ASK A BILLIONAIRE

Insights from our exclusive survey of 65 global billionaires

Cloudy Crystal Balls

The world’s richest people lost a collective $2.2 trillion in wealth in 2022 as markets cratered—and they didn’t see it coming. Polled at the start of last year, the ultrarich mostly expected to get ultraricher in 2022. Way off. Pandemic, inflation and war sent the S&P 500 down 19.4%, while a full 72% of billionaires thought the index would end the year up (or at worst flat).