Bloomberg
Warren Buffett becomes the sixth member of the $ 100 billion club
(Bloomberg) – Warren Buffett has been a fixture at the top of the world wealth ranking for decades, but in recent years he has dropped off the list as technology fortunes soared and his hot hand cooled. Now, at 90, his net worth has dropped. The fortune of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s president jumped on Wednesday to $ 100.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making Buffett the sixth member of the $ 100 club. billion, a group that includes Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and his friend Bill Gates. The group’s combined wealth grew rapidly, fueled by government stimuli, central bank policy and the rising stock market. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill overcame its final congressional hurdle as the House voted to pass the legislation, adding to the $ 3 trillion or more in stimulus that Washington already disbursed last year. Berkshire Hathaway, the source of virtually all of Buffett’s wealth, got off to a good start in 2021. The company’s A shares rose 15% this year, outpacing the 3.8% gain on the S&P 500 index. This was helped by the recent pressure Buffett’s to spend record amounts buying back Berkshire’s own shares, a notable change for an investor who previously preferred to use the $ 138 billion cash pile to buy other companies or common shares. Share buyback Buffett has struggled in recent years to find sizeable deals to spur Berkshire’s growth, in part due to the size of the conglomerate. This has caused the business to underperform the S&P 500 over the past five years. But last year, Buffett spent a record $ 24.7 billion on buybacks and records indicate that he has already bought at least $ 4.2 billion in shares by mid-February. Read more: Berkshire’s Busy 2020 broke a record even though there are no big deals Overcoming $ 100 billion is even more remarkable considering how much the Omaha billionaire donated. Co-founder of Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage billionaire philanthropy, Buffett has donated more than $ 37 billion in Berkshire shares since 2006. Without those gifts, which cut his holdings in Berkshire Class A shares by almost half, he is worth more than $ 192 billion. The impressive amount of wealth accumulated by the ultra-rich – $ 1.8 trillion for the world’s richest 500 in 2020 alone – highlights the K-shaped recovery that is taking shape as the United States emerges from the pandemic. While millions of disproportionately poor people, the working class and minorities remain unemployed, wealthy Americans have seen income and equity levels rise thanks to a fluctuating stock market and rising house prices. Meanwhile, more than 8 million Americans – including many children – fell into poverty in the second half of last year, according to an analysis by University of Chicago economist Bruce Meyer, James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame and Jeehoon Han of the University from Zhejiang. For more articles like this, visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. © 2021 Bloomberg LP