Wall Street, Manhattan, Soar

The stock market continues to boom. Yesterday, the Dow rose to 15680, topping the prior record close seen on Sept. 18. The S&P 500 index hit 1772, also a new high. The S&P 500 has finished at a new record in seven of the last nine sessions. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased to 3952, its post-2000 high.

Our New FOX Index of Wall Street health has hit 1,304. That represents travel into stock market “outer space” first reached in May, the escape velocity attained by soaring past old-time market theoretical limits of a Dow of 15,000, an S&P 500 of 1,600, and a NASDAQ of 3,500, for a total of 20,100. With a Dow 15,680 + S&P 1,772 + NASDAQ 3,952 = 21,404, we traveled yesterday to our new “outer space” + 1,304 record (see chart).

Our previous post talked about the wealth of Washington D.C., where median income has risen 23% since 2000, even as it has declined 7% elsewhere. We said resentment hasn’t really surfaced against Washington, but has against Wall Street to Washington's north.

Here’s some striking information about Manhattan, where Wall Street is based. The New York Times’ Thomas Edsall informs us that talking about Manhattan households that earn $100,000 or more “is too blunt a measure for a city with at least 389,100 millionaires, 2,929 multimillionaires and 70 billionaires.” Edsall quotes N.Y.U. political scientist Howard Rosenthal saying about the recent city mayoral election, “Just looking at voters over $100K misses something. $100K is zilch in Manhattan.”

No kidding. Manhattan has a population of 1.62 million, and that mass of people have a mean household income of $121,549 (2005).

In Manhattan, $100,000 is “zilch.”