It has been one of the most lucrative weeks in history for some of the richest people in the world.
The net worth of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos exceeded an unfathomable $ 200 billion. Entrepreneur, inventor and provocateur Elon Musk added the title of centibillionaire when his fortune surpassed $ 100 billion fueled by the relentless turnaround of Tesla Inc. And by Friday, the world’s 500 richest people were $ 209 billion richest than a week ago.
Musk’s growing wealth expanded the rarefied centibillionaire club to four members. Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person, joined Bezos and Bill Gates among the ranks of 12-figure fortunes earlier this month. Together, their wealth totals $ 540 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This week marked just the latest boost for the personal fortunes of the richest of the rich, whose red-hot growth has been driven largely by rising markets, particularly for tech stocks. US stocks hit new highs on Friday as investors trusted the Federal Reserve’s new approach to inflation.
Pay package
Musk’s net worth has grown by $ 76.1 billion this year, driven by Tesla’s share price and an improved valuation of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX. Also helpful: A bold pay package, the largest corporate pay deal ever reached between a CEO and a board of directors, which could net you more than $ 50 billion if all targets are met.
Still, Musk’s gain is outpaced by Bezos, whose fortune has grown by $ 84.9 billion in 2020 as pandemic-induced lockdowns spur demand for Amazon deliveries. Bezos’s fortune has doubled since he surpassed the $ 100 billion mark in late 2017, even after giving up a quarter of his Amazon stake to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in a divorce last year.
Scott is $ 700 million short of surpassing L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers as the richest woman in the world.
The dizzying pace of wealth accumulation is in stark contrast to the state of the world economy. Growth has plummeted dramatically since the pandemic began, when companies laid off millions of workers and consumer demand fell.
Income inequality
The brunt of the economic pain has fallen on younger and lower-paid workers, whose jobs are often more vulnerable to Covid-related layoffs.
“There is no question that the pandemic will exacerbate inequality in income and wealth, both in the short and long term,” said Miles Corak, an economics professor who studies income inequality at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. .
The world’s 500 richest people have increased their fortunes by $ 871 billion this year, a 15% increase, according to the Billionaires Index.
This story was published from a news agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the title has been changed.
.
