by digby
... for the super-rich. As usual:
The world's 400 richest people added some $92 billion to their collective wealth in 2014, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As of Dec. 29, they were all worth a combined $4.1 trillion.
According to Bloomberg, 2014's biggest earner was Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company, who added $25.1 billion to his fortune after Alibaba's initial public offering in September. Microsoft's Bill Gates remains the world's richest man, adding some $9 billion to his net worth, which is valued at $87.6 billion.
In any event, these eye-popping figures should not be a surprise. Global inequality is deepening, with millions of poorer people around the world affected by rising rates of joblessness and decreasing incomes. At the same time, the world's population of billionaires is growing as this Statista chart shows below.
The good news is that some Russian mega-rich lost their shirts. USA!USA!
This seems like a good time to post my little illustration of just how much money these people have compared to you:
The Kochs have over a hundred of those 1 billion dollar rooms. Lets just say that contributing a few hundred million to political campaigns isn't going to make a dent in their fortunes. It's the equivalent of tip money.
Also too this:
(Those charts are from this illuminating article in Mother Jones.)
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