According to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, of the estimated 17 million adults who are not current on their rent or mortgage payments, a whopping 33% of them could be facing eviction or foreclosure in the “next two months”. Note: While this survey was conducted Nov 11-23, 2020, respondents’ interpretations of “the next two months” ranged between Nov 2020–Jan 2021.
Millions Facing Home Loss
Although people across the country face similar risks, Texas stands out with an estimated 718,000 people facing foreclosures or eviction. In fact, more than 7.1 million people in the state may be expecting a loss of employment income in the coming four weeks. Other states looking at high percentages of potential home loss include Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Missouri. To get a closer look, here are the top 10 metro areas with the highest percentages of people who will potentially be facing eviction or foreclosure: Note: The margin of error of the survey is higher in metro areas and smaller states.
Home for the Holidays?
On the other end of the spectrum, there are states that appear to have less need for concern, as the percentage of people likely to experience foreclosure or eviction in these places stands between 15% and 20%. However, this level of relative home security is the case for only Delaware, Vermont, Maryland, and Utah. Everyone else is floating in a proverbial gray area, between a majority who may still be in their same home after Christmas, and those who may need to find a new place in the months following the holidays. Even in the states with extremely low percentages like Delaware (15%), there are still thousands people who are highly likely to face the possibility of losing their home.
Going Forward
It goes without saying that with nearly 17 million Americans behind on mortgage and rent payments, there could be significant consequences down the road. In an order issued by the CDC under the Public Health Service Act, it was stated that an eviction moratorium could help with the effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention measures like quarantining, social distancing, and self-isolation. However, while evictions were temporarily halted under this order on September 4th, the extent of this protection runs out on the last day of 2020. President-elect Joe Biden expressed his desire for measures such as rent forgiveness back in March 2020, but it remains unclear what actions will be taken under the new administration when inauguration occurs on January 20th, 2021. on A lagging stock market dented these fortunes against high interest rates, energy shocks, and economic uncertainty. But some of the world’s billionaires have flourished in this environment, posting sky-high revenues in spite of inflationary pressures. With data from Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, we feature a snapshot of the richest people in the world in 2023.
Luxury Mogul Takes Top Spot
The world’s richest person is France’s Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH.
With 75 brands, the luxury conglomerate owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and Tiffany. LVMH traces back to 1985, when Arnault cut his first major deal with the company by acquiring Christian Dior, a firm that was struggling with bankruptcy.
Fast-forward to today, and the company is seeing record profits despite challenging market conditions. Louis Vuitton, for instance, has doubled its sales in four years.
In the table below, we show the world’s 10 richest people with data as of February 27, 2023:
Elon Musk, the second-wealthiest person in the world has a net worth of $191 billion. In October, Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion dollar deal, which has drawn criticism from investors. Many say it’s a distraction from Musk’s work with Tesla.
While Tesla shares have rebounded—after falling roughly 70% in 2022—Musk’s wealth still sits about 13% lower than in March of last year.
Third on the list is Jeff Bezos, followed by Larry Ellison. The latter of the two, who founded Oracle, owns 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai which he bought in 2012 for $300 million.
Fifth on the list is Warren Buffett. In his annual letter to shareholders, he discussed how Berkshire Hathaway reported record operating profits despite economic headwinds. The company outperformed the S&P 500 Index by about 22% in 2022.
How Fortunes Have Changed
Given multiple economic crosscurrents, billionaire wealth has diverged over the last year. Since March 2022, just four of the top 10 richest in the world have seen their wealth increase. Two of these are European magnates, while Carlos Slim Helu runs the largest telecom firm in Latin America. In fact, a decade ago Slim was the richest person on the planet. Overall, as the tech sector saw dismal returns over the year, the top 10 tech billionaires lost almost $500 billion in combined wealth.
Recent Shakeups in Asia
Perhaps the most striking news for the world’s richest centers around Gautam Adani, formerly the richest person in Asia. In January, Hindenburg Research, a short-selling firm, released a report claiming that the Adani Group engaged in stock manipulation and fraud. Specifically, the alleged the firm used offshore accounts to launder money, artificially boost share prices, and hide losses. The Adani Group, which owns India’s largest ports—along with ports in Australia, Sri Lanka, and Israel—lost $100 billion in value in the span of a few weeks. Interestingly, very few Indian mutual funds hold significant shares in Adani Group, signaling a lack of confidence across India’s market, which was also cited in Hindenburg’s report. As a result, Mukesh Ambani has climbed to Asia’s top spot, controlling a $84 billion empire that spans from oil and gas and renewable energy to telecom. His conglomerate, Reliance Industries is the largest company by market cap in India.
