Haha, oh wowCitigroup put out a report on
2005 that pooh-poohs the risks of wealth imbalances. But only from the perspective of the wealthy.
EDIT: Man, that thing is gas.
Basically the paper posits that equity investment decisions made on the basis of consumer behaviour are foolish, since wealth imbalances have now reached the point where the rich have so much money that they ARE the economy (here called a "Plutonomy", a play on "Plutocracy"). The behaviour of the vast majority of the population is irrelevant because they simply
don't have any money. The paper recognizes that income inequality cannot continue to grow forever, but argues that this is not going to change anytime soon.
The article then suggests that the correct investment response is to place your funds with stocks from companies that exclusively (or nearly-exclusively) produce high-end luxury goods.
A lot of his information is wrong (savings rates being the most egregiously so*), but his conclusions may still be correct even now. I would be very curious know the relative performance of the so-called "Plutonomy basket" in the past two years. It seems safe to say it took a dip in 2008 and possibly the first half of 2009 - beyond that I wouldn't chance a guess, other than to point out that income inequality is not being addressed and continues to grow.
The accidental insights into the concerns of hyper-rich investors is also kind of funny.
* Saving rates among the wealthy are estimated to actually sit around 25%, save for a big dip to negative number in 2008 and 2009 (the rates are now returning to the natural 25% levels. Whereas savings rates among the poor are closer to 4% - on a good day.