The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have grown by $453bn over the past two years owing to soaring energy and commodity prices during the pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, a report by Oxfam has revealed. As the world’s business and political elite meet for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the development charity said spiralling global food prices had helped create “62 new food billionaires” in just 24 months. Cargill, which is one of the world’s largest food traders, now counts 12 family members as billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic. The development charity said governments should follow Argentina’s example and introduce a “one-off solidarity tax on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls”. It said an annual wealth tax starting at 2% for millionaires, and rising to 5% for billionaires, could generate $2.5tn a year.

Source: The Guardian May 23, 2022 16:51 UTC