On Thursday, Tesla (+7.84) yesterday gained the market cap ($56bn) of nearly one GM or 1.6x Fords and in the process Elon Musk became the richest man in the world and has wealth ($194.8bn) which as Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid writes, is virtually identical to the GDP of Greece in 2020 (population 10.7MM) even if one is a stock and one a flow.
As the second chart from Reid shows, the pandemic has been kind to the finances of this elite group largely by dint of the type of businesses they run, or are associated with, and the huge liquidity injections into markets.
After the initial shock of the pandemic, an index of US billionaire wealth (second chart) has increased consistently and is now back 29% above where we were in February 2019 with the top 5 62% above.
As Reid observes, these are “remarkable numbers given the period we’ve been through” and concludes that “whether this attracts the attention of the new US administration will be an interesting thing to watch and something that could impact markets at some point given how big and important the companies that these people own are.”
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I would disagree with the author’s belief of how important the elites businesses are. America would be better off without huge corporations that do nothing but centralize. IMO
My belief is we’d be better off without huge corporations. What new things are yet to be invented that are soooo important to need billions and billions in R&D that only corporations can spearhead?
Plenty of “new” ways of doing things are extractive of the economy. New types of capitalism, like disaster capitalism. Or, I would suggest, virus capitalism or capitalism through the creation of new laws etc.
I saw a video (maybe posted on TBP. I can’t remember) discussing venture capitalism. Most of them are basically a ponzi scheme. That’s why these startups don’t care about profit. It’s all about growth and valuations. Valuations are calculated by growth and valuations bring in more seed money. All in the hopes of going public (that’s the big score) offloading onto the retail investor or having a Google buy you out.
Aren’t we seeing the affects (EC used to make sure I used effect and affect correctly. Now I’m sailing in a sea of doubt on whether I’m using it correctly here or not) of concentrated wealth? Are we going back to an age of Lords and Peasants?
I think it’s — “Aren’t we seeing the effects”
In 4 minutes you will see the light ….
I want to affect something vs. …was the effect of the change?
I had a product idea for the scuba industry, I’m a diver soooo… I made proto types, had the circuitry and hardware sorted out, tested lift bags and just was in the process of trying to find someone to make the chemicals I needed for the product. On the lines of an airbag.
A local ‘broker’ in Vancouver, British Comunista got a hold of me. Wanted me to forma company and list the product. Goal was to mine the market and I need not ever produce the product. Its how they ‘make’ money at the lower ends of the markets by suckering in those willing to sell their souls. Still looking for that Chemical engineer.
You need not disguise facts as your opinion.
Poor Bill Gates …. now just the 3rd richest person in a world of 7+ Billion human souls. Great must be his despair. Pray for him … lest he commit suicide.
Bozo can get back to Number One by raising the price of everything on Amazon by just one penny.
Musk will lose a fortune when China stops supplying rare earth minerals to make his fucken batteries.
Disclaimer: NONE of this should be construed as financial advise.
To late… just invested my entire lifes savings and borrowed more than I could even reasonably pay back and bought rare earth mineral stocks out of china because I’m certain you said buy them because China will threaten Musk to pay more making me millions. It was that or go with the nigeria prince… I choose your sagely advice instead
Yikes! Once again, I must apologize.
I just sent you a check to cover your losses. it’s in the mail. Really.
Outstanding customer service. On my way to sit by the mail box and wait… and its snowing… but because I know a postal carrier and they have that snow, sleet thingie I’m sure I won’t have to wait to long… Many Thx
1 vs. 10.7M?
The difference between goy socialism and controlled (((capitalism)))….
“How many fingers am I holding up now, Winston”, asked O’brien….
“Thursday,” replied Winston.
Well at least Musk builds physical things.
Google, Amazon etc. are just air.
Sure he is.
We didn’t go to the Moon either.
Elon did it the old fashioned way: he “insures” the nations’ satellites with his private space company. A rocket protection racket as it were.
The members that own the federal reserve are the richest. They could likely buy that list with their change.
Dr. Burry is reported to have shorted TSLA
I don’t think Biden is going after these “Lords”.
https://oftwominds.cloudhostedresources.com/?task=get&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oftwominds.com%2Fblogjan21%2Ftyranny-of-cost1-21.html
Just more proof of how F-ed up everything is.
Both Facebook and Twitter are UN-American and should be abandoned by ALL true Americans.
They have NO place in our society. They should be PUT OUT OF BUSINESS as soon as possible.
Tesla has never made a profit.
If it wasnt for help from the Federal Government it would be broke.
Tesla has lost BILLIONS of dollars.
And yet fools keep throwing money at it.
Everybody who has money in Tesla Stock needs to do a duckduckgo.com search about the infamous Tulip Mania.
Tesla will end poorly for people buying at these levels. Wish I had listened to Star, tho.
😁😁😁😁😁