Tag Archives: the top 1%

The World’s 1% Just Lost $127 billion to Brexit


Brexit is more than just a statement of financial independence, it’s a message to the richest people of the world.

Opponents of the British exit from the European Union, such as billionaire George Soros, warned that it would result in catastrophe for Britain’s people. Turns out, it really was a catastrophe for him.

Yesterday, 15 of Great Britain’s wealthiest citizens just had around $5.5 billion dollars vanish from their bank accounts as the definitive departure from the European Union occurred after a lengthy and deeply troubled discussion about financial sovereignty. The richest man in the UK, Gerald Grosvenor, was hit the worst with a loss of over a billion dollars in assets, reports Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Others who were hit almost equally as hard were real estate magnate Charles Cadogan, Philip Green (owner of Topshop, a women’s clothing company), and money man Bruno Schroder of Schroders Plc. But the destruction didn’t end there.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, the world’s 400 richest people lost about $127.4 billion yesterday. Zero Hedge reports,

“Global equity markets reeled from the news that British voters elected to leave the European Union. The billionaires lost 3.2 percent of their total net worth, bringing the combined sum to $3.9 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The biggest decline belonged to Europe’s richest person, Amancio Ortega, who lost more than $6 billion, while nine others dropped more than $1 billion, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the wealthiest person in the U.K.”

It’s obvious that the voters of the United Kingdom were well aware of the outcome from leaving the European Union and aren’t that unhappy about it — aside from the billionaires.