The world’s 500 richest people added $852 billion to their fortunes in the first half of 2023.
Each member of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index made an average of $14 million per day over the past six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the best half-year for billionaires since the back half of 2020, when the economy rebounded from a Covid-induced slump.
The gains coincided with a broad stock market rally, as investors brushed off the effects of central bank interest rate hikes, the ongoing war in Ukraine and a crisis in regional banks. The S&P 500 rose 16% and the Nasdaq 100 surged 39% for its best-ever first half as investor mania over artificial intelligence boosted tech stocks.
While Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg flirt with scheduling a cage match, Tesla’s chief executive came out on top in dollar terms. Musk, the world’s richest person, added $96.6 billion to his net worth this year through June 30, while Meta chief executive Zuckerberg gained $58.9 billion.
Gautam Adani’s net worth sank the most in the six-month period, losing $60.2 billion. Adani, chairman of Adani Group, also posted the biggest one-day loss of any billionaire, shedding about $20.8 billion on Jan. 27, after short seller Hindenburg Research accused his conglomerate of accounting fraud and stock manipulation – a claim Adani denies.
Hindenburg, founded by Nate Anderson, also knocked down the net worth of another billionaire: Carl Icahn. His Icahn Enterprises had its steepest one-day drop after Hindenburg disclosed it was shorting the shares, saying the stock was significantly overvalued relative to its holdings. Icahn’s net worth fell $13.4 billion, or 57% – the largest percentage drop of any member of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in the period.
(c) 2023, Bloomberg · Annie Massa, Jack Witzig
Welcome to Global Economy!
Can you elaborate please?
And more ruthless,filthy, selfish,corrupt, dishonest
Bring back the guillotine
These reports are highly theoretical and are based on some funny math.
For example, to claim that Musk’s net worth has gone up by $96.6B you would need to compare his Tesla shares with the lowest they ever were (during the Twitter acquisition). The same way these clowns were touting the idea that he lost tens of billions due to that price drop.
The reality is that these are unrealized gains based on the estimated number of shares which is an unreliable method of calculating actual value.
In 1963, the BBC aired a TV documentary called “The Solitary Billionaire,” about J. Paul Getty. (You can see it on YouTube.) Getty was “solitary” because he lived alone, but also because he was the only billionaire in the world.
Today, there are many billionaires. Inflation alone can’t account for this. There has been a concentration of wealth at the top. At the same time, real wages of working people have stagnated.
This has nothing to do with the free market. It happened because, with every advance in productivity, the rich exerted political pressure to make sure that all of the gains went to them. It will, alas, probably happen again with AI.