Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton deployed a popular but misleading statistic during her Wednesday evening remarks at the Democratic National Convention, claiming that billionaires had grown $400 billion richer during the coronavirus pandemic.
Amid her endorsement of new nominee Joe Biden, Clinton told viewers, "It's wrong that billionaires got $400 billion richer during the pandemic while millions lost $600 a week in extra unemployment."
The claim that billionaires' net worth has soared during the pandemic is based on misleading accounting, calculating their change in net wealth from the bottom of the market, and thereby maximizing their "Earnings" in the crisis.
To arrive at the $400 billion figure, the two groups calculated how much billionaires' net worth have rebounded from the approximate trough of the coronavirus-ignited stock market crash on March 18.
A MarketWatch analysis from late May found that the top 50 billionaires' net worth fell $232 billion between the market's peak, on Feb. 19, and May 23.
The wealth of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates has likely recovered further since then.
Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this month cited the same figure as Clinton in calling once again for a wealth tax, specifically on the "Obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during the public health crisis."
It's becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction, and unfortunately the media has a strong bias. They spin stories to make conservatives look bad and will go to great lengths to avoid reporting on the good that comes from conservative policies. There are a few shining lights in the media landscape-brave conservative outlets that report the truth and offer a different perspective. We must support conservative outlets like this one and ensure that our voices are heard.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Hillary Uses Misleading Stats to Claim Coronavirus Crisis Enriched Billionaires
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