Economics

The Super Rich Were the First to Bail During the Financial Crisis

  • Study says top 0.1% of taxpayers unloaded at elevated rates
  • One possibility is they think they're better at market timing

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When the going gets rough, the 1 percent start selling.

That’s the finding of a new paper that says people with the highest income bailed from stocks disproportionately on the worst days of the financial crisis. The share of selling by the biggest earners rose “sharply” in days following spikes in volatility, according to data on millions of sales reported to the government in 2008 and 2009.