Report: America’s Billionaires Added $282 Billion to Their Total Wealth in 23 Days During the Coronavirus Crisis

The US’ richest people continue to get richer even as the coronavirus pushes millions of American workers into unemployment and a deep recession looms large over the economy, according to a report

In the first three months of 2020, even as panic gripped markets, 34 of the US’ wealthiest 170 billionaires saw their fortunes surge by millions of dollars, according to a Billionaires Bonanza 2020 report published by the Institute for Policy Studies last week. Eight even saw their wealth increase by more than $1 billion, the report said.

Research by Forbes year showed that US billionaires’ wealth declined from $3.1 trillion to $2.9 trillion in 2020 as of March 18, but the new Billionaires Bonanza report which looks at billionaires wealth from the start of January until April 10, shows that billionaires have cashed in so far this year.

In the 23 days between March 18 and April 10, the report states, billionaire wealth in the US increased $282 billion, or 9.5%. Over the same period, 22 million Americans filed for unemployment, it noted.

Billionaires saw their net worths increase in those weeks as stock markets rallied sharply, rewarding those with large stock market investments. (Read more from “Report: America’s Billionaires Added $282 Billion to Their Total Wealth in 23 Days During the Coronavirus Crisis” HERE)

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