Why Are Thousands Of Millionaires Fleeing Chicago And Other Major Cities Around The World?

The Elite Fleeing - Public DomainThe elite are fleeing major cities around the globe at a staggering rate.  In fact, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that approximately 3,000 millionaires left the city of Chicago alone during 2015.  The same study discussed in that Chicago Tribune article found that 7,000 millionaires left Paris, France last year.  So why is this happening?  Why are thousands of millionaires suddenly packing up and moving away from the big cities?  Could it be possible that they have many of the same concerns that “preppers” do about what is coming?

For quite a while, I have been writing about how the elite have been preparing for the coming collapse.  But I had no idea that literally thousands of them are packing up and permanently leaving our major cities.  As I mentioned above, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that about 3,000 of them left the city of Chicago alone during the previous calendar year…

Millionaires are leaving Chicago more than any other city in the United States on a net basis, according to a new report.

About 3,000 individuals with net assets of $1 million or more, not including their primary residence, moved from the city last year, with many citing rising racial tensions and worries about crime as factors in the decision, according to research firm New World Wealth.

But of course this is not just happening in Chicago, nor is it just an American phenomenon.

Actually, the two cities that lost the most millionaires last year are both located over in Europe

Paris saw the largest exodus.

The French city lost 7,000, or 6 percent, of its millionaires, followed by Rome, which lost 5,000, or 7 percent.

It is true that some of these millionaires are moving for tax reasons, but many others are quite concerned that humanity is hurtling toward a deeply apocalyptic future, and they want to get prepared for what is about to happen while they still have time.

In eastern Germany, one company known as “Vivos” has spent an enormous amount of money converting an underground facility built by the Soviets during the Cold War into the largest private shelter on the planet.  It is called “Europa One”, and it is being billed as an ultra-luxury survival bunker for the elite.

The following comes from their official website

Located in the heart of Europe is one of the most fortified and massive underground survival shelters on Earth, deep below a limestone mountain. Built by the Soviets during the Cold War, this shelter was a fortress for military equipment and munitions. Now privately owned, this 76 acre above and below ground hardened facility is capable of withstanding a substantial close range nuclear blast, a direct airliner crash, biological and chemical agents, massive shock waves, earthquakes, electro-magnetic pulses, and virtually any armed attack.

This irreplaceable complex is now being re-tasked as Vivos Europa One, becoming the world’s largest and most fortified underground shelter for long-term, uncompromising protection of high net worth individuals, their families, and most precious assets when no other above-ground exfiltration solution will suffice.

The complex includes over 21,108 square meters (227,904 square feet) of secured, blast proof living areas; and, an additional 4,079 square meters (43,906 square feet) of above-ground office, apartments, warehouse buildings, and its own train depot. Collectively there are over 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of continuous tunnel chambers.

An RT report that was posted on YouTube right here contains some stunning visuals from the inside of this facility.  Personally, I was quite stunned when I saw the extent of their preparations for the first time…

This is something that I could go on and on about, but I won’t.  If you are interested in reading more, please see my previous article entitled “Superyacht Getaway Subs And Luxury Bomb Shelters: The Elite Are The Most Paranoid Preppers Of All“.

As I was preparing for this article, I remembered something that Zero Hedge just reported that I think relates to this subject.  It turns out that “the smart money” has been net sellers of U.S. stocks for 11 weeks in a row…

Last week, during which the S&P 500 was down 1.2%, BofAML clients were net sellers of US equities for the 11th consecutive week. Net sales of $1.7bn were smaller than in the prior week, but all three client groups (hedge funds, institutional clients, private clients) remained net sellers, led by institutional clients.

So why are the elite dumping stocks like crazy right now?

Don’t they realize that the stock market has been going up?

Could it be possible that they have information that the rest of us do not?

Most people have absolutely no idea how vulnerable our society truly is, or how very easy it would be to plunge the general population into a state of utter chaos.

That is why I am so glad that Mike Norris (the son of Chuck Norris) is coming out with his new movie entitled “AmeriGEDDON”.  This film imagines a time when a global terror organization disables the U.S. power grid and martial law is instituted.  Rioting, looting and civil unrest break out, and the government moves in to disarm the citizens and “restore order”.  You can watch the official trailer for this new film right here

Could we actually witness such a scenario in our future?

Well, I don’t expect to see anything like this next month, but in my new book I explain why I believe that America is heading for a future that is even more apocalyptic than the one portrayed in “AmeriGEDDON”.

Everywhere you turn, our world is becoming increasingly unstable.  Economic collapse has already gripped some areas of the planet, there is tremendous geopolitical instability in the Middle East, Islamic terror is on the rise, there have been outbursts of civil unrest all around the world, and just this week we have seen a series of very alarming earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Many people believe that we are entering a period of time when an unprecedented confluence of events will combine to create a “perfect storm” which will shake the world to the core.

And it isn’t just “preppers” that feel this way.  As you have just seen, thousands of millionaires are so concerned about changing conditions that they are fleeing the major cities.

