Wealth of US Billionaires Hits $5.5 Trillion--Up 88% Since Pandemic Hit

[orthoclad]

Vampire economics.

...on March 18, 2024, the country has 737 billionaires with a combined wealth of $5.529 trillion, an 87.6 percent increase of $2.58 trillion, according to Institute for Policy Studies calculations of Forbes Real Time Billionaire Data. (Thank you, Forbes!) [bold mine]
...
On March 18, 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had wealth valued just under $25 billion. By May 2022, his wealth had surged to $255 billion. As of March 18, 2024, Musk is at $188.5 billion, more than a seven-fold increase in four years.

Over four years, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth increase from $113 billion to 192.8 billion, even after paying out tens of billions in a divorce settlement and donating tens of billions to charity.

Three Walton family members — Jim, Alice, and Rob — are the principal heirs to the Walmart fortune. They saw their combined assets rise from $161.1 billion to $229.6 billion.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/billionaire-wealth-explodes-to-5-5-trillion

Jeff Bezos was the first 100billionaire in 2020. We now have ten of them. Quick work, guys.

I now present my favorite graph from the Congressional Budget Office, presenting the picture BEFORE the pandemic gold rush, and barely into the Trump tax breaks, Imagine what the 2024 version of this would look like, with greedflation included.

[BrianTheEVGuy]

1. Gosh

All that bailout and subsidy money during Trump’s last year in office added up!

[Kittycatkat]

2. We need to worry about these fat-cats

… instead of childless cat ladies!

[orthoclad]

3. Anything to distract us from

the people with their hands in our pockets.

[appalachiablue]

4. Will they be able to manage okay on that? Lol. Thanks K/R

[PSPS]

5. Apparently, this doesn't take into accouont the estimated $23 trillion hidden offshore.

[orthoclad]

6. Yeah. Woohoo

It shows a trend.

I'd like to hear more about that 23T.

[PSPS]

8. The figure came out in the "Panama Papers" scandal 12 years ago

The Internet is awash in stories about it. Here's just one recent article about it that pegs the figure of lost tax revenue on that hidden wealth at almost $5 trillion:

https://taxjustice.net/press/world-to-lose-4-7-trillion-to-tax-havens-over-next-decade-unless-un-tax-convention-adopted-countries-warned/

[orthoclad]

10. Dollar estimate of the cost of hidden wealth:

World to lose $4.8 trillion to tax havens over next decade unless UN tax convention adopted, countries warned

Over a year old (July 2023). I'm sure that estimate is higher now. It might even equal the 5.5T of the OP.

Countries are on course to lose nearly US$5 trillion in tax to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax over the next 10 years, the Tax Justice Network warns. The future losses of public money would be equivalent to losing a year of worldwide spending on public health. Campaigners are urging countries to vote this winter in favour of beginning negotiations on a UN tax convention at the UN General Assembly to avert the astronomic losses.

(bold mine)

Good link, thanks.

[FakeNoose]

7. I know one thing ... NONE of it is taxed by Uncle Sam

[orthoclad]

9. THAT is the solid truth!

The notion that this huge chunk of the world's wealth is sequestered in secret repositories inaccessible to lawful taxation is worthy of an essay itself.

If you have material about this, it would be a service to post it.

"Privatize the profits, socialize the cost."