Billionaires

Vox.com reports that the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, is finalizing a plan to become a citizen of the island of Cyprus, becoming one of the highest-profile Americans to take advantage of one of the world’s most controversial “passport-for-sale” programs.

Theo Andreou, the head of Cyprus program for Astons, speculated Schmidt could be making the move for two possible reasons: "One reason is to have a Plan B during Covid. The other reason is that they are expanding their business in Europe."

Cyprus announced in mid-October that due to “abusive exploitation,” it was shutting the program down, around when Schmidt’s approval was published.

Chuck Feeney, an Irish American who made billions from a duty-free shopping empire, has achieved the goal of giving away his $8 billion fortune through his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation and has signed papers to formally close it.

Feeny who lives in a small rented apartment in San Francisco has stated that "to those wondering about Giving While Living: try it, you’ll like it".

Demonstrators gathered outside Jeff Bezos' mansion Thursday and constructed a guillotine outside his front door to protest Amazon workers' wages. The protest came the day after Bezos became the wealthiest person in history, according to Forbes, with a net worth surpassed $200 billion.

Protesters, led by former warehouse worker and outspoken Amazon critic Christian Smalls, called on the company to raise its minimum wage to $30 per hour.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' net worth has reached approx. $202 billion, a $87 billion increase since January. Amazon's stock has seen a 25%-rise since June and 86%-rise since the start of the year, boosted mostly by online shopping during the pandemic.

The economical consequences of the Covid-19 have been unprecedented for the United States. Over the past eleven weeks, 42.6 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits with black Americans being disproportionately affected. In contrast to this, the net worth of the American billionaires has grown 20% - in numbers by $565 billion - according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies.