Recession Will Not Hurt Billionaires--Perhaps They Welcome It

Why should billionaires worry about a plummeting stock market? If stock prices go down, billionaires can buy stocks cheap and massively increase their control and eventual profits.

 

Why should billionaires worry that tariffs will hurt farmers? The more independent farmers go out of business, the more land will be available for corporations to buy, giving them increased control over food supply and prices. 

When certain crypto "meme coins" came on the market, there was a rush to buy, Big Money cornering the market and sending the price soaring--after which the “smart” “investors” sold at the high price to the gullible hordes whose “investments” promptly plummeted.

 

A little recession? Billionaires will be able to weather it easily, knowing they will benefit from it in the long run. How about you?

A day later, I'm coming back to clarify. The big take-away here is not that billionaires are insulated from recession by their wealth. As a friend of mine says, that’s always been true. What’s more important to see is that engineering a recession, however much it hurts the general population, can be so greatly in the interest of billionaires that while the general population is continually distracted by a nonstop flood of non-monetary issues, the financial rug can be steadily pulled right out from under them by the billionaires.

Because in the long term, we'll all be dead.

🏠   🏠.  🏠.  🏠

A friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook that began, “Every short-term rental is a home that’s unavailable to permanent residents.” What riveted my attention, however, was her following sentence: 

“Nationwide, 40% of short-term rentals are owned by corporations and/or are used to launder money.” 

The very simple, very general definition of short-term rental is property rented out for periods of less than 31 days. The new investment craze in STRs, however, is something quite different from your neighbors having vacationers spend weekends in an apartment built over their garage or your neighbors renting out a “mother-in-law” cottage behind their house on a weekly or monthly basis. The new investment market is wealthy individuals and corporations buying up entire houses, often multiple houses. These people and corporations are not your “neighbors” in any sense of the word. They aren't even "newcomers." They only to milk the cow you so lovingly raised for as long as they can.

Until the rest of us figure out how to make finer distinctions about the kind of rentals we want in our beloved communities, we will be at the mercy of those whose only consideration is return on their money.