Who Will Lead Us Out of the Recession?

Once bitten twice shy, they say, but not for many of the Americans with a net worth of $250,000 or more. According to a new report from Ipsos Mendelsohn, more among this affluent population will buy stocks and mutual funds than any other spending activity, including on vacations, their homes or cars.

For their advertiser and media clients, Mendelsohn each year produces “The Mendelsohn Affluent Survey,” which looks at the population that holds about half of all U.S. income and accounts for about 20 percent of households (24 million) with $1 trillion in discretionary income, about half of which own two or more residences. The cut-off for the definition of “affluence” is a net worth of $250,000. This year, the question at the top of the researchers’ minds was, “Will the affluent be leading us out of the recession?”…