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The billionaire boom: how the super-rich soaked up Covid cash

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As the virus spread, central banks injected $9tn into economies worldwide, aimed at keeping the global economy afloat. Much of that stimulus has gone into financial markets, and from there into the net worth of the ultra-rich.

As the virus spread, central banks injected $9tn into economies worldwide, aimed at keeping the global economy afloat. Much of that stimulus has gone into financial markets, and from there into the net worth of the ultra-rich.

  1. May 17

    The global population of billionaires has risen more than fivefold in the past 20 years, with the largest fortunes rocketing past $100bn. And economic stimulus driven by the pandemic has made the wealthiest even wealthier. What’s the story?

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  2. May 14

    Russia’s oligarchs are now worth more than a third of the country’s GDP - making it the world’s most economically captured major country. One of many striking facts from this excellent essay on how Covid made the rich richer

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  3. May 17

    Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has been tracking the wealth of the world’s billionaires, identifying not only how it is generated but which nations could be most at risk from anti-wealth revolts

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  4. May 17

    To pinpoint the most/least bloated billionaire elites, Sharma calculates their wealth as a share of GDP. He distinguishes ‘good’ from ‘bad’ according to how much comes from ‘clean’ industries — tech and manufacturing — as opposed to real estate or oil

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  5. May 17

    China’s explosion in the number of billionaires dwarfed all other countries in 2020, adding nearly $1tn to their collective fortunes. There are now more than 50 Chinese deca-billionaires, such as Jack Ma of Ant Group (net worth $48bn)

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  6. May 17

    The US billionaire class is now the second-most ‘bloated’ among its peers (their wealth mushroomed in 2020 to nearly 20% of GDP). Surprisingly, the most bloated is in Sweden at 30% of GDP. In the UK, it’s 7%

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  7. May 17

    Context is crucial. As the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos’s mind-boggling $177bn is just 0.8% of US GDP. The fortunes of fashion king Amancio Ortega of Spain, telecom titan Carlos Slim of Mexico & France’s Bernard Arnault are all >5%

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  8. May 17

    Despite rising inequality in the US, many millennials see a figure like Elon Musk as a visionary hero, building the battery-powered economy that will save us from global warming. Will his 53m Twitter followers care that his fortune grew six-fold in 2020?

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  9. May 14

    With acting as a "great UNequalizer," wealth inequality has worsened considerably. Writing in the , 's looks at what's behind the increase in the number and of .

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  10. May 14

    "I have refined my reading of Forbes billionaire data into a system for anticipating which nations are most at risk of anti-wealth revolt — a threat that has never loomed larger than right now. It is geared towards pragmatists" Ruchir Sharma Morgan Stanley

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