Decline Watch: Asia now leads the world in centa-millionaires

North America’s 1 percent are not pulling their weight, according to a new study by CitiGroup. Boomberg summarizes: 

The number of Asians with at least $100 million in disposable assets overtook North America’s tally for the first time as the world’s “economic center of gravity” continued moving east, Citigroup Inc.’s (C) private bank said.

There were 18,000 “centa-millionaires” in Southeast Asia, China and Japan at the end of 2011, compared with 17,000 in North America and 14,000 in Western Europe, the bank said today in The Wealth Report 2012, published in partnership with Knight Frank LLP.

James Poulos notes that this might actually be dangerous for Asian countries since "a growing class of superwealthy might actually exacerbate class tensions at a moment when the promise of cherry-picking Western hypercapitalism could turn more sour than ever."

Still, if you’re in, say, the car elevator business, it’s prety clear where your new customers are going to be. 

Hat tip: My eagle-eyed colleague Preeti Aroon