets such as stocks and real estate and a greater leverage.
The High-Beta Rich volatile income causes chronic Budget Deficits at all levels. In California the top 1% of earners were paying 41% of taxes during the dot.com boom in the late 90s. Capital gains taxes accounted for a large share of tax receipts. When the dot.com Bubble burst California tax revenues tanked and it experienced chronic State Budget deficit crises in the early 2000s. However, by 2007 the top 1% of earners were accounting for an even greater share of CA State tax receipts at 48% (nearly half!). This was due to a recovery in the stock market (capital gains tax) and the housing boom (property tax). The ensuing financial crisis caused the rich income to drop by three times as much as the general population (Beta of 3). By 2011 California tax revenues cratered associated with a $26 billion budget hole. The same is true for New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut with many High-Beta Rich. It is true at the Federal level as the top 1% earners pay more than 38% of federal income taxes.
Frank states that the financial behavior of the High-Beta Rich contributes to exacerbating business cycles with more bubbles and ensuing crashes of greater magnitude and greater frequency than otherwise. Large concentration of wealth may be both a cause and effect of bubbles. Speculative asset bubbles correspond to periods of highest inequality. By 2007, the US top 1% controlled 34% of the nation's residential real estate. Between 1989 and 2007, they increased their relative exposure to real estate by 50% by quadrupling their mortgage debt level over the same period.
If you want to further study the impact of deleveraging, the best book on the subject is Irving Fisher The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions. Originally published in 1933, it also better explains the current financial crisis than most current books.
Robert Frank advances the Plutonomy theory further by tying Ajay Kapur's work with the working paper of two Northwestern University economists, Jonathan A. Parker and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen titled "The Increase in Income Cyclicality of High-Income Households..." Fusing those two works, Robert Frank states that since 1982 the rich have become risk takers and gamblers. This is because starting in 1982 government policies have favored risk taking by lowering interest rates, inflation, and taxes, and deregulating the financial markets. The combination of those policies contributed to an excessive extension of real estate credit and a succession of real estate and stock market bubbles caused in part by the High-Beta Rich exploiting the mentioned government policies.
One of the most powerful insights from this book is that the High-Beta Rich are very vulnerable and associated with a rapid turnover among their ranks. Among the top 1% of American earners (income > $380,000), only half made the cut more than once over a ten-year period (pg. 217). Frank also shows two charts early in the book that compare the gains and losses in income of the top 1% in the U.S. vs all taxpayers. Before 1982, the fate of both groups was similar. Then, after 1982 the two groups diverged radically. Whether up or down, the changes for the top 1% became a high multiple vs the norm. The top 1% boosted their income a lot more during expansions. But, their loss was also far greater during contractions. This is because the High-Beta Rich have a surprisingly low savings rate and are very leveraged. Their leverage does multiply both their gains and their losses. The mentioned economists uncovered that before 1982, the top 1% had a Beta of less than 1 (meaning they took less risk than the general population and their fortune was less volatile). But, after 1982 their Beta jumped to between 2 and 3 as they took on far more risk than the general population. Their high Beta is due to a greater concentration of their wealth in volatile assets such as stocks and real estate and a greater leverage.
The High-Beta Rich volatile income causes chronic Budget Deficits at all levels. In California the top 1% of earners were paying 41% of taxes during the dot.com boom in the late 90s. Capital gains taxes accounted for a large share of tax receipts. When the dot.com Bubble burst California tax revenues tanked and it experienced chronic State Budget deficit crises in the early 2000s. However, by 2007 the top 1% of earners were accounting for an even greater share of CA State tax receipts at 48% (nearly half!). This was due to a recovery in the stock market (capital gains tax) and the housing boom (property tax). The ensuing financial crisis caused the rich income to drop by three times as much as the general population (Beta of 3). By 2011 California tax revenues cratered associated with a $26 billion budget hole. The same is true for New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut with many High-Beta Rich. It is true at the Federal level as the top 1% earners pay more than 38% of federal income taxes.
Frank states that the financial behavior of the High-Beta Rich contributes to exacerbating business cycles with more bubbles and ensuing crashes of greater magnitude and greater frequency than otherwise. Large concentration of wealth may be both a cause and effect of bubbles. Speculative asset bubbles correspond to periods of highest inequality. By 2007, the US top 1% controlled 34% of the nation's residential real estate. Between 1989 and 2007, they increased their relative exposure to real estate by 50% by quadrupling their mortgage debt level over the same period.
