The Washington Post has an article on a topic dear to my heart: how the expansion of the investor class is changing American politics. The Post did a survey that found that direct ownership of stocks does indeed affect voters’ political orientation. But, the authors say in an aside, people who own stocks through 401(k)s and IRAs did not differ from non-owners. Investor-class theorists have expected that direct ownership would have a greater impact than indirect ownership, but did not expect indirect ownership to have no impact. Unfortunately, the Post story provides no data to evaluate the claim.