World's witnessing a new Gilded Age as billionaires' wealth swells to $6tn

Free vector graphic: Dollar Sign, Fractal, Money - Free Image on ...401 Ã-- 720 - 109k - png
(Image by pixabay.com)   Details   DMCA

"Billionaires increased their combined global wealth by almost a fifth last year to a record $6tn (£4.5tn) – more than twice the GDP of the UK. There are now 1,542 dollar billionaires across the world, after 145 multi-millionaires saw their wealth tick over into nine-zero fortunes last year, according to the UBS / PwC Billionaires report\. The $1bn question” is how society will react to the concentration of so much money in the hands of so few. Anger at so-called robber barron families who built up vast fortunes from monopolies in US rail, oil, steel and banking in the late 19th century, led to President Roosevelt breaking up companies and trusts and increasing taxes on the wealthy in the early 1900s.“Will there be similarities in the way society reacts to this gilded age? Will the second age end or will it proceed?”