Pandemic Profiteers: How U.S. Billionaires Like Amazon's Jeff Bezos Saw Wealth Grow by $1.3 Trillion

A new report reveals that as a record number of people in the United States lost their jobs and struggled to put food on the table during the past year of the pandemic, the combined wealth of the 657 billionaires in the country grew more than $1.3 trillion, nearly 45%, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who saw his personal wealth increase by $65 billion — more than $7 million every hour. “They are often leading companies who have benefited from the pandemic conditions by having, essentially, their competition shut down,” says Chuck Collins, author of the report on pandemic profiteers by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness. “These folks have reaped enormous windfalls in this pandemic.” The massive gains come as pressure grows on lawmakers to impose new taxes on the top 1%, with both Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders proposing new measures to address growing economic inequality.