Academic Claims Wal-Mart Heirs' Wealth Equals Net Worth of America's Bottom 30%

If your net worth places you in the bottom three-tenths of all Americans, you have something in common with the Walton family.

According to a UC-Berkeley labor economist, the combined wealth of the half-dozen Walton relatives of Wal-Mart founders Sam and James Walton equals the entire net worth of the lowest 30% of Americans. The academic's study was reported in today's online editions of the LA Times.

Ironically, it is the lowest income echelons of American society that tends to shop at Wal-Mart.

By the way, the same LA Times blog noted that, according to the Federal Reserve, household net worth fell 4% from July 2011 to this past September.

Given this bleak news, does anyone still assert that this is a December to remember?

Netflix-Style Streaming Video, Brought to You By Wal-Mart

The least likely Hollywood entry, Wal-Mart, has just taken the plunge into providing streaming video to the masses. The Bentonville, Arkansas firm, courtesy of its website, offers the service on a rental or purchase basis. It is hard to fathom obtaining, say, Rules of the Game or Boogie Nights from Wal-Mart. However, what was once inconceivable is now the norm.

The story appeared in today's LA Times.

The Great Recession Observed by Wal-Mart CEO

A note from Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS Financial Services, was posted today in the financial blog Zero Hedge. Cashin's comments include the following observation from Wal-Mart's CEO:

"About 11 p.m. customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket wth basic items -- baby formula, milk, bread, eggs -- and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight when government electronic benefits cards get activated, and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher."

Based on the quote, and your own anecdotal evidence, do you think the Great Recession is over? All comments are welcome.

PS. The Dorothea Lange photograph above is titled "Dispossessed Arkansas farmers, Bakersfield, California," courtesy of the Library of Congress.