The New York Times reports that in 2007, the median family made less -- $60,500 -- than it did in 2000 -- $61,000. Meanwhile, that family's costs have spiked -- oil is up 342%; wheat, milk, and egg prices have doubled or tripled. And the dollar has lost 65% of its purchasing power. But no worries -- hedge funds are making out well. DealBook reports that John Paulson, who famously profited from selling subprime short last year, made $3 billion in 2007. I don't know how much he made in 2000, but I'd bet that he's better off now than he was then.

Newsweek reports that people like Paulson are part of a new Superclass that's prospered in the last seven years. The Superclass is a group of a few thousand government and business people who control most of the world. How many and how much? Newsweek notes: "The top 50 control almost $50 trillion in assets. The heads of the world's biggest corporations are also members; the top 2,000 support perhaps 500 million people, generate almost $30 trillion in sales and have well over $100 trillion in assets."

Thanks to tax cuts passed in 2001, Paulson probably paid a lower tax rate on his $3 billion than the median American paid on his or her $60,500. Specifically, Paulson could have paid 15%, the long-term capital gains rate, on his income from shorting subprime. The median family paid a 25% rate on its income. That capital gains rate was 20% in 1997 so Paulson may have paid $150 million less in taxes thanks to that 15% rate. But the most interesting part is how Paulson profited.