Washington Billionaires Raked In Billions More During Pandemic

WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be an unparalleled economic crisis for many Americans, but you wouldn't know that by looking at the richest among us.

A financial think tank released an analysis Thursday on the growth of billionaire wealth which found that, while the ultra-rich saw their fortunes steadily rise over the past three decades, their money really exploded during the pandemic.

Americans for Tax Fairness found the combined wealth of billionaires in America jumped from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion from March 18, 2020, to April 12, 2021. That’s an increase of $1.62 trillion, or 55 percent.

This “perversely accelerated” growth of fortunes of people who are already extremely rich came as more than 77 million Americans lost their jobs and more than 30 million Americans became sick with COVID-19, the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group said in a news release.

The report comes a week after the release of Forbes' World’s Billionaires List, which named 2,755 billionaires from across the globe and saw 660 new names added to the list. Around 86 percent of those named on the Forbes list are richer today than they were before the pandemic.

Related: These Washington Billionaires Are Among Richest In U.S.

It's hard to talk about billionaires without mentioning Washington's Jeff Bezos, whose wealth jumped from $113 billion in March 2020 to $196 billion this month — a 74.1 percent increase. It's a nigh-unbelievable amount of money, and it makes him the richest man on Earth, but it isn't even the most a billionaire made last year: that dubious award goes to Elon Musk, whose wealth increased nearly sixfold from $24 billion to $147 billion.

Other Washington billionaires aren't far behind. Bill Gates remains the third-richest American, raking in $32 billion in 13 months for a total $130 billion fortune. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer also increased his wealth 43 percent to 75 billion, according to the study.

The report also pointed out the explosion occurred on top of a 19-fold increase in wealth that billionaires have been experiencing for more than 31 years.

The combined wealth of billionaires in 1990 was just $240 billion, after adjusting for inflation, and the number of billionaires in the United States was smaller. Only 66 people in the country were considered billionaires in 1990. Now there are 719 — a majority of whom come from either the finance or tech industries.

Of those 719 billionaires, only six are considered “centi-billionaires” — people whose net worth is at least $100 billion. That includes Bezos, Musk and Gates, but also:

• Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, saw his wealth rise by 108 percent to $113.5 billion.
• Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, became 50 percent richer in the last year as his wealth rose to $101 billion.
• Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, saw a 71 percent jump in his wealth that brought his net worth to $101 billion.

Americans for Tax Fairness endorses President Joe Biden’s tax plan, which would raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and punish U.S. companies that move their headquarters outside the country for tax purposes.

The group said billionaires would indirectly pay more in taxes, as their wealth is mostly made up in corporate stock.

“It’s not just during the pandemic — billionaires have been running up the score on average Americans for decades,” Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement. “The way to reverse this trend is by making sure the wealthy, and the corporations they own, start paying their fair share of taxes. President Biden is proposing to do just that so we can finally build an economy that works for working families.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Bezos has also broadly endorsed Biden's plan, though he says any tax raise will require "concessions from all sides."

Read more: Bezos Weighs In On Biden's Corporate Tax Raise Proposal