So before you dismiss all of this apocalyptic talk as “nonsense”, perhaps you may want to consider what the elite may know that you do not.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Why Does Maryland Have The Most Millionaires Per Capita? The Answer Might Make You Angry

Raining MoneyThe fat cats in Washington D.C. are living the high life, and they are doing it at your expense.  Over the past decade, there has been one area of the country which has experienced a massive economic boom.  Thanks to wildly out of control government spending, the Washington D.C. region is absolutely swimming in cash.  In fact, at this point the state of Maryland has the most millionaires per capita in the entire nation and it isn’t even close.  If you have never lived there, it is hard to describe what the D.C. area is like.  Every weekday morning, hordes of lawyers, lobbyists and government bureaucrats descend upon D.C. from the surrounding suburbs.  And at the end of the day, the process goes in reverse.  Everyone is just trying to get their piece of the pie, and it is a pie that just keeps on growing as government salaries, government contracts and government giveaways just get larger and larger.  Of course our founders never intended for this to happen.  They wanted a very small and simple federal government.  Sadly, today we have the most bloated central government in the history of the planet and it gets worse with each passing year.

If you were to ask most Americans, they would tell you that the wealthiest Americans probably live in cities such as New York or San Francisco.  But thanks to the Obama administration (and before that the Bush and Clinton administrations), the state of Maryland is packed with millionaires.  In particular, the Maryland suburbs immediately surrounding D.C. are absolutely overflowing with government fat cats that make a living at our expense.  Every weekday morning, huge numbers of them leave their mini-mansions in places such as Potomac and Rockville and drive their luxury vehicles to work in the city.  As the Washington Post has detailed, at this point approximately 8 percent of all households in the entire state of Maryland contain millionaires, and the rest of the area is not doing too shabby either…

In Maryland, nearly 8 out of every 100 households in 2014 had assets topping $1 million, giving the state more millionaires per capita than any other in the country, according to a new report from Phoenix Marketing International.

The rest of the Beltway isn’t lacking in millionaires either: The District and Virginia ranked in the top 10 among those with the highest number of millionaire households per capita in 2014. In Virginia, which was No. 6 on the list, 6.76 percent of the state’s 3.17 million households are millionaires. And in the District, which rounds out the top 10, 6.25 percent of its more than 292,000 households are millionaires.

And while not too many of them are millionaires, your average federal workers that toil in D.C. are doing quite well too.

Once upon a time, it was considered to be a “sacrifice” to go into “government service”.

Not anymore.

If you can believe it, approximately 17,000 federal employees made more than $200,000 last year.

Overall, compensation for federal employees comes to a grand total of close to half a trillion dollars every 12 months.

In fact, there are tens of thousands of federal employees that make more than the governors of their own states do.

Does that seem right to you?

If you want to live “the American Dream” these days, the Washington area is the place to go.  Just check out the following description of the region from the Washington Post

Washingtonians now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America — Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City — are here, census data shows.

The signs of that wealth are on display all over, from the string of luxury boutiques such as Gucci and Tory Burch opening at Tysons Galleria to the $15 cocktails served over artisanal ice at the W Hotel in the District to the ever-larger houses rising off River Road in Potomac.

And of course let us not forget the fat cats in Congress.

According to CNN, our Congress critters are now wealthier than every before…

The typical American family is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession, but Congress is getting wealthier every year.

The median net worth of lawmakers was just over $1 million in 2013, or 18 times the wealth of the typical American household, according to new research released Monday by the Center for Responsive Politics.

And while Americans’ median wealth is down 43% since 2007, Congress members’ net worth has jumped 28%.

Not only that, there are nearly 200 members of Congress that are actually multimillionaires

Nearly 200 are multimillionaires. One hundred are worth more than $5 million; the top-10 deal in nine digits. The annual congressional salary alone—$174,000 a year—qualifies every member as the top 6 percent of earners. None of them are close to experiencing the poverty-reduction programs—affordable housing, food assistance, Medicaid—that they help control. Though some came from poverty, a recent analysis by Nicholas Carnes, in his book White Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policymaking, found that only 13 out of 783 members of Congress from 1999 to 2008 came from a “blue-collar” upbringing.

Incredible.

But even though almost all of them are quite wealthy, they don’t hesitate to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money on their own personal needs.

For example, according to the Weekly Standard, more than five million dollars was spent on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators alone over one recent 15 year period…

Senate Hair Care Services has cost taxpayers about $5.25 million over 15 years. They foot the bill of more than $40,000 for the shoeshine attendant last fiscal year. Six barbers took in more than $40,000 each, including nearly $80,000 for the head barber.

And in one recent year, an average of $4,005,900 was spent on “personal” and “office” expenses per U.S. Senator.

So the grand total would have been over 400 million dollars for a single year.

That seems excessive, doesn’t it?

And even when they end up leaving Washington, our Congress critters have ensured that they will continue to collect money from U.S. taxpayers for the rest of their lives

In 2011, 280 former lawmakers who retired under a former government pension system received average annual pensions of $70,620, according to a Congressional Research Service report. They averaged around 20 years of service. At the same time, another 215 retirees (elected in 1984 or later with an average of 15 years of service) received average annual checks of roughly $40,000 a year.

If you can believe it, there are quite a few former lawmakers that are collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually.  The list includes Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.

Of course the biggest windfalls of all are for our ex-presidents.  Most Americans would be shocked to learn that the U.S. government is spending approximately 3.6 million dollars a year to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

So does this make you angry?

Or are you okay with these fat cats living the high life at our expense?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…