Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, just published its annual Global Wealth Report (PDF download) detailing how much money there is in the world.
(Tucked inside is a surprising chart showing which country is getting richest quickest. Spoiler: It's the UK.)
The biggest surprise comes in a table showing which countries posted the fastest%age gain in wealth in the past year - and, more interesting for Thailand, the fastest loss.
Britain has put on an overall per-household wealth gain of nearly 20%. It has outpaced South Korea and Denmark for growth.
Then there is the other end of the chart. (Full chart below). That's where you find Thailand.
According to Credit Suisse, whose Bangkok office contributed to Global Wealth Report, Thailand has had the world's fifth-worst per-household wealth performance in the world from 2013 to 2014.
The report says Thai wealth has contracted more than 7%. Only Turkey, Indonesia and the basket-case nations Argentina and Ukraine have performed worse.
The study assessed the global adult population of 4.7 billion people and their financial and physical assets, including real estate, minus debts. The world's wealth reached a record $263 trillion as of midyear, Credit Suisse says, after growing by more than $20 trillion since mid-2013. Global riches have more than doubled from $117 trillion in 2000. North America has the biggest share at $91 trillion or almost 35% of the total; Europe places second with $82.5 trillion.
The appearance of the UK at the top of the chart is an odd outcome given that the U.K. political debate in the run-up to next year's national election is focused in large part on how people don't feel better off, which in turn is fanning concern about immigration; it also highlights the risk that a recent decline in real-estate values may undermine consumer confidence and hobble Britain's nascent economic recovery.
Less surprising is the wealth destruction suffered in war-torn Ukraine and perennial debt-defaulter Argentina.
And few had predicted that Thailand would be on the "worst five" list with the likes of them.
The Credit Suisse report features an analysis of how the world's wealth is distributed. It makes for depressing reading, no matter what your politics.
Less than 1% of the world's population owns 44% of the world's wealth, according to Credit Suisse; 70% of the world gets by with assets of less than $10,000 — 320,000 baht.
The report notes:
"Our estimates suggest that the lower half of the global population collectively own less than 1% of global wealth, while the richest 10% of adults own 87% of all wealth and the top 1% account for almost half of all assets in the world. Over time this may change, particularly if a sufficient number of low wealth countries experience rapid growth."
Looking ahead, Credit Suisse forecasts a 40% increase in global wealth to $369 trillion in the next five years; China's population, the report says, may become wealthier than Japan's in less than half a decade as the number of dollar millionaires there doubles to more than 2 million.
For those who worry that inequality might lead to turmoil after an economic crisis, the best news is that everyone will benefit.
The proportion of people with assets of less than $10,000 will drop to about 64% by 2019, Credit Suisse predicts. The middle class, with $10,000 to $100,000, will swell to 51% from less than 36%, even as the number of global millionaires expands to 53 million from 35 million.
