And it is not just instruments or paintings in high demand among the world’s billionaire set. Welcome to the longest U.S. economic expansion in history, one perhaps best characterized by the excesses of extreme wealth and an ever-widening chasm between the unfathomably rich and everyone else. Indeed, as the expansion entered its record-setting 121st month on Monday, signs of a new Gilded Age are all over. “The rich have gotten richer and they’ve gotten richer faster,” said John Mathews, Head of Private Wealth Management and Ultra High Net Worth at UBS Global Wealth Management. Economic policymakers think the expansion could dim as stimulus from tax cuts and low interest rates fades while a U.S.-China trade skirmish brews.

Source: National Post July 02, 2019 04:52 UTC