Signal US equity, government debt, and deposits push wealth on paper to a multi-decade high

Summary

MGI reports that global wealth reached its highest dollar value ever in 2025, and asks how sound that growth really was. After corrections that followed the pandemic, several balance sheet items started expanding again and set new records. US equity led the way, as enthusiasm about AI buoyed markets and company profits kept rising. At the same time, government debt kept growing relative to GDP in many economies despite higher interest rates, and holdings of cash and deposits stayed high by long-run historical standards. Taken together, these trends put more wealth on paper than at any point in several decades and make it all the more important that US corporate earnings live up to expectations.