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GLOBALISATION AND THE GLOBALISTS AGE
BILLIONAIRE WEALTH :
WHO ARE THE 10 BIGGEST PANDEMIC PROFITEERS?

One year after the Covid-19 pandemic began, U.S. billionaires have made out like gangbusters at the expense of workers.
Chuck Collins
Global Research, March 24, 2021


A year ago, the Institute for Policy Studies published “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth  Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes and Pandemic Profiteers,”  and began tracking billionaire wealth gains as unemployment surged.  We teamed up with Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) to track the wealth growth of America’s billionaires over the last year.  This report summarizes the extraordinary growth in wealth of those now 657 billionaires based on real-time data from Forbes on March 18, 2021.


Here are highlights from the last 12 months of billionaire wealth growth:


  • The combined wealth of the nation’s 657 billionaires increased more than $1.3 trillion, or 44.6 percent, since the pandemic lockdowns began. [See Master Table] Over those same 12 months, more than 29 million Americans contracted the virus and more than 535,000 died from it. As billionaire wealth soared over, almost 80 million lost work between March 21, 2020, and Feb. 20, 2021, and 18 million were collecting unemployment on Feb. 27, 2021


  • There are 43 newly minted billionaires since the beginning of the pandemic, when there were 614. A number of new billionaires joined the list after initial public offerings (IPOs) of stock in companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, and Snowflake.


  • The increase in the combined wealth of the 15 billionaires with the greatest growth in absolute wealth was $563 billion or 82 percent. [See table 1] The wealth growth of just these 15 represents over 40 percent of the wealth growth among all billionaires. Topping the list are Elon Musk ($137.5 billion richer, 559 percent), Jeff Bezos ($65 billion, 58 percent) and Mark Zuckerberg ($47 billion, 86 percent).
The 10 biggest “Pandemic Profiteers” saw the greatest percentage increase in their wealth—at least 300 percent. [See Table 2]



They mostly multiplied their fortunes in the world of online goods, services and entertainment, as forcibly homebound Americans shopped, invested and diverted themselves in isolation. They include the owners of ecommerce leaders Quicken Loans, Square, Carvana, and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase; social media sites Snapchat and Twitter; online streaming platform Roku; and digital ad agency Trade Desk. 19 other billionaires experienced increases of over 200% while 48 others more than doubled their fortunes with 100%+ gains.



  1. Bom Kim (670 percent/$7.7 billion): A U.S. citizen and founder of the e-commerce giant Coupang, the Amazon of South Korea. Kim’s fortune surged as high as $11 billion after the company’s IPO in early March.


  2. Dan Gilbert (642 percent/$41.7 billion): Owner of Quicken Loans, which capitalized on cloistered citizens tapping online financing. Lives in Michigan.


  3. Ernest Garcia II (567 percent/$13.6 billion): Biggest shareholder of Carvana, the online car sales and auto-financing giant. Arizona.


  4. Elon Musk (559 percent/$137.5 billion): Musk is now the second wealthiest Americans—at nearly $138 billion—as his shares in Tesla, Space-X and other companies that he owns continue to climb. Lives in Texas.


  5. Brian Armstrong (550 percent/$5.5 billion): Chief executive of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country. California resident.


  6. Bobby Murphy (531 [ercent/$10.1 billion): Co-founder of Snapchat, with his Stanford fraternity brother, Evan Spiegel. California resident.


  7. Evan Spiegel (490 percent/$9.3 billion): Co-founder of Snapchat with his other billionaire super-gainer, Bobby Murphy. California resident.


  8. Jack Dorsey (396 percent/$10.3 billion): Co-founder and CEOs of both Twitter and Square, the small business payment app. Lives in California


  9. Anthony Wood (331 percent/$5.3 billion): Founder of Roku, which enables online TV video streaming. California resident.


  10. Jeff Green (300 percent/$3 billion): Californian founder and chairman of The Trade Desk, a digital advertising firm.
Other notable billionaire wealth gains during the pandemic

  • Eric Yuan, co-founder of video-conferencing technology Zoom, saw his wealth rise by $8.4 billion during the pandemic year, a gain of 153 percent. A year ago, Yuan had $5.5 billion which increased to $13.9 billion. Last year Zoom paid no federal income taxes on its $660 million in profits, which increased by more than 4,000 percent.


  • The three owners of Airbnb saw their wealth accelerate thanks to their pandemic year IPO. Brian Chesky’s wealth increased from $4.1 billion to $14.6 billion, a gain of $10.5 billion, an increase of 256 percent. Nathan Blecharazyk and Joe Gebbia, with equal ownership stakes valued at $4.1 billion a year ago, each saw their wealth increase to $13.2 billion, for gains of $9.1 billion each, or 222 percent.


  • Jim Koch, owner of Boston Beer Company and brewer of the Sam Adams brand, saw his wealth increase from $1.3 billion to $3.2 billion, a gain of $1.9 billion over the pandemic year, or 146 percent.


  • Dan and Bubba Cathy, the owners of drive-through sensation Chick-Fil-A, saw their combined wealth of $6.8 billion rise to $16.6 billion, a gain of $9.8 billion over the pandemic year, or 144 percent.


