2mo ago

Billionaires at Trump’s swearing-in have since lost $209 billion

www.bloomberg.com

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Summary

Since Trump’s second-term inauguration, five top billionaires have lost a combined $209 billion as markets react to policy uncertainty.

Elon Musk’s net worth plunged $148 billion as Tesla shares collapsed amid declining European and Chinese sales.
Jeff Bezos lost $29 billion as Amazon stock fell 14%.
Sergey Brin’s fortune dropped $22 billion following Alphabet’s weak earnings and regulatory pressure.
Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault each lost $5 billion as Meta and LVMH stocks tumbled.

The S&P 500 is down 6.4%, reversing gains seen post-election.

Non-paywall link

Trump Watch @lemm.ee

PhilipTheBucket @ponder.cat

2mo ago

Billionaires at Trump's Swearing-In Have Since Lost $209 Billion

www.bloomberg.com /news/articles/2025-03-10/billionaires-at-trump-s-swearing-in-have-since-lost-200-billion

124 comments

only meaningful if their stocks don't bounce back, but too soon to tell
- Also only meaningful if they can't buy up actual, tangible assets in the coming recessions, effectively converting their dead capital into more assets. (+ getting more state money for being "too big to fail")
  
  No, they're gonna. It's exactly what happened last recession. The pain got offshored to the workers, and the people with assets used the moment to leverage their assets to buy more assets on the cheap.
  
  Very similar to what happened just before the "collapse" of the Soviet Union, which seems to be Trump's aspiration. It had turned into a free-for-all.
- Stocks will always bounce back. But the people that live off their 401ks now have to sell at a loss to survive.
- I have a theory that this is all planned. Tank share market, buy lots of shares, in a few years they get all their wealth back and more.

So what? It's not like their bank accounts got affected. Their shares are valued less which means they did not loose money but the lost money they could have had.
- They lost pretend money that could be used for business loans that they don't need because they have so much pretend money. The only time it matteds for these parasites is if it happens when they are acquiring another company worth billions of pretend monies.
  Even a stock market collapse is a benefit to these chucklefucks.
  
  The only time it matters for them is when an Italian plumber shows up to collect their debt.
  
  Everything‘s on discount for them now! Time to buy up some cheap stock and failing businesses.
  They win no matter what.
  
  Matters at least a bit. For instance, Musk has signalled his interest in buying OpenAI. He will find it far harder to get the money for it now that Tesla shares have nosedived.
  More generally with Tesla it is difficult to make a business case for the existence of the company right now, since Musk alienated his entire potential consumer base. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company gets sold into parts in the text two years or so.
  
  they still have billions stashed somewhere and could buy up things on the cheap/.
- Some of them (ahum you know which one) did lose actual value: the entire credibility of their biggest brands are down the drain for years to come... In that way the stockprices do really show that they are losing out. Some others really are losing (sort of) equal access to big important markets... The loss is real, even tho I agree with the sentiment of your post, the lowering stocks predict lowering income, lowering dividends which these people expect to rake in eternally to keep their billionaire lifestyle afloat, etc. They are slowly becoming less wealthy from the shennanigans. Not quick enough tho. A billionaire is a thing that just shouldn't be allowed to exist ever anywhere.
- They basically use that "money" as collateral for low interest loans. So it impacts how much they can physically buy. It's a good thing.

That's not enough
- The Top 10 Richest Americans have a combined wealth total of $1,548 TRILLION.
  $209 billion is only ~~0.13%~~ 13.5% of the of Top 10.
  We need to get those numbers higher.
  Edit: I suck at math, as it was pointed out to me
  
  That doesn't stack up, Musk is the richest, currently worth $324Bn - they can't be worth more than $3.24Tn combined.
  
  You seem to have forgotten to multiply by 100 after you divided 209 by 1,548.
  209 is 13.5% of 1,548, not 0.13%.
  Edit: It is a bit disturbing how many people upvote things without making even the most basic sanity check.
  
  🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
- It's a relatively small price to pay for the power they gained, and most of the losses are elons anyway
  
  We need to keep pumping those numbers up

Coverage like this makes me feel sad.
Do people honestly not realise that billionaires always enrich themselves during recessions?
This is all going to plan for oligarchs. People celebrating it are naive unfortunately.
- I would say most of it is meaningless other than Elon and specifically Tesla, Tesla stock prices plumetting will remove most of the power from Elon in the future, even Trump might turn on him once his main thing his net worth evaporates
  
  Yes, the all-but-inevitable Trump decision to throw Musk under the bus is not something I've seen a lot of people discuss.
  
  Musk is only a part of the problem, and Musk will have to lose another 110 billion before he even stops being the richest man in the world.
  I'd love to see that happen but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile it does nothing but enrich powerful Disaster capitalists including Putin and his coterie.
  
