As we have been reporting for years, the rich are getting richer and the “Bigs” are getting bigger, as the plantation workers of Slavelandia get poorer.
Bloomberg’s “Billionaires Index” released data last week that showed the richest 59 billionaires in the U.S. watched their net worth skyrocket during the coronavirus outbreak and now own more wealth than the poorest 50 percent of Americans.
Bloomberg reported the top 1 percent of Americans combine for a net worth of $34.2 trillion while the poorest 50 percent of the country, which amounts to some 165 million people, have $2.08 trillion. The report said the 50 richest alone are worth $2 trillion.
In addition, the stock market’s performance played a major role in the widening wealth gap. As reported in the Trends Journal, wealthy Americans have a significant amount of their fortune tied up in equities, while the poorest tend to have little to no money in the stock market.
About $5.7 trillion of added wealth came from stock market gains, of which 10 percent of the population owns 87 percent and 1 percent owns 52 percent.
Last week in the U.S., first-time unemployment claims were higher than expected, totaling 840,000 new applications. Overall, 25.5 million out-of-workers are receiving some form of unemployment payments.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last Tuesday, “The pandemic is further widening divides in wealth and economic mobility.”
Powell warned that more government aid is needed to keep the economy from weakening and “a long period of unnecessarily slow progress could continue to exacerbate existing disparities in our economy,” according to Bloomberg.
The Federal Reserve has already injected trillions into financial markets to prevent a deeper crisis. Aside from a $3 trillion injection, which increased its balance sheet from $4.2 trillion in February to $7 trillion in July, the Fed promised in March to “purchase Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning and effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions and the economy.”
Workers of the World
The massive gains for the richest are not isolated in the U.S. The BBC reported the world’s richest saw their net worth surge 27.5 percent during a time when many countries enforced strict lockdown measures and closed “non-essential” businesses to combat the virus’ spread.
UBS Global Wealth Management and PwC Switzerland said the total wealth by the billionaire class reached $10.2 trillion in July, and there are more billionaires today – 2,189 – than ever before in history.
The historic increase in wealth comes at the same time the World Bank blamed the coronavirus for the first rise in extreme poverty in two decades. (See our article in this issue, “COVID LOCKDOWNS SPIKE EXTREME POVERTY.”)
TREND FORECAST: As we have forecast, there will be uprisings across the globe as the “Greatest Depression” worsens and “Off With Their Heads 2.0” battles rage between the haves and the have-nots.
There will also be strong anti-monopoly movements and calls for undoing of public services that have been privatized. These will also be platforms of new political movements.
