“And the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury…

and the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore”

(Revelation 18:3, 11)

Unbelievable – 1,130 individuals make $2.224 Trillion Dollars a year!  The US Government collects in total taxes (personal and corporate) for its federal budget approximately $2.521 Trillion Dollars – the entire GDP of the USA is approximately $13.500 Trillion Dollars.  Several charts below validate these claims.  What the IBM Executive summary report discloses is a horrendous disparity of the wealth of the world in the pockets of a few select individuals.  Are these not the “merchants of the earth who have become rich through the abundance of her luxury?”  Frankly, if one cannot see this, then one simply refuses to see it!

(Source:  IBM Executive Summary – The 2008 IBM Global CEO Study)

With a shortfall (primarily “interest on the national debt”) accounting for another $450B, bringing the US Federal Budget to around $3T per 2008 fiscal year.  As a share of US GDP (Gross Domestic Product of all goods and services in the USA):

“Thus saith the LORD,  Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich many glory in his riches:  But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindess, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:  for in these things I delight, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Yes, 1,130 individuals bring in 2.224 trillion dollars. That is - according to IBM's recent study - the combined revenue of 1,130 corporate CEOs surveyed in the study. That's more than the GDP of many nations with a much larger population than eleven hundred.

It’s higher than the 2007 GDP of all but six of the world’s nations. Eleven hundred people earned more than what the entire nations of Canada and Brazil combined produced for GDP in 2007.

In fact, according to the CIA Factbook, the purchasing power of the entire planet is $65 trillion (2007), which is reduced to $56 trillion based on leveling the exchange rates. The GDP of the entire continent of Africa in 2004 was only $2.087 trillion for a population of 872.1 million.

Scary stuff, eh? According to Forbes Magazine:

 

QUOTE (Forbes)

The chief executives of America's 500 biggest companies got a collective 38% pay raise last year, to $7.5 billion. That's an average $15.2 million apiece. Exercised stock options again account for the main component of pay, 48%. The average stock gain was $7.3 million.  (source:  Mumpsimus Forum)

IN CONCLUSION: