The 400 Club

How much wealth does the top one percent of Americans possess? It's a tough question to accurately answer, given the realities of complex holdings and offshore accounts. However, the legitimate financial world provides a clue into this ambiguous, labyrinthine world.

According to a post in Zero Hedge, in tax year 2007, 400 Americans paid 10% of the nation's total capital gains tax. That translates to $91 billion in pre-TARP dollars. That's over $227 million in cap gains tax per person, if one crudely divides 400 into the government's take.

One wonders what the take-home pay was for each of the Fortunate 400. And then one ponders which of the fo' hundred were Bernie Madoff's special friends.

The photograph shows a bank building in the Cayman Islands.