Baller!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's fortune grew 28 percent, from $19.5 billion to $25 billion last year, making him the 10th richest person in America, reports Forbes Magazine.

This bumps Bloomberg up ten whole spots, from #20, to #10. And according to Forbes, his trajectory in the last six months (since March), continues at the same pace (a steady $3 billion gain, every six months).

His fortune comes from his firm Bloomberg LLC, whose sales were up 20 percent in 2011 to $7.6 billion. He owns at least 10 homes in Manhattan, Westchester County, Bermuda, Vail and the Hamptons.

Despite what you may think of his politics – good, bad or somewhere in between – you have to admit, the man knows how to make money. And can you really be mad?

Some New Yorkers may say “yes!”

According to census figures that will be release today, the poverty rate in New York City has jumped another percentage point—to 21 percent. That means that more than one-fifth of New Yorkers are considered to be living in poverty. That’s its highest point in more than a decade, reported the New York Times.

And the income gap in Manhattan, already wider than almost anywhere else in the country, rivaled disparities in sub-Saharan Africa, wrote the newspaper.

But really, how much of that can be blamed on the mayor? After all, he's given $2.8 billion of his fortune away to philanthropic causes – that’s 10 percent of his net worth – and in 2011, he donated $330 million to a variety of New York City-based organizations, reported Forbes.

It’s the economy, stupid!

But... something doesn't feel right. How long can we continue to blame the wealth-and-income disparity on the economy, after most of the country’s top economic advisors concur: The national recession officially ended three years ago, in 2009.

Yet, the rich get richer, as the poor continue to get poorer, while workers are forced to work harder than ever before or face the threat of job loss.

One can’t help but wonder: Is it really a bad economy that continues to send the middle-class, the working-class and the poor down the rat hole? Or is it corporate greed?

Because, like energy, money is never really “lost;” it doesn’t disappear into thin air.

It simply moves from one place… to another.