If you want to further study the impact of deleveraging, the best book on the subject is Irving Fisher The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions. Originally published in 1933, it also better explains the current financial crisis than most current books.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
"The smell of espresso and freshly basked croissants fills the private-jet terminal of Orlando Sanford International Airport." This visual detail makes Robert Frank's writing vivid and convincing. He goes on to describe how a Repo Man and his partner recover assets from the rich. Amazing skills they have to pick up private jets and luxury yachts that have fallen into the hands of creditors.
The stories are scary - a reminder of how easily fortunes are made and lost. The book is peppered with quotations, statistics and charts. "In 2007,..., the richest 1% of Americans held more than $3.5 trillion in residential real estate, or about 34% if the nation's total." The author highlights the spending differences between rich and poor Americans. The top 1% earn 20% of the US's income and pay 38% of federal income taxes.
A particularly sad story is the demise of stores in the Rocky Mountain resort of Aspen and the corresponding drop in house prices. From a small town, the author moves to the state of California. The analysis of state income follies and overspent budgets is shallow, but highly readable.
Finally the author gives some ideas for surviving in highly volatile stock markets. He encourages savings and rainy day funds.
This books dire warnings and heartbreaking examples should be read by all who want to avoid a financial catastrophe. Thorough research and clear writing makes this a great book for anyone interested in wealth, from butlers to billionaires.
The stories are scary - a reminder of how easily fortunes are made and lost. The book is peppered with quotations, statistics and charts. "In 2007,..., the richest 1% of Americans held more than $3.5 trillion in residential real estate, or about 34% if the nation's total." The author highlights the spending differences between rich and poor Americans. The top 1% earn 20% of the US's income and pay 38% of federal income taxes.
A particularly sad story is the demise of stores in the Rocky Mountain resort of Aspen and the corresponding drop in house prices. From a small town, the author moves to the state of California. The analysis of state income follies and overspent budgets is shallow, but highly readable.
Finally the author gives some ideas for surviving in highly volatile stock markets. He encourages savings and rainy day funds.
This books dire warnings and heartbreaking examples should be read by all who want to avoid a financial catastrophe. Thorough research and clear writing makes this a great book for anyone interested in wealth, from butlers to billionaires.
20 of 24 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great story telling about individuals, but the big picture is a bit fuzzy
October 8, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Robert Frank is a good journalist. He knows how to write a sentence and manages to get people to open up and say things they probably shouldn't say. Frank has found a few colorful people who made a ton of money and lost it all in the 2008 crash to open up the doors of their half built mansions and rundown pickups and tell their life stories. These are engaging individuals and Frank mines their stories well. These people were all hard workers who benefited from the real estate boom in the 1980s to 2000s before their wealth went poof.
Where Frank comes up short is in his attempts to tie these personal stories to his thesis that the wealthy today are far less risk averse in their investing than those in the past. They are "high-beta" rich, making more money during boom years and losing more money during recessions. His examples don't come from a broad swath of the wealthy. All of them are real-estate based tycoons. The Great Recession was hard on real estate, which unlike the stock market has yet to recover. The unanswered question is how common and widespread is the catastrophic wealth loss detailed in this book. I believe that those that invested in travel related real estate - time shares and vacation homes for the rich, which was the source of wealth for the handful of people examined here - suffered greatly. But those in other sectors of real estate and finance seem to be managing just fine by and large. Frank may be cherry picking to try to make his point.
Frank relies on data that show, on average for the last 30 years, the wealthiest one percent of this country have done worse during recessions and better in good times than the rest of the population. But those are averages and they mask details. A small percentage of billionaires losing it all (and making it all during economic booms) could easily skew results.
High fliers have always existed in America. I've seen them in real estate (my childhood best friend's father went boom and bust in real estate in the 1950s). I've seen them in finance. What is different today in comparison to the 1970s is that conspicuous consumption is considered to be not only socially acceptable but desirable. The nature of investing has changed dramatically as well. Frank would like you to believe that the way the billionaires of today invest puts this country in peril. But that isn't quite right. It isn't individual investing that's the real driver. It's the institutional investors representing charities, pension funds, et al. That's where the money driving the markets is principally coming from and to the extent that they buy risky investments they put both this country and their benefactors in peril.
