17:38 23 May 2020
US billionaires become seriously rich since mid-March
American billionaires can't complain about a pandemic. Their fortunes have risen by a total of $434 billion since mid-March. Data are from the Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) report. The richest of them and those operating in the new technologies' industry have gained the most.
Data refer to the period between March 18 and May 19. According to the report, the biggest gains among billionaires in this period were recorded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos ($34.6 billion) and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($25 billion).
Over the past two months, the wealth of billionaires in the US has grown from a total of $2.948 trillion to $3.382 trillion. The number of billionaires in the US has increased by 16 and currently there are 630 of them.
This is due to the period in which the workforce is facing the largest economic crisis in modern history. According to data from the labor department, unemployment in the US increased to 17.2 percent. This level has not been recorded since the Great Depression in 1929-1933.
"The pandemic has shown the deadly consequences of growing property inequalities , and billionaires are a bright symbol of this inequality," Frank Clemente of ATF said.
