"U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surged During the Pandemic" – Misleading? Let's define Pandemic. From the onset of the first official death. That was Feb. 29 according to news sources. So taking a starting point on or around Feb. 29 seems reasonable. Unfortunately deaths start occurring, lockdowns start being put into place, a lot of businesses grind to a halt, stock market begins tanking.

Between the Fed and Congress they deliberately pumped money into the market favoring top-down rather than bottom-up and large corporations over small to medium. Result? Stock market surge while millions (> 40 million?) remain unemployed and lines for free food grow all around the country. Why? Because let's say even if a large amount of pension funds are tied to the stock market that's of no benefit to someone suffering today through no fault of their own. And given that the top 11% (isn't it?) of Americans own 80% of stocks and I presume the tippy top of the 11% own a huge chunk of that in turn then hey presto it all looks a bit too much like a deliberate wealth transfer – crony capitalism taking advantage of a crisis as exhaustively documented by Naomi Klein in Shock Doctrine.

Far from being misleading, these statistics reveal what we all know. The US has turned into a virtual oligarchic kleptocracy.