Inequality
Rapidly Growing Wealth

While the Rest of the World Burned,' Billionaires Made More Money in 2017 Than Any Other Year in History ... 'The past 30 years have seen far greater wealth creation than the Gilded Age.'

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

While the Rest of the World Burned,' Billionaires Made More Money in 2017 Than Any Other Year in History ... 'Thhe past 30 years have seen far greater wealth creation than the Gilded Age.'


Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Sundraw Photography

During a year in which so much of the world faced deep poverty, the corrosive effects of austerity, and extreme weather caused by the worsening human-caused climate crisis—from devastating hurricanes to deadly wildfires and floods—one class of individuals raked in more money in 2017 than any other year in recorded history: the world's billionaires.

'No money for health or infrastructure, all the money in the world for yachts.' — Josh ShepperdAccording to the Swiss bank UBS's fifth annual billionaires report published on Friday, billionaires across the globe increased their wealth by $1.4 trillion last year—an astonishing 20 percent—bringing their combined wealth to $8.9 trillion.'

'The past 30 years have seen far greater wealth creation than the Gilded Age,' the UBS report notes. 'That period bred generations of families in the U.S. and Europe who went on to influence business, banking, politics, philanthropy, and the arts for more than 100 years.'

UBS estimates that the world now has a total of 2,158 billionaires, with 179 billionaires created last year. The United States alone is home to 585 billionaires—the most in the world—up from 563 in 2017.