Vast majority of new wealth last year went to the top 1%

A new billionaire is created every other day. The three richest Americans have the same wealth as the poorest half of the U.S. population. And 82 percent of the global wealth generated last year went to just 1 percent of the world’s population.

These are among the findings of a study released Sunday by Oxfam, a British campaigning group, as political and business leaders, including President Donald Trump, prepared to gather in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. Income inequality will be a major topic at the conference, which runs from Tuesday through Friday.

“There’s a billionaire boom,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and campaigns. “A perfect storm is driving up the bargaining power of those at the top while driving down the bargaining power of those at the bottom.”

The world now has 2,043 billionaires, according to the report, “Reward Work, Not Wealth.” Nine out of 10 of them are men. Collectively, their fortunes grew by $762 billion in 2017, while the poorest half of humanity saw no increase in their wealth at all.

The study relied on data and research compiled by Swiss bank Credit Suisse, the World Bank, Forbes’ billionaires list, the International Monetary Fund and others.

Oxfam said the massive inequality is being driven by factors that include excessive financial returns to company owners and shareholders at the expense of ordinary workers and the rest of the economy; the ability of rich individuals and corporations to use tax havens that allow them to evade or shield trillions of dollars from tax authorities; public policy that permits market conditions that push down wages and infringe on labor rights; and extreme wealth that is inherited, not earned.

Over the next 20 years, the report found, 500 of the world’s richest people will give $2.4 trillion to their heirs — a sum larger than the GDP of India, which has 1.3 billion people.