  Id be willing to bet that tesla is no bigger than 10% maximum of his worth. His big ones are space X that just chugs our tax money, and starlink, which I believe is being used as navigation in weapons systems being sold to nations. Tesla is effectively meaningless now.
- and they have bailouts just in case they cant actually make money.

Daily Reminder:

Those are rookie numbers! We've got to pump that number!
- Yes, the more they lose the more we win.
  PERSONAL AUSTERITY!!!! SAVE YOUR MONEY AND LET THE RICH GO FUCK THEMSELVES!!!
  
  You don't win by them just losing some money. Redistribution is the name of the game. Even if Tesla hits 0/share, you aren't getting any more wealth just by virtue of that happening.
  ...Aside from basking in the downfall of a nazi of course, but those are priceless things.
- We have to Trump those numbers.
- Gotta start somewhere! Keep it going!
- Numbers must go down! The Board requires it.

Acting like they have the billions as liquid cash is weird.
IF, and its a big if, they would start selling their assets in order to liquidate their stocks, the assets would nosedive in value to fucking hell. Most of their wealth is smoke and mirrors. Most of them spend money by borrowing cash against their assets.
Tax them so they have to lend or sell some assets to pay their fair share.
- It’s pretty common knowledge how these billionaires leverage the value of their stocks/assets as collateral against loans, in order to avoid having to pay capital gains tax.
  Even though it’s not liquid cash, there really isn’t much to preclude them from taking out cash loans up to like 70-80% of their value if they ever wanted to (not that they would, as cash depreciates in value due to inflation).
  So while you are correct that if they ever had to liquidate their shares the value would plummet significantly - unless something catastrophic happens and the value of those assets plunges well below an acceptable level to their financiers, it will never happen.
  If you owe the bank a $100 and can’t pay it back, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100m, that’s their problem.
  
  I think we might be nearing a catastrophic economic collapse. It will be interesting to see how these billionaires react.
- The whole monetary system is smoke and mirrors. If people don't consume more than last year the entire system can collapse and central banks buy up all the debt that is suddenly considered bad.
  Then we wonder how stores of value like housing, gold, and bitcoin can rise so astronomically in nominal terms.
  
  Capitalism does not "collapse" with 0 or negative GDP growth. I don't know where people got this idea. You only really see any sort of "collapse" if the social structure breaks down - the basic behaviors of trading continue even in extreme crises, insofar as a society operates with property assigned to individuals like that. Not counting "bubbles" and such as a "collapse".
  
  Not mine , I know exactly how much cash I've got ...except for the coinstar bucket but that's for real emergencies

A good start. It takes much more to fix this problem, though.
- Them losing billions is meaningless. Don't for this: if you had 1 billion dollars, and you lost 99% of it, you still have 10 million dollars, which is more than what most people will ever have.
  Their entire industries need to be nationalized and ALL their assets seized.

How do you screw both the rich and poor at the same time?
- Sheer incompetence. Whenever he says "I'm the only one who can..." I hear "I have no fucking clue how to even begin doing this".
- The rich didnt lost any money, their stock is just lower than in january, but still higher than last year. And it can still get up.
  The poor have to cope with higher prices of basic goods, which never comes down.
  Only poors are screwed until they eat the leech

It remains to be seen if their kissing the ring was strategic or just tactical (apart from Musk, who is committed), but what they've bought wasn't a good economy. They bought into the transition from democracy and capitalism to authoritarian oligarchy.
Dollars don't describe the value of Russia-level corruption, which is where the country is now pointed. And the longer-term gains from captured institutions would far outpace a hundred billion dollars or two, if they succeed.
- Small but important point. We've been an oligarchy for a while now. We're just losing the pretense of it being a democracy.
  
  Technically we’ve been an oligarchy since day 1. It just didn’t have oligarchy vibes.

Good let’s make it another 200 billion EACH and even then that won’t be enough as they’ll all still have hundreds of billions of dollars which is absolutely insane
- Unfortunately our own pensions and such are also getting wiped out by the same forces. And with less access to insider information.
- They would become weak enough for us to start curbstomping

They deserve to lose so much more.

Comparing my net worth to that total net worth? I’d be upset, but not terribly so, if I lost $1000 too.
But since I would be getting it back later, and then some, it’s more like a small investment only . Definitely worth the small risk,

These are the same billionaires that donated millions to the inauguration. How's that RoI on bribery going techbros?

So that's what, about 5 minutes with of profits between them?

THERE'S THREE AND A HALF YEARS TO GO. THEY'RE PLAYING THE LONG GAME.
THEY AREN'T UPSET. THEY'RE GETTING EVERYTHING THEY WANT.

