first here s my take. much of the talk about dabos has been about inequality. president obama will focus on inequality in his state of the union. the pope is holding a meeting on it, which obama will attend. usa today has a new poll out that shows that the american public is increasingly concerned about inequality and wants the government to do something about it. people are bandying about new statistics such as this one released by oxfam this week. the world s 85 richest people own as much as do the poorest 3.5 billion put together. if you put this in american terms alone, the six heirs to the walmart fortune have a net worth that is larger than the poorest 48.8 million american families put together. these are staggering numbers, and it does make for some envy and resentment. but as i ve argued before, inequality is made of three
spending, all things that at one point had bipartisan support no longer. new york times reports chances of unemployment benefits extension before congress a adjourns are weak. walmart giving food items to other walmart workers. such helpful corporate advice is popular. last month mcdonald s help line advised them to apply for food stamps to supplement their meager wage. the outrageousness of this is made more outrageous by the fact corporate profits at an awetime high. in part because wages as a percent of gdp are at an all time low. who wins big when the little guy loses. in this story six heirs to the walmart fortune, who with over $100 billion to their names are worth the same amount as the bottom 40% of this country.
the u.s. central bank is hoping to kick start america s sluggish economy by selling $40 billion of short-term treasuries in exchange for the same amount of longer-term bonds. the idea is to push long-term interest rates lower even though they re already at record low ts. those are the headlines from cnn, the world s news leader. world business today starts now. hello, and a warm welcome to world business today, i m manisha tank in hon con. i m nina desantos. the stock markets take a tumble. troubled tech giant hewlett packard could be about to give is boss a boot after barely a year in the job. i feel terrible. can t sleep at night because you re thinking how are you going to pay for the family s bills. not being able to pay your bills for five months. in sfan the public sector workers are taking matters into their own hands for now. let s kickoff with the markets. the only thing you can be certain of is uncertainty itself. yet again more wild swings on stock
walmart s owners, that s sam walton s family, the walton s own walmart, they are the heirs to the walmart fortune, which is worth you know, this may be dated it may be more or less now, about $86 billion. that s what this family is worth. one family, 86 billion. they re doing pretty good. if we abolish the estate taxes as our republican friends would have us do. have us do, the walton family alone would receive an estimated $32.7 billion tax break if the estate tax was completely removed. one family. $32.7 billion. this is patently insane. this is insane. that is not a hypothetical. this is not some fanciful misspelled rant on a poster at a hunt for peace rally. and i know hunt for peace rallies. that argument is true. it s one of the substantive objections to what s wrong with
the rich. it is is the very, very, very rich. walmart s owners, that s sam walton s family, the walton s own walmart, they are the heirs to the walmart fortune, which is worth you know, this may be dated it may be more or less now, about $86 billion. that s what this family is worth. one family, 86 billion. they re doing pretty good. if we abolish the estate taxes as our republican friends would have us do. the walton family alone would receive an estimated 32.7 billion in tax breaks if the estate tax was completely removed. this is patently insane. that is not a hypothetical. this is not some fanciful