Richest 500 people saw their fortunes increase by $1,000,000,000,000 in 2017
The world’s 500 richest people increased their fortunes by $1tn in 2017 according to the latest Bloomberg billionaires index.
The increases are largely due to increases in the value of global stock markets which are likely to finish the year at record highs.
Today’s Guardian are also reporting that advisers to the super-rich have warned of a “strike back” from the squeezed majority.
The Bloomberg billionaires index shows the combined fortunes of the 500 richest people is now $5.3tn.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. Details about the calculations are provided in the net worth analysis on each billionaire’s profile page. The figures are updated at the close of every trading day in New York.
Yeung Kin-Man, chairman of phone touch screen supplier Biel Crystal Manufactory, was the biggest mover on our Billionaires Index. He lost 9 million https://t.co/wqLyzoFcFe pic.twitter.com/YgibY3P6eH
— Bloomberg (@business) December 26, 2017
The list as of today reveals Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is the world’s richest man and that his fortune has increased by $34.2bn to a total of $99.6bn in 2017.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($91.6bn) and Warren Buffett ($85bn fortune) are the world’s next richest people.
Two Irish men are listed in the top 500 billionaires index.
At 238 on the list is John P Grayken with a net worth analysis of $6.8bn and a 2017 increase of $1.7bn.
At 472 is Denis O'Brien with a net worth analysis of $4.2bn and a decrease of $95m in 2017.
The Guardian also reveal that collectively, the world’s five richest people – Bezos, Gates, Buffett, Amancio Ortega, the owner of Zara, and Facebook’s Zuckerberg – hold $425bn of assets.
According to the World Bank Ireland’s annual GDP is $294bn.
The Guardian also reports Josef Stadler, the lead author of the UBS / PwC Billionaires report and UBS’s head of global ultra-high net worth, as suggesting his billionaire clients growing concerned at growing inequality and that this could lead to a “strike back”.
Tech tycoons triumphed in 2017, adding more than 0 billion to their fortunes https://t.co/fXWkDwv3pq pic.twitter.com/JioENNbTPS
— Bloomberg Wealth (@wealth) December 27, 2017
The Guardian also cite a report in 2015 by Credit Suisse which found the world’s richest 1% people have seen their share of the globe’s total wealth increase from 42.5% in 2008 to 50.1% in 2017.
“The share of the top 1% has been on an upward path ever since [the financial crisis], passing the 2000 level in 2013 and achieving new peaks every year thereafter”.
The Guardian points out that in 2017, 2.3 million new dollar millionaires were created taking the total to 36 million and that these millionaires – who account for 0.7% of the world’s adult population – now control 46% of the total global wealth.
The media group go on to reveal the world’s 3.5 billion poorest adults each have assets of less than $10,000 and that collectively 70% of the world’s working age population, account for just 2.7% of global wealth.
