A new report–Riding the Storm, billionaires insights 2020–by UBS and PwC reveals that the world’s uber-rich have increased their already-huge fortunes by more than a quarter; and this “miracle” happened amidst the ongoing pandemic ravaging life of billions of the poor in continents.

Wealth of this handful of uber-rich, according to the report, grew by 27.5 percent–$10.2 trillion–during April-July period. That was the apex point of the Covid-crisis.

According to the UBS, the billionaires had mostly benefited from betting on the recovery of global stock markets.

The report noted: Wealth of the billionaires had hit “a new high, surpassing the previous peak of $8.9 trillion reached at the end of 2017.”

What’s the number of billionaires today? It’s 2,189–a record high. In 2017, it was 2,158.

Josef Stadler, the head of UBS’s Ultra High Net Worth department, said: “Billionaires did extremely well during the Covid crisis. Not only did they ride the storm to the downside, but they also gained on the upside.”

This acquisition of “benefit” is at the cost of the workers and nature, who produced the wealth.

And, these workers, millions going through untold suffering–unemployment, and consequently, hunger, loss of shelter, lack of health care, fear of murderous uncertainty–in countries, go unheard, unattended, non-politicized, unaware of class question, appropriation/exploitation. Rather, they are manipulated, divided, segregated, infused with anti-worker ideas, concepts and attitudes.

US billionaires recoup all their wealth

U.S. billionaires have recouped all of their wealth—and more—during the Pandemic Depression. Meanwhile, since May, the number of poor Americans has grown by about 8 million. And the number of American workers applying for and receiving unemployment benefits continues at record levels.

According to Forbes,

Pandemic be damned: America’s 400 richest are worth a record $3.2 trillion, up $240 billion from a year ago, aided by a stock market that has defied the virus.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began to sweep the world earlier this year, the wealth of U.S. billionaires plummeted in lockstep with the stock market. Yet, just six months after the market bottomed out—with hundreds of thousands Americans dead and the coronavirus still to be contained—the wealthiest Americans are doing better than ever. In other words, the pain, at least for the ultra-rich, was remarkably short lived. On the whole, during the first six months of the pandemic, the United States added more than 29 more billionaires, increasing from 614 to 643. The Pandemic Depression has been a boon to their fortunes.

Meanwhile, more and more American workers, who have lost their jobs or been furloughed, are attempting to survive on meager unemployment benefits. And many of them and their families—especially Black people and children—are now falling below the poverty line.

In India too, billionaire wealth rose by a third during lockdown

India’s billionaires reported a rise in their combined net worth by more than a third during the first four months of the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown, i.e., between April and July, defying the impact of the global economic fallout of the pandemic.

According to the Billionaires Insights Report 2020 published by UBS and PwC, the net worth of Indian billionaires between April and July increased by 35% to $423 billion.

Since 2009, the net worth of India’s billionaires surged 90% as on July 31, 2020 – to rank sixth in the world, after the US, China, Germany, Russia and France, respectively.

According to the Forbes’ India Rich List 2020 released earlier this month, the net worth of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, rose 73% over the past year to nearly $89 billion (Rs 6.52 lakh crore). This is over three times more wealth than the second richest person on the list, Gautam Adani, at $25.2 billion. With this, Ambani remains the wealthiest Indian for the 13th year in a row.

Others in this list include HCL founder Shiv Nadar, Serum Institute of India’s Cyrus Poonawalla, Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, among others.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Reliance Industries’ (RIL) chairman Ambani became the only Asian tycoon to be among the world’s top 10 richest people.

As India heads for its worst recession, it is ironic how “fewer billionaires saw their wealth erode this year than they did in last year”, Forbes said in its report. Therefore, it is also important to note that India’s richest 1% of the population holds 42.5% of national wealth while the bottom 50% – the majority of the population, owns a mere 2.8%, showed an Oxfam report. India’s top 10% of the population holds 74.3% of the total national wealth while the bottom 90% holds 25.7% of national wealth, the report said.

“Mr. Ambani’s companies (particularly the telecom giant Jio) have prospered, and his personal wealth has increased substantially,” Jayati Ghosh, chair of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told the Economic Times.

The Hurun India list named the richest individuals in India having a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore or more as on August 31, 2020. The names included Ambani, Hinduja brothers (SP Hinduja, along with his three brothers) with a joint wealth of Rs 1.43 lakh crore, HCL founder Shiv Nadar with a wealth of Rs 1.41 lakh crore, among the 828 rich Indians.

The cumulative value of these 828 individuals on the 2020 list stood at $821 billion (Rs 60.59 lakh crore), up from $140 billion (Rs 10.29 lakh crore) in 2019, a large part of which was due to the rise in share price of Reliance Industries.

(Article has been compiled by us from articles by Farooque Chowdhury in Frontier Weekly, David Ruccio in MR Online and an article by The Wire Staff at thewire.in.)