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Financial Times

17 May, 9 tweets, 5 min read

The global population of billionaires has risen more than fivefold in the past 20 years, with the largest fortunes rocketing past $100bn.

And economic stimulus driven by the pandemic has made the wealthiest even wealthier. What’s the story? on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

As Covid-19 worsened during 2020, central banks injected $9tn into economies worldwide. Much of that went into financial markets – and from there into the net worth of the ultra-rich.

Globally, billionaires’ total wealth rose by $5tn to $13tn that year on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has been tracking the wealth of the world’s billionaires, identifying not only how it is generated but which nations could be most at risk from anti-wealth revolts on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

To pinpoint the most/least bloated billionaire elites, Sharma calculates their wealth as a share of GDP. He distinguishes ‘good’ from ‘bad’ according to how much comes from ‘clean’ industries — tech and manufacturing — as opposed to real estate or oil on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

China’s explosion in the number of billionaires dwarfed all other countries in 2020, adding nearly $1tn to their collective fortunes.

There are now more than 50 Chinese deca-billionaires, such as Jack Ma of Ant Group (net worth $48bn) on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

The US billionaire class is now the second-most ‘bloated’ among its peers (their wealth mushroomed in 2020 to nearly 20% of GDP). Surprisingly, the most bloated is in Sweden at 30% of GDP. In the UK, it’s 7% on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

Despite rising inequality in the US, many millennials see a figure like Elon Musk as a visionary hero, building the battery-powered economy that will save us from global warming.

Will his 53m Twitter followers care that his fortune grew six-fold in 2020? on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

Context is crucial. As the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos’s mind-boggling $177bn is just 0.8% of US GDP. The fortunes of fashion king Amancio Ortega of Spain, telecom titan Carlos Slim of Mexico & France’s Bernard Arnault are all >5% on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

Russia recently lost its mantle as the ‘world capital of “bad” billionaires’ to Mexico. Read on to find out where it fits in, why Germany is an interesting counterpoint, and how the global billionaire boom might evolve from here: on.ft.com/3eS59Yv

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