  • Harold Hamm, the politically connected oil and gas fracker, saw his wealth increase from $2.4 billion to $7.5 billion during the pandemic year, an increase of 5.1 billion, or 212.5 percent.
Of 17 industry categories, billionaires in the technology industry had the greatest collective wealth growth—$564 billion, or nearly 68 percent. [See Table 3]



They were worth $1.4 trillion on March 18, 2021, or one-third of the billionaires’ total. The titans of Wall Street—the Finance & Investment industries—saw their wealth grow by $226 billion—a nearly 37 percent increase. Automotive industry billionaires had the biggest percentage point increase in wealth—317 percent based on an increase in wealth of $172 billion. That was largely driven by the extraordinary rise in Elon Musk’s wealth—$137.5 billion or 559 percent.

All but three states saw the wealth of their billionaire residents increase. [See Table 4]

Topping the list in total wealth growth are California at $551 billion, Washingtonat $134.6 billion, and New York at $116.4 billion. The top three states with the greatest percentage increase in wealth are Michigan at 164 percent, Arizona at 110 percent, and Hawaii at 107 percent.

Billionaire wealth growth is calculated between March 18, 2020 and March 18, 2021, based on Forbes data compiled in this report by ATF and IPS. March 18 is used as the unofficial beginning of the crisis because by then most federal and state economic restrictions responding to the virus were in place. March 18 was also the date that Forbes picked to measure billionaire wealth for the 2020 edition of its annual billionaires’ report, which provided a baseline that ATF and IPS compare periodically with real-time data from the Forbes website. PolitiFact has favorably reviewed this methodology.



MANUFACTURED PANDEMIC AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE A BOON FOR BILLIONAIRES 
Stephen Lendman
Global Research, October 28, 2020
https://www.globalresearch.ca/manufactur...ign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

There’s nothing natural about US-engineered coronavirus and economic collapse that made the dismal state of the nation much worse.

Things are unlikely to return to their former state when the current storm passes that won’t  happen any time soon. Improvement from destructive fallout may never happen in the lifetimes of many people in the US and West. Things are likely to worsen ahead to more greatly benefit privileged US interests than already by exploiting most others at home and abroad.

According to Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), super-wealth of US billionaires increased by nearly $800 billion this year. Their gain has come at the cost of human misery affecting tens of millions of US households and countless millions more elsewhere. It’s not enough for Trump, calling for another capital gains tax cut to further enrich the US super-rich, himself, his family, and cronies.

Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once explained that super-wealth and democracy are incompatible. They can’t coexist with each other. America is a land of extremes. According to ATF, citing Forbes magazine, “of the $3.7 trillion in collective wealth of America’s 650 or so billionaires,” (around) $1 trillion…is held by just the top dozen.”

The dirty dozen includes Jeff Bezos topping the list, followed by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Steve Ballmer, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Alice Walton, Jim Walton, and Rob Walton.

They didn’t get super-rich by being good guys. Balzac explained that “(b)ehind every great fortune there is a crime.”

On Fox Business, Trump said if reelected,

“I’m going to do a capital gains tax cut to 15% in (a) second term…I’ll get that done easily (sic).”

The current rate is 20%. For wages, salaries, interest and other income, the top rate is 37%.

Billionaires benefitting mostly from capital gains pay less taxes  than average-earning US workers.

Warren Buffett once said he paid less taxes than his secretary.

According to entrepreneur.com, he and other billionaires pay low taxes by:

  • Mainly paying them at the capital gains rate.


  • Making large contributions to charity, lowering their tax obligation.


  • Having accountants legally reduce their effective tax rate.


  • Are rewarded with tax reductions and credits by creating jobs.


  • Are benefitting hugely from the 2017 tax cut.


  • ATF explained that extraordinary increase in “billionaire wealth is mostly if not all due to capital gains—growth in the value of stock holdings, private businesses and other investments,” adding:

If Trump is reelected and gets capital gains cut to 15%, “America’s tycoons will contribute a quarter less in tax revenue when they cash in their profits.”

According to ATF’s executive director Frank Clemente:

“By demanding even more tax cuts for the rich at this crucial moment President Trump shows he is as out of touch with our nation’s needs as America’s billionaires are disconnected from our nation’s misery.”

Billionaire Bonanza 2020 author Chuck Collins noted that for America’s super-rich, “this is a heads-we win, tails-you-lose economy, boosted by Trump policies to funnel wealth to the top,” adding: 

“This oligarchic dozen of billionaires owning over $1 trillion is an unprecedented and disturbing indicator of the concentrated wealth during a pandemic.”

According to the Tax Policy Center (ATC), three-fourth of capital gains are held by the “highest-income 1%,” over half the total by the top 0.1%.   If the capital gains tax rate is cut to 15%, America’s wealthiest 1% will get 99% of the benefit, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) explained. During unprecedented hard times for ordinary Americans, increased taxes on the wealthy are needed to aid the unemployed and others in their time of extreme need.

According to ATF, millions of US households are food insecure. Around “40 million families face eviction” because of little or no income to pay rent or service mortgages. Most working-age Americans are either unemployed or way underemployed earning poverty wages.

According to ITEP, the wealthiest 5% of Americans will get over half the benefits from the 2017 tax law this year. America’s top 1% “will get an average tax cut of $50,000,” said ATF. This year alone, America’s super-rich increased their wealth enormously at a time of vast human misery because of engineered coronavirus and economic collapse.
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