r/technology • u/DontFearTheCreaper • 20h ