It's pretty hard to imagine the richest one per cent ever worrying about money. When you think about the lives of the seriously rich (multi-millionaire or billionaires that is) the idea that they could ever struggle financially, or even lose money at all, seems preposterous. When you have that many assets, that much property or those many investments, trust funds and savings, it's like you're the winning player in a global game of Monopoly. You're unbeatable. You can't be touched.
But the reality of life for the ultra-wealthy is a lot different. After all, you're now that much more of a target for the taxman and swindlers, and there are plenty of people out there who are only too happy to take that money off your hands. All it takes is a few poor decisions or an untrustworthy advisor, and suddenly it's like you've flushed your millions down the toilet. If you don't believe me, then prepare for some shocking news. Apparently this week has been financially catastrophic for the richest people in the world, particularly for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has officially lost more money than any other human being on the planet. Ouch; that's gotta bruise his ego a little bit, not to mention lighten his wallet.
Financial reports indicate that the 500 richest people on the planet have managed to lose a combined total of a whopping $107 billion this week. This staggering sum equals more cash than the entire market capitalisation of the Goldman Sachs Group or Lockheed Martin. For once, as opposed to other economic crisis, it was the wealth of billionaires in the United States which suffered the most, (declining by a combined total of $34 billion) followed by Chinese tycoons, who lost around $16 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg suffered from the biggest financial loss of $3.2 billion, after large cap stocks disappointed the social media guru for the fourth day in a row. The Facebook chief executive officer's losses managed to outstrip those of Spain’s Amancio Ortega and Mexico’s Carlos Slim, who also both lost approximately $2.4 billion. Meanwhile, the estates of Alphabet Inc.’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin also shrank by $2 billion, according to figures from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's one hell of a bad week.
Certain financial experts have blamed this colossal loss on United States president Donald Trump after set the stage for trade wars between nations, after slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from overseas to encourage the growth of American-based industries. Trump's policies of economic nationalism could have led to this monetary tightening, especially after the president European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, claimed that the the bloc is prepared to respond by targeting imports of American products, such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes, Levi jeans and bourbon whiskey.
Although this loss seems pretty bad on paper, I wouldn't expect to see Zuckerberg begging for change on the streets anytime soon, since his estimated net worth is already around $70.9 billion. In the face of this figure, this week hasn't even touched him; but even so, it's scant encouragement for Facebook's 25,000 employees.
