American billionaires made $1.3 trillion during Covid pandemic

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Even as millions of Americans lost jobs, housing and faced the deaths of loved ones, a think tank has calculated that American billionaires collectively grew their wealth by $1.3 trillion during the pandemic. The report, released on Tuesday by the Institute of Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, found that billionaires in the US have grown their combined wealth by “nearly 45 per cent — or by more than $1.3 trillion — since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the nation last March”. Chuck Collins, director of the Institute of Policy Studies’ programme on inequality, said in a press release: “The pandemic profiteers are extracting windfalls of wealth during a time of widespread suffering for the majority of people.” Among the top 15 billionaires were Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Elison, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Nike’s Phil Knight. Americans for Tax Fairness said in a statement that: “This increase in wealth is more than it would cost to send a stimulus check of $3,900 to every one of the roughly 330 million people in America.” The report identified what it called “The 10 biggest Pandemic Profiteers”, billionaires who have seen their wealth increase by at least 300 per cent in the last year.