TheChek News Flow

The global wealth imbalance is growing, a shocking new report reveals.

The top 1 percent have amassed more than half of the world’s wealth and control 50.1 percent of the planet’s $280 trillion in assets as of mid-2017, the report found.

That’s up from the 45.5 percent of the world’s wealth in the hands of the top 1 percent in 2000, according to data released Tuesday in Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report.

The world’s richest folks were able to increase their grip on the world’s wealth because their assets increased in value faster than those held by the lower 99 percent, the bank said.

Holdings of the top 5 percent and top 10 percent also ratcheted upward, and currently account for 76.4 percent and 87.8 percent, respectively, of total global wealth.

Americans saw their wealth grow 10.1 percent in the past year, faster than in any other country, according to the report.

In the US, there were 1.1 million new millionaires created in the past 12 months — or one new millionaire every 30 seconds.

The average American adult is worth $388,585 in 2017, according to the report, up from $211,000 in 2000.

The rise in wealth in the US means that more millionaires reside in the States — 15.4 million of us have a seven-digit net worth, or 43 percent of all on the planet — than anywhere else in the world.

Japan has the second most millionaires, with 2.7 million. But its tough economy last year pushed 340,000 Japanese from millionaire status.

The survey, now in its eighth year, defines wealth as the value of financial assets plus real assets (principally housing), minus household debts.

Once debt was subtracted, a person needed only $3,582 to rank among the wealthiest half of world citizens, Credit Suisse calculated.

If you have a worth of $76,754 — that is assets minus debt — congratulations, you are among the world’s top 10 percent wealthiest. A net worth of $770,368 would place you among the top 1 percent on the planet.

In the US, baby boomers — those aged 50 to 70 — continued to see their net worth grow the fastest.

Millennials, on the other hand, have had “a run of bad luck,” according to the report.

This group, defined as “people who came of age after the turn of the century,” not only sustained capital losses in the global financial crisis but also carried the most student debt and faced stringent mortgage qualifications.

Throw in increased income inequality and lower income mobility and the result was “a ‘perfect storm’ holding back wealth accumulation by the millennials.”

The report also addressed the world’s wealth disparities.

China accounts for 22 percent of the adult population, for example, yet only 10 percent of the world’s wealth.

Latin America, with 9 percent of the population, has only 3 percent of the wealth.

Income disparity was even worse in India and Africa — areas where, Credit Suisse said, the share of population often exceeded the share of wealth by a factor of 10 or more.

VIX +25% tests 14.5 for first time since mid July 

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La société Job Watch fait état d’une hausse des offres d’emploi dans l’horlogerie suisse, depuis l’été. En collaboration avec le site d’annonces, «Le Temps» publie un baromètre de l’emploi horloger

Depuis plusieurs mois, les signaux se suivent et se ressemblent. L’horlogerie va mieux, voire beaucoup mieux, après deux années de recul de la demande mondiale.

Les deux plus importants groupes horlogers du pays, Swatch Group, en juillet, et Richemont, la semaine dernière, ont tous deux publié des chiffres semestriels en hausse. Les exportations horlogères suivent la même tendance. En septembre, elles ont enregistré leur sixième hausse mensuelle de l’année. Leur valeur a atteint 1,8 milliard de francs, soit une croissance de 3,7% par rapport à septembre 2016.

Mais il est un autre indice qui fait la lumière sur la santé du secteur: l’emploi. Selon la société Job Watch, la volonté de recrutement est, elle aussi, en progression. En octobre, le site a publié 206 offres d’emploi émanant de marques ou de sous-traitants. C’est deux fois plus que lors de la même période de 2014 et de 2015.

Ces chiffres sur les intentions de recrutement viennent confirmer ceux publiés récemment par l’Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS). En une année, le nombre de chômeurs dans le secteur horloger a baissé de presque 30%. En octobre, dans la branche «montres», l’OFS recensait 1478 personnes inscrites auprès des Offices de placement, soit 629 de moins qu’en octobre 2016.

370 entreprises, 35 000 candidats

Créé en 2007, Jobwatch.ch est un site d’offres d’emploi spécialisé dans l’horlogerie et, depuis quelques années, dans les métiers de la microtechnique. Au fil des ans, il s’est imposé comme le portail de référence pour le secteur. La majorité des grands noms de la branche y publient leurs annonces: TAG Heuer, Breguet, Omega, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Panerai, ETA ou PX Group. Au total, 372 entreprises sont enregistrées sur le site. Côté candidats, la société dénombre 35 000 profils validés par ses équipes.

Désormais, deux fois l’an, Le Temps publiera, en collaboration avec Job Watch, un baromètre de l’emploi horloger.

