{"id":233297,"date":"2021-05-02T11:10:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T11:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=233297"},"modified":"2021-05-04T06:49:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T06:49:41","slug":"wealthiest-americans-get-195-billion-richer-in-bidens-first-100-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=233297","title":{"rendered":"Wealthiest Americans Get $195 Billion Richer in Biden\u2019s First 100 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Hunt and Ben Steverman \u2013 Bloomberg April 30, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Joe Biden\u2019s election has done little to slow the inexorable surge of wealth among U.S. billionaires.<\/h4>\n

In the president\u2019s first 100 days in office, against a drumbeat of calls for the rich to pay more in taxes, the 100 wealthiest Americans added a combined $195 billion to their fortunes, according to a\u00a0Bloomberg analysis.<\/h4>\n

The most recent\u00a0gains have been fueled by the continued rise of the stock market since Biden was sworn in Jan. 20, along with the vaccination program\u2019s fast rollout\u00a0and a $1.9 trillion government stimulus package.\u00a0The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes have both climbed more than 10% during that time.<\/h4>\n

Attempts such as Biden\u2019s to refloat the economy can boost incomes and wealth at the very top, said Mike Savage, a sociology professor at the London School of Economics.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that paradox since the 2008 financial crash with quantitative easing, which has mostly benefited people with assets, inflating their value significantly,\u2019\u2019 Savage said.<\/h4>\n

The richest 100 made a further $267 billion between the 2020 election and Biden\u2019s inauguration, amounting to a total gain of $461 billion since Nov.\u00a04. From\u00a0Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration to last fall\u2019s election, those billionaires got about $860 billion richer.<\/h4>\n

The combined fortunes of the richest 100 Americans have reached $2.9 trillion, greater than the combined $2.5 trillion wealth of the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, according to data from the Federal Reserve.<\/h4>\n

The rise has been driven by an explosion of wealth among a handful of ultra-billionaires. The 10 wealthiest Americans have added $255 billion since election day, bringing their combined net worth to $1.2 trillion.<\/h4>\n

The biggest driver of this wealth surge has been tech companies like Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google, bolstered by increased online and stay-at-home activity during the coronavirus pandemic. The FANG stocks index has climbed 94% in the past 12 months compared with the 45% advance of the S&P 500.<\/h4>\n

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world\u2019s richest man, has gotten $11.7 billion richer this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, adding to about\u00a0$120\u00a0billion of wealth gains\u00a0during the Trump presidency. Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s net worth rose\u00a0$8.1 billion yesterday alone on the\u00a0strength<\/a><\/span> of Facebook\u2019s first-quarter results.<\/h4>\n

Google\u2019s Larry Page\u00a0has added $26.6\u00a0billion this year after the California-based company posted record profit last year, while the wealth of Tesla Inc.\u2019s Elon Musk has grown $5.1 billion since January.<\/h4>\n

Finance billionaires such as Warren Buffett\u00a0and Blackstone Group Inc.\u2019s\u00a0Stephen Schwarzman\u00a0have also been major beneficiaries of stock market rises.<\/h4>\n

Good Fortune<\/h2>\n

The wealthiest 10 Americans have added almost $150 billion to their fortunes since the start of 2021<\/h4>\n

In his first 100 days,\u00a0Biden has moved quickly to propose sharp tax hikes for the rich and programs to funnel trillions of dollars to middle- and lower-class Americans in the form of new infrastructure, social spending and stimulus checks. He laid out those policies in his first address to Congress on Wednesday.<\/h4>\n

\u201cSometimes I have arguments with my friends in the Democratic Party,\u201d Biden said. \u201cI think you should be able to become a billionaire or a millionaire. But pay your fair share.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Under his \u201cAmerican Families Plan\u201d announced Wednesday, the top rate of personal income tax would increase\u00a0to 39.6% for the highest 1% of earners from the current 37%, while the capital gains rate would be raised to the same level for those earning above $1 million, wiping out the discrepancy between income and capital gains tax rates that has benefitted many of the ultra-rich.<\/h4>\n

The wealthiest 1% currently pay 40% of all federal income taxes, according to Internal Revenue Service data, an amount that doesn\u2019t include payroll taxes.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWhen you ask the American people what they want, they want corporations and millionaires and billionaires to pay higher taxes,\u201d said Erica Payne, founder of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of progressive high-net-worth individuals. \u201cIt is politically a winner, it is economically the right thing to do and it is morally a no-brainer.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Corporate Tax Hike<\/h2>\n

The White House has also proposed a plan to hike corporate taxes to fund infrastructure spending. In a surprise this month, Bezos issued a statement saying he supports the general idea. \u201cWe look forward to Congress and the administration coming together to find the right, balanced solution that maintains or enhances U.S. competitiveness,\u201d he said.<\/h4>\n

Conservatives say boosting spending by adding a greater burden on the wealthy can backfire.<\/h4>\n

\u201cGovernment investments are often sold to the public with the promise that they will improve lives and improve the economy,\u201d\u00a0Scott Hodge, president of the\u00a0Tax Foundation, argued in testimony before Congress this week. \u201cIn every case, the economic harm caused by the taxes would swamp any of the benefits from the new spending, leaving taxpayers and the economy worse off.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Despite the pandemic, Fed data <\/a><\/span>show\u00a0all groups gained wealth last year. The top 1% did best, however, adding $4 trillion in 2020 and bringing their total net worth to almost $39 billion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans combined.\u00a0Personal incomes in the U.S. jumped a record 21% in March, surging after households received a third round of relief checks.<\/h4>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 10 wealthiest Americans have added $255 billion to their coffers since Election Day, bringing their combined wealth to $1.2 trillion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,66,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Economics","category-The_Oligarchs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233300,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233297\/revisions\/233300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}