COVID is wealth and power transfer from middle class to super-rich
“Billionaires Are Getting Richer During The COVID-19 Pandemic While Most Americans Suffer” by Jack Kelly, Forbes | April 27, 2020
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, billionaire wealth has boomed, while over 26 million people have filed for unemployment since mid-March. . .
. . . From the start of March to now, the group of billionaires’ total wealth has increased by $308 billion. . . .
As of April 15, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos’ already incredible wealth soared an additional $25 billion . . .
Billionaires, including Bezos, his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos, Eric Yuan, former Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and Elon Musk, each saw their fortunes jump by more than $1 billion dollars. Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have as much money as the bottom half of all American households . . .
. . . when almost all physical retail stores (Amazon’s competitors) are ordered to close and people are told to stay at home and the Washington Post (owned by Bezos) reports dire daily warnings about the virus outbreak and how Americans should continue the lockdown, regulators should—at the very least—take a look at what’s happening.
“America’s billionaires added $282 billion to their total wealth in 23 days during the coronavirus crisis, a report claims” by Saloni Sardana, Markets Insider | May 1, 2020
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/the-billionaires-whose-wealth-grew-despite-covid-19-2020-5-1029154677?op=1
This increase is according to a report from the Institute for Policy Studies.
“The U.S. Response to Covid-19 Has Lavished Wealth on the Rich” by Miles Kampf-Lassin, In These Times | May 6, 2020
http://inthesetimes.com/article/22514/covid-19-coronavirus-wealthy-corporate-welfare
While the pandemic ravages American workers, the federal government has orchestrated a monumental transfer of wealth from the bottom of the economic ladder to the top.
[Lots of COVID propaganda in this and other articles. Note that most of the death figures at the beginning of this article from May, in my opinion, are just based on how authorities and medical officials were told (and encouraged) to attribute seasonal respiratory deaths that occur every year among the very elderly and immune-compromised to “COVID-19.” There was also a widespread denial of health care to the elderly also as I have documented, which boosted the number of deaths.]
. . .
The Small Business Paycheck Protection Program, meanwhile, turned out to be a bust for actual small businesses. Of the original $350 billion allocated for these businesses in the CARES Act, over $243 million ended up going to large corporations . . . .
Other articles on this topic:
Small Business Rescue Earned Banks $10 Billion In Fees, NPR, April 22, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/840678984/small-business-rescue-earned-banks-10-billion-in-fees
. . . One law firm, the Stalwart Law Group, filed five class action lawsuits this week — four in California and one in New York — alleging that banks processed clients with larger loans first because they stood to generate more money in fees. . . .
The Rich Are Riding Out The Coronavirus Pandemic Very Differently Than The Rest Of Us by Jack Kelly, Forbes, April 1, 2020
There were so many rich people flying to other states or countries, they were running out of private jets.
Meanwhile, the average American is told to stay indoors under self-quarantine.
Florida and Texas state governors issued travel advisories, set up checkpoints and initiated screening of drivers coming from coronavirus hotspots
Violation of basic rights, and we’re talking about healthy people.
But special strokes for people who can afford a private jet.
These Healthcare Billionaires Have Gotten Richer off the Coronavirus Pandemic
A surge in the stock prices of companies developing COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing kits has minted at least one new billionaire and boosted the fortunes of nine members of the three-comma-club.
POLICY REPORT
Let’s Stop Pretending Billionaires Are in the Same Boat as Us During This Pandemic by Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies | April 24, 2020
. . . Between 18 March and 10 April 2020, over 22 million Americans lost their jobs. Over the same three weeks, my co-authors and I find in a new study for the Institute for Policy Studies, US billionaire wealth increased by $282 billion — an almost 10 percent gain.
:
https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Billionaire-Bonanza-2020.pdf
Billionaire Bonanza 2020, published by the Institute for Policy Studies on April 23, 2020.
Between January 1, 2020 and April 10, 2020, 34 of the nation’s wealthiest 170 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by tens of millions of dollars. Eight of these billionaires —Jeff Bezos (Amazon), MacKenzie Bezos (Amazon), Eric Yuan (Zoom), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), John Albert Sobrato (Silicon Valley real estate), Elon Musk (Teslaand SpaceX), Joshua Harris (Apollo Global Management),and Rocco Commisso (Mediacom)—have seen their net worth surge by over $1 billion
As of the publication of this report, Bezos’ wealth has increased over $25 billion since January 1, 2020 and $12 billion since February 21st, 2020, the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic
Between March 18 —the near bottom point of the pandemic financial swoon —and April 10, 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth rebounded by $282 billion.
December detailed media report. Situation more extreme: “Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk among US billionaires getting richer during coronavirus pandemic” https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/12/01/american-billionaires-that-got-richer-during-covid/43205617/