link to original reddit post by /u/stiffy2005
I really hate reading those bullshit headlines. They are EVERYWHERE on Reddit. And they're always just like every outrage-porn "business headline" - The numbers are really big, which makes people mad.
So if you'll recall the market absolutely TANKED at the onset of COVID-19 back in February and March of 2020 when the news spread that COVID was spreading in the US. That's when people bought stores out of toilet paper and everyone thought the world was ending.
Well, the world wasn't ending, and stocks came back. My personal investment portfolio was worth about $75k pre-COVID. I'm now at about $100k, but I have contributed probably ~$8k. At the very bottom, it went to under $50k.
All of your billionaires out there had a similar experience but with a lot more zero's. So yeah, my money "doubled during pandemic". But that's AFTER it went down by about 1/3rd because everyone thought the world was ending.
Oh, and the gains that have happened to drive equity markets over their pre-pandemic levels? Largely caused by the low interest rate environment created by the fed and a lack of other places to earn a return by large institutional investors. Equities are over valued but that's because there's no yield to be made in the credit markets which is largely a product of federal monetary policy. So yeah, the government helped make the rich richer while catalyzing rampant inflation, but the poors got their $2400 so consequences be damned.