Study estimates China's rich hiding $1.4 trillion

27 minutes ago

By The Associated Press

BEIJING, China - China's rich may be hiding up to 9.3 trillion renminbi ($1.4 trillion), equal to a third of the country's GDP, according to a report that attempts to put a number on the country's corruption-fueled "grey income."

The estimates also offer a troubling indication that the income gap between China's rich and poor is much wider than official figures suggest.

The Credit Suisse-sponsored report, issued this week by the economic think-tank China Reform Foundation, attempts to calculate total real earnings based on spending patterns of about 4,000 households.

The report estimated that average urban incomes were actually about 32,000 yuan ($4,700), or nearly double what has been officially reported.

"Grey income" can come from a variety of sources, including kickbacks on projects, stock market manipulation, land deals, bonuses, and even wedding gifts to powerful officials. It represents a loss to the country in unpaid taxes that could be used to fund social services and infrastructure.

The survey used unusual methodology to gather information, surmising that high-income families would be unlikely to be truthful regarding their hidden earnings. The researchers contacted family members, friends and colleagues of a household's main income earner to get data on spending habits from a sampling of about 4,000 households in 64 cities and 19 provinces. They also looked at things like car and property ownership.

The researchers then analyzed the data using economic formulas designed to project actual income from the spending figures.

About 62 per cent of the total hidden income is in the hands of the richest 10 per cent of Chinese society, according to the report, headed by economist Wang Xiaolu. Together, the top 20 per cent of society control about 80 per cent of that often-illegal income.

The report also estimated that average per-capita income for the richest 10 per cent was 65 times higher than the bottom 10 per cent of society, instead of the figure of 23 times cited in the government's official household income survey.

"The existence of hidden income has expanded the income gap remarkably, in our opinion," the report concluded. "The widespread existence of grey income has significantly distorted national income distribution and reveals the lagging development in social reforms compared with economic reforms."

China's leaders have shown increasing concerns over the disparity in income, fearing threats to the country's social stability that could threaten the Communist Party's 60-year rule.

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Porn star Marilyn Chambers dead at 56

1 hour, 23 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Porn star Marilyn Chambers, who made waves in the 1970s by having screen sex with an African-American, has been found dead at her Los Angeles home at the age of 56, coroner's officials said on Monday.

The Los Angeles coroner's office said an autopsy would be carried out to determine the cause of her death late on Sunday night.

Chambers, whose real name was Marilyn Taylor, broke into the adult film industry by appearing in the 1972 film "Behind the Green Door," which was among the first pornographic films released widely in the United States to attract mainstream attention.

The adult film caused a stir in part because Chambers was seen having sex with African-American porn star Johnny Keyes.

Chambers made more than 25 porn movies, trading on her earlier role as the blonde cover girl on the Ivory Snow soap box, where she posed holding a baby under the tag line "99 & 44/100% pure".

She also made several films with late porn star John Holmes, who died of AIDS complications in 1988, and she had flings with careers in music and politics. Chambers ran for U.S. vice president in 2004 on the Personal Choice Party ticket and released the disco single "Benihana" in 1976.

Chambers had a bit part in the 1970 Barbra Streisand film "The Owl and the Pussycat," and starred in the 1977 David Cronenberg horror movie "Rabid." But after establishing herself as a pornographic film star, she was never able to break into mainstream films.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)