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Elon Musk is the World’s Richest Person in 2021

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Elon Musk is the Worlds Richest Person in 2021

The Briefing

  • Just six days into the new year, Elon Musk became the world’s richest person in 2021
  • His personal fortune is $188 billion, up 548% from one year ago
  • Tesla shares are up 1,030% since the market bottom in 2020
  • Elon Musk’s rocketing net worth may be the fastest accumulation of wealth in history

Elon Musk is the World’s Richest Person in 2021

2021 has been touted as a year of change.

And as far the pecking order of global wealth goes, the new year has already delivered. Just six days in, Elon Musk had already lapped Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person in 2021 with a personal net worth of $188 billion.

How did this happen so fast?

Since the stock market bottom in March 2020, Tesla shares have skyrocketed by 1,030% to $816 per share. Elon Musk happens to own about 241 million of those shares, putting his wealth accumulation into overdrive in a short period of time.

Pedal to the Medal

The boom in wealth has been so prolific for Musk that he’s left other billionaires in the dust.

One year ago, he wouldn’t have cracked the top 20 list—but with a surge in wealth of 548% since a year ago, he now sits at the top of the heat as the world’s richest person.

RankBillionaireWealth (Jan 6, 2021)One-Year Change
#1🇺🇸 Elon Musk $188 billion548%
#2🇺🇸 Jeff Bezos$184 billion57%
#3🇺🇸 Bill Gates$132 billion45%
#4🇫🇷 Bernard Arnault$114 billion8%
#5🇺🇸 Mark Zuckerberg$100 billion23%
#6🇨🇳 Zhong Shanshan$93 billionn/a
#7🇺🇸 Warren Buffett$87 billion-2%
#8🇺🇸 Larry Page$82 billion22%
#9🇺🇸 Sergey Brin$79 billion22%
#10🇺🇸 Larry Ellison$79 billion32%

Is this a temporary bump, or will Elon Musk stay atop the world’s richest person rankings for the rest of 2021?

Really, it all depends on Tesla’s stock price performance—and those that have bet against Tesla in recent years don’t have a great track record to lean on.

That said, price swings can happen in either direction, and if Tesla’s stock finds itself coming down to Earth, it’s possible that Musk’s ranking in the billionaire pecking order could tumble down with it.

>> Liked this? See how Elon Musk built his empire

Where does this data come from?

Source: Bloomberg Billionaire Index
Details: Jan 6th, 2021 data
Notes: Net worth figures on the tracker get updated frequently, so any up-to-date data may not match that of this article.

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Economy

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Public trust in the Federal Reserve chair has hit its lowest point in 20 years. Get the details in this infographic.

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The Briefing

  • Gallup conducts an annual poll to gauge the U.S. public’s trust in the Federal Reserve
  • After rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, public trust has fallen to a 20-year low

 

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Each year, Gallup conducts a survey of American adults on various economic topics, including the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.

More specifically, respondents are asked how much confidence they have in the current Fed chairman to do or recommend the right thing for the U.S. economy. We’ve visualized these results from 2001 to 2023 to see how confidence levels have changed over time.

Methodology and Results

The data used in this infographic is also listed in the table below. Percentages reflect the share of respondents that have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence.

YearFed chair% Great deal or Fair amount
2023Jerome Powell36%
2022Jerome Powell43%
2021Jerome Powell55%
2020Jerome Powell58%
2019Jerome Powell50%
2018Jerome Powell45%
2017Janet Yellen45%
2016Janet Yellen38%
2015Janet Yellen42%
2014Janet Yellen37%
2013Ben Bernanke42%
2012Ben Bernanke39%
2011Ben Bernanke41%
2010Ben Bernanke44%
2009Ben Bernanke49%
2008Ben Bernanke47%
2007Ben Bernanke50%
2006Ben Bernanke41%
2005Alan Greenspan56%
2004Alan Greenspan61%
2003Alan Greenspan65%
2002Alan Greenspan69%
2001Alan Greenspan74%

Data for 2023 collected April 3-25, with this statement put to respondents: “Please tell me how much confidence you have [in the Fed chair] to recommend the right thing for the economy.”

We can see that trust in the Federal Reserve has fluctuated significantly in recent years.

For example, under Alan Greenspan, trust was initially high due to the relative stability of the economy. The burst of the dotcom bubble—which some attribute to Greenspan’s easy credit policies—resulted in a sharp decline.

On the flip side, public confidence spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was likely due to Jerome Powell’s decisive actions to provide support to the U.S. economy throughout the crisis.

Measures implemented by the Fed include bringing interest rates to near zero, quantitative easing (buying government bonds with newly-printed money), and emergency lending programs to businesses.

Confidence Now on the Decline

After peaking at 58%, those with a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the Fed chair have tumbled to 36%, the lowest number in 20 years.

This is likely due to Powell’s hard stance on fighting post-pandemic inflation, which has involved raising interest rates at an incredible speed. While these rate hikes may be necessary, they also have many adverse effects:

  • Negative impact on the stock market
  • Increases the burden for those with variable-rate debts
  • Makes mortgages and home buying less affordable

Higher rates have also prompted many U.S. tech companies to shrink their workforces, and have been a factor in the regional banking crisis, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Where does this data come from?

Source: Gallup (2023)

Data Notes: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted April 3-25, 2023, with a random sample of –1,013—adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. See source for details.

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