Last Updated on June 4, 2020, 11:32 PM AST by Anthony Morris
The last three months have been financially very painful for many Americans, but not for billionaires.
As per a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies on Thursday, the billionaires in the US have become $565 billion richer since March 18.
The total wealth for these billionaires now stands at $3.5 trillion, which is up 19% from the low point near the start of the pandemic, the report said.
Jeff Bezos, boss of Amazon (AMZN) alone is worth $36.2 billion more than what he was on March 18.
Since that day, around 43 million Americans have filed for initial unemployment benefits. Lower-income workers, such as in travel and service-sector jobs, have been hit really hard by the health crisis.
The numbers put an exclamation mark on the deep divide between the haves and have-nots which is helping to fuel the unrest across the country. The experts say that wealth inequality is expected to get even worse because of this crisis.
The acceleration of wealth for the American billionaires is being driven by the swift recovery of the stock market, which has skyrocketed mainly because of the unprecedented action by the Federal Reserve.
Kristina Hooper, the chief global market strategist of Invesco said that the stock market taking off and decoupling from the real economy is exacerbating inequality.
Despite the turmoil on the streets in the cities of the US and a record number of 43 million Americans filing for the unemployment benefits, the Nasdaq is on the verge of hitting record highs, an astonishing feat which underscores how quickly the Wall Street rebounded.
The Fed’s emergency response, including the slashing of interest rates to zero and also promising to buy an unlimited amount of bonds, has been designed to make the risky assets such as stocks look more attractive.
Investors have been forced to gamble on equities and Big Tech, in particular, is benefiting from that.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