Le numérique et l’électronique en vogue

Le détail des données que le site a fourni au Temps, à la fin du mois d’octobre, révèle que, depuis l’été, les sous-traitants de la branche ont augmenté les procédures d’embauche de manière plus marquée que leurs clients, les marques. «Ces dernières ont d’abord écoulé leurs stocks, puis ont refait appel à leurs fournisseurs pour se réapprovisionner en composants», décrypte Damien Frochaux, directeur commercial de Job Watch.

Autre indication: depuis le début de l’année, et encore plus depuis l’été, le nombre de postes à pourvoir dans la production prend l’ascenseur. Les autres services, soit le marketing, l’administration et le développement, sont un peu moins sollicités depuis le début de l’automne, mais les chiffres demeurent supérieurs à la situation qui prévalait il y a quelques mois.

Enfin, Benoît Fontaine, directeur opérationnel, signale également que deux nouvelles catégories de métiers ont émergé, au cours de ces deux dernières années: le marketing numérique et l’ingénierie électronique. C’est un signe qui ne trompe pas. L’horlogerie suisse s’est désormais bel et bien lancée dans l’e-commerce et la montre connectée.

LVMH owner unhappy about newspaper’s Paradise Papers coverage

Bernard Arnault, the billionaire owner of French luxury group LVMH, is threatening to pull advertising from Le Monde for the rest of 2017 in response to the newspaper’s revelations of his personal use of tax havens, people with knowledge of the plan said.

Mr Arnault, France’s richest man, has been unhappy about the newspaper’s coverage last week detailing how he spread assets in six offshore jurisdictions with the help of at least eight different firms, the people said, confirming a report in satirical investigative weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné on Wednesday.

The Le Monde story on Mr Arnault was part of the so-called Paradise Papers revelations sourced from leaked legal documents and covered by scores of media organisations around the world.

Mr Arnault’s stand has a family twist: his daughter Delphine, a senior executive at Louis Vuitton, is the partner of Xavier Niel, the billionaire telecoms entrepreneur, and one of Le Monde’s largest shareholders. The pair have two children.

Louis Dreyfus, chief executive officer of Le Monde, declined to comment. A spokesman for LVMH denied that there would be a “total cut” in its advertising in Le Monde but said that for several months “the reduction of advertising investments in the classical media and the increase in budgets for digital and more growing media” have been under discussion.

In a statement sent to AFP following the Paradise Papers revelations, Mr Arnault said the assets cited by Le Monde were “constituted in a perfectly legal way”. He denounced a “journalistic operation” by Le Monde “to create a sensation” and pointed out that he was among the top taxpayers in France, paying more than €1bn in taxes annually.

The 13.4m financial documents belonging to law firm Appleby have exposed the offshore arrangements of thousands of companies, celebrities and royalty over several days last week. The Queen, racing driver Lewis Hamilton, US technology group Apple and sports brand Nike have had their finances scrutinised and received criticism for their extensive use of complex financial schemes in tax-friendly jurisdictions.

Advertisers have a history of using their financial muscle to try to shape coverage in the French media. Luxury and consumer brands are the largest providers of advertising revenues for Le Monde, especially since it launched its weekly lifestyle magazine, M, according to an insider.

Mr Arnault, owner of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, has long been known in journalistic circles for his hands-on approach with the press, not hesitating to contact editors to complain about a story, whether on the luxury sector or on politics.

Journalists at Les Echos, the business daily, opposed his purchase of the newspaper in 2007 and briefly went on strike to express concerns about editorial independence.

Mr Niel owns a controlling stake in the French newspaper with Lazard banker Matthieu Pigasse, who regularly advises Mr Arnault on deals. They acquired it in 2010 along with Pierre Bergé, the late business partner of Yves Saint Laurent. Following Mr Bergé’s death earlier this year, Mr Niel and Mr Pigasse split Mr Bergé’s shares in Le Monde equally between them.

Paul Benkimoun, head of Le Monde’s staff association, said he had no information on Mr Arnault’s advertising plan. He added that Le Monde had no regrets for doing its journalistic job and that the story on Mr Arnault proved its editorial independence given his links with Mr Niel and Mr Pigasse. Mr Niel declined to comment. Mr Pigasse was not immediately available for comment.

In its story last week, Le Monde described, among other things, how Mr Arnault set up a Jersey-based company called Bessington Investments Limited to buy a 4,300 sq metre luxury villa about 30km from London and how one of his 101-metre-long yachts, Symphony, registered in the Cayman Islands, was held by a Malta-based company, Sonata Yachting Limited.