The collective fortunes of the super-rich have been increasing by $2.7 billion a day, a new study shows
Over the past two years, the richest 1% have amassed close to two-thirds of all new wealth created in the world, a new report by anti-poverty charity Oxfam revealed on Monday.
According to the report, a total of $42 trillion in new wealth has been created since 2020, with $26 trillion or 63% of that being amassed by the top 1% of the super-rich. The remaining $16 trillion was shared among the rest of the world.
“A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90%,” said the report, which was released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Billionaires’ fortunes have reportedly increased by $2.7 billion a day over the past two years. This followed a decade of historic gains, with the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the past ten years.
Oxfam’s research highlighted that billionaire wealth soared in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. It said 95 food and energy corporations had more than doubled their profits last year. At the same time, at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, and more than 820 million people – roughly one in ten people on Earth – are going hungry, Oxfam said.
READ MORE: Millions of Brits face falling living standards – study
“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires – a roaring ’20s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International. She added that “taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises.”
“It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships – just the superyachts,” she concluded.
https://www.rt.com/business/569955-richest-grab-world-wealth/
The prices of some life-saving medicines have soared to levels that are unaffordable for ordinary people in Venezuela as the United States has ramped up military presence in the Caribbean off Venezuela's coast, alongside escalating sanctions, blockades and military threats against the oil-rich South American nation since late August.
https://www.presstv.ir/default/Embeded/761400
At a northeastern suburb in the capital city Caracas, locals can still purchase most of the commonly used medicines at a major supermarket, where some antibiotics have been sold out, and some first-aid medicines and supplies have become too costly for ordinary residents.
"I'm here mainly to buy antibiotics. I have problems with my lungs. But I can't get all I want, such as vancomycin," said a resident named Alfonso.
"Recent tensions have affected the supplies and prices of drugs. The prices of cancer drugs, insulin drugs and albumin are very high, and most patients here cannot afford them," said Giovanna Gonzalez a ...
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is prepared to use military force to achieve the goals of its special military operation if Ukraine continues to delay peace talks.
During an inspection of a Russian armed forces command post on Saturday, Putin stressed that Moscow will not allow Kiev’s obstruction to prevent progress.
“If the Kiev authorities do not want to resolve the matter peacefully, we will accomplish all the tasks before us in the course of the special military operation by military means,” he said.
The Russian leader noted that the Ukrainian authorities are not moving toward a peaceful resolution, adding, “We see that even today, unfortunately, the leaders of the Kiev regime are in no hurry to resolve this conflict peacefully. I spoke about this a year ago in a speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Putin also received reports from Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and commanders of Russia’s “Centre” and “East” military groups.
Meanwhile, ...
