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.
Guest Post by Bill Bonner
Give me some of that. Give me some of that money. I want some of that money.
– Donald J. Trump
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – The stock market is hitting new high after new high. But the economy is slipping.
Wall Street and the rich flourish; Main Street and the middle classes fall behind. Capitalists get rich; the proletariat gets nothing. That has been the main storyline in the U.S. for the last 30 years.
Pretax corporate profits – the actual earnings of America’s biggest businesses – have gone nowhere since 2012. But the Dow is up by more than 100%.
A big story in the papers lately is that arch-capitalist Michael Bloomberg may enter the Democratic race. If so, the election of 2020 could turn into a Battle of the Billionaires. Trump vs. Bloomberg.
But they have more in common than just money. They’re both New Yorkers. And both believe in the power of Big Government to make the world a better place.
Continue reading “The Rich’s Reputation Keeps Getting Worse”
Guest Post by Caitlin Johnstone
“I guess maybe Bernie Sanders shouldn’t exist,” said billionaire Steve Schwarzman while seated in a library building named after billionaire Steve Schwarzman and promoting a book with billionaire Steve Schwarzman’s face on it.
It’s almost time for the annual Davos boondoggle where the world’s richest and most powerful financiers, politicians, artists and celebrities fly in on their private jets while surrounding by bodyguards and sit down (before partying among ultra exclusive DJs) to discuss the world’s ills (which they created) such as the omni-present “global warming” (the type which apparently ignores the carbon emissions from private jets) and which can only be solved by paying a major bank (say Goldman Sachs) billions in carbon credit commissions, not to mention social upheaval and populist anger (the type which bodyguards are so skilled at neutralizing) and where not surprisingly nationalism once again ranks as the biggest threat risk to attempts to impose a globalist world order.