Frank documents all the lavish spending taking place among the mega-rich in a lively way. He makes their lives sound both comical and tragic. The attempt to go from the particular examples shown here to the nationwide implications of the spending and asset loss of the wealthiest one percent is probably mostly hyperbole.
Where Frank comes up short is in his attempts to tie these personal stories to his thesis that the wealthy today are far less risk averse in their investing than those in the past. They are "high-beta" rich, making more money during boom years and losing more money during recessions. His examples don't come from a broad swath of the wealthy. All of them are real-estate based tycoons. The Great Recession was hard on real estate, which unlike the stock market has yet to recover. The unanswered question is how common and widespread is the catastrophic wealth loss detailed in this book. I believe that those that invested in travel related real estate - time shares and vacation homes for the rich, which was the source of wealth for the handful of people examined here - suffered greatly. But those in other sectors of real estate and finance seem to be managing just fine by and large. Frank may be cherry picking to try to make his point.
Frank relies on data that show, on average for the last 30 years, the wealthiest one percent of this country have done worse during recessions and better in good times than the rest of the population. But those are averages and they mask details. A small percentage of billionaires losing it all (and making it all during economic booms) could easily skew results.
High fliers have always existed in America. I've seen them in real estate (my childhood best friend's father went boom and bust in real estate in the 1950s). I've seen them in finance. What is different today in comparison to the 1970s is that conspicuous consumption is considered to be not only socially acceptable but desirable. The nature of investing has changed dramatically as well. Frank would like you to believe that the way the billionaires of today invest puts this country in peril. But that isn't quite right. It isn't individual investing that's the real driver. It's the institutional investors representing charities, pension funds, et al. That's where the money driving the markets is principally coming from and to the extent that they buy risky investments they put both this country and their benefactors in peril.
Frank documents all the lavish spending taking place among the mega-rich in a lively way. He makes their lives sound both comical and tragic. The attempt to go from the particular examples shown here to the nationwide implications of the spending and asset loss of the wealthiest one percent is probably mostly hyperbole.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Speculation seems to control so much
I thought this was an interesting book. It so often seems like speculation controls so much. It isn't that the gas supply is out of synch it is the speculation of the change of... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Stephanie Manley
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Of all the classes, the wealthy are the most noticed and the least...
The stories of the very wealthy falling into poverty usually arouse that guilty pleasure of schadenfreude in watching the lucky fail. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Amelia Gremelspacher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading and rereading with each new boom and bust cycle
This book by Robert Frank, a follow up to his book 'Richistan,' presents an interesting thesis, one that appears timely again in 2013. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Steve Ruskin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely read
Great book, written in a down to earth, interesting manner. Actually comforting to know that even the wealthy can have their lives turned upside down if they are not careful.
Published 2 months ago by Elaine P. Salter
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Hobo Philosopher
The High-Beta Rich
By Robert Frank
Book Review
By Richard E. Noble
This book, written by a Wall Street Journal senior writer, consists... Read more
By Robert Frank
Book Review
By Richard E. Noble
This book, written by a Wall Street Journal senior writer, consists... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Richard E. Noble
1.0 out of 5 stars
He obviously has an axe to grind
Robert Frank obviously has an axe to grind with the wealthy, and I suspect it comes from years of toiling as a writer with not much to show for it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by engage1
3.0 out of 5 stars
Important Subject, Good Stories, Weak Analysis
Robert Frank sits in the catbird seat for the WSJ, writing about the Rich and Famous. Here, he writes a dozen interesting stories about personal wealth collapse after the dot-com... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Tom K.
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Ain't Rocket Science
What it is, is an entertaining book that simply reinforces that a common sense approach to wealth is not practiced by the ultra wealthy. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Kathy Edens
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lifestyles of the Rich and Formerly Rich
Beta is an investing term that refers to the volatility of a price. High-beta stocks can go way up at a moment's notice, but they can also go way down. Read more
Published 8 months ago by J. Ott
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great story teller but light on context
Robert Frank has written a very entertaining book, and for those of us who read his blog when he was at the Wall Street Journal (he is now at CNBC), the stories and the characters... Read more
Published 10 months ago by A music fan
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