Something doesn't add up here.
America's economy contracted by 2.4% last year, and the number of millionaire households (defined as those with investible assets of $1 million or more) grew by 16%, to 7.8 million.
China's economy grew by 8.7% last year but the number of millionaires grew only 6%, to 875,000, according to the new Hurun Report.
China is supposed to be the world's new millionaire machine, cranking out rich people like so many Happy Meal toys from a Guangdong factory. Its economy is growing much faster than America's and its millionaire growth is off of a much smaller base, so it's percentage growth rate should leap ahead.
Why then is the recession-wracked U.S. minting more millionaires than the Mighty Dragon?
There are two potential answers. First, the data is wrong. Estimates of millionaires are educated guesses, all using different definitions and standards. So maybe it's apples to oranges, or the numbers are off.
Second, millionaire wealth in the U.S. is now tied more to the stock market than the overall economy. The U.S. stock market bounce - up more than 60% from its bottom - created better conditions for minting millionaires than China, where the stock market grew half as fast and where wealth is more tied to real-estate and the broader economy.
Whatever the reasons, the fact that the U.S. is outpacing China in millionaire growth will come as a huge surprise - and has both political and economic impacts. First, it will fan the populist flames here in the U.S., where the recession-wracked middle class is dumbfounded at the recovery of the wealthy.
Second, it will (or should) cause luxury companies that are looking to China for salvation to shift their sights back to the U.S.
Why do you think America is making more millionaires than China?