The take away in this article is that it’s just as important to question what you’re reading as it is to read.

I’m not a fan of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and the like.  I’m okay with Musk for the most part, not because he’s a popular social media figure, but because his ideas may actually move us forward.

Most of the wealth generated by these individuals is because of Wall Street and not necessarily due to any nefarious dealings by the individuals themselves.

In fact, cursory research indicates that these individuals have a disproportionately small amount of personal and liquid net worth compared to their stock portfolio.

Don’t get me wrong, they are dripping with money and disposable income compared to the rest of society. And by no means should we feel sorry for any of these people. But, the truth is a little more complicated than just saying that these individuals added $450 billion to their net worth in 2020.

Perhaps a more important take away would be the question how Wall Street, hedge funds, and investment banks, that we deem too big to fail, manipulate multinational corporations by driving stock prices higher and higher with unrealistic expectations.  Often, stocks are traded on emotion.

Source: Musk and Bezos among 10 rich men to add $450bn to their wealth this year