Ridiculous how some people pander, especially the press, to the billionaire set.
When they have a downturn in net worth people say they “lost” money, or are “poorer” even though they’re still worth billions.
But when they’re making money hand over fist, millions of dollars daily, people act like that money doesn’t exist. “Oh, it’s tied up in investments, you can’t tax it…It’s not income! It’s not in their bank account.”
Always the poor billionaires; perpetually simultaneously unable to touch their money, complaining when they lose money they ”don’t have,” and living like billionaires with all the conspicuous consumption that goes with it.

Looks like some dumbfucks made a bad investment in a rapist.
- Not really. Comparative wealth of the entire USA is declining, the Billionaires are still on top. If Elon Musk loses 99% of his wealth he would still be a billionaire.
  What this really means is that people around the world outside of the USA no longer view it as a stable investment.
- Tbf, not all of them invested in his campaign though.

Rookie numbers. Needs more.

Oh ok, that’s sad, let me shed a few tears here before I go back to be exploited by the rich 😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹

Whisper it in my ear
- ^^they ^^lost ^^$209 ^^billion
  
  🥵 That's hot. Not nearly enough, but still great news

MOAR!

I can’t help but feel like this was some sort of Monkey’s paw situation. “I wish there weren’t any billionaires”

They don't care. Stock prices only matter when purchasing and when selling. The day to day up and down has no affect on their direct worth.
- False - these billionaires use their stock as collateral for loans. It’s all part of a tax avoidance scheme. If the stock goes down significantly, the banks come knocking.
  Both of the billionaires pictured also head their companies in some way or another. Investors can vote to throw them out. Not that they would, but even the vote of no confidence is not a good look.
  
  Banks may come to them, but hardly knocking with demands. 'If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.' And how they interact with banks, loans, etc. is far different in scale and method than the average consumer anyway.

Couldn't have happened to a better group of guillotine dodgers.

I know were in for a world of pain with the stocks tanking. But honestly don't mind that they lose even more. Lose everything. Burn with us.
- They won't. You'll see. They will come out of this richer and more powerful than when they went in.
  
  Well maybe they'll get eaten by the poor. Im okay with that alternative plan.

and the American retirees who depend on their savings lost trillions to these idiots. A majority of those retirees voted conservative, but I feel bad for the ones who didnt.
- As you get closer to retirement, the usual strategy is to shift from a stock-heavy portfolio to something less volatile. The retirees getting burned are the ones who were too ignorant or greedy to do that.

go woke go broke, no wait....
- Go fash, lose cash.
- turns out its the either side going woke going broke. right wingers are by thier own definition, the wokest people out there.

Keep It going y’all

I'm sure they will be able to weather the storm. I bet they could find a way to get by on "only" a billion, let's say.

Not low enough. We can do better!

Just Covid economy 2.0 shifting more of everyones money into less hands, this way it can be Bidens fault it dropped and then Trumps when it regains

The only solace to watching all my retirement and investments get cratered is the fact that the assholes that brought this all about are taking the bigger hit.

Damn that’s financially irresponsible. I’ve only lost a $20 since then

Billionaires remembering why they were supporting the covert right winger Democrats instead of the Republicans. Because a veneer of illusion is needed to keep their empire running.

Toadying capitulators all

Crazy how you can tell from looking at Zuckcuck's face that he doesn't have a soul.
- he is an android, his public appearances have always have him acting like a robot. he stays in his "alcove" while uploading META-data into his "brain" when hes not in public.

Keep it coming people! Stay the course!

I'm sure they still have plenty of liquid assets to scoop up discounted stocks. Tax cuts will save conglomerates money, which they'll use for stock buybacks to inflate the worth of their stocks, which had already been picked up by the billionaires. This will reinflate their net worth.
Plus, and I don't know how or when this would be involved in the calculation of their net worth, but they're probably shorting stocks with insider info passed around Mar-a-Lago. Just a guess.
They'll be fine. The rest of us will continue to be screwed even harder. Fuck them billionaires.

As Kendrick Lamar would say “it’s not enough”

Good. Since they drive their wealth from using the value of their stocks as leverage to get loans, having these stocks collapse will not only make their loans smaller (not sure by how much), but they will have to pay using more of their dividends than what they expected
In short, they will get less money and it will cost them more to pay it back.

Damn Globalists at it again huh? LMAO 🤣

They like the stock market going down, since it'll eventually go back up and meanwhile they still have billions available to buy up a lot more stock on the cheap while it's down.

proof they're not geniuses

When someone has this much money, it doesn't matter if they buy the presidency, buy the media, buy the means to live, buy people's rights... It doesn't matter. They will never get the respect and love they desperately seek like all humans do. They will never love themselves until they understand that their wealth isn't earned and they aren't special. We don't consider ourselves better than anyone as a human and then not get depressed and lonely. It's not difficult for us to accept kinship with all humans, but almost impossible for them.

Hehehe

They should be grateful their heads are still attached.

Noice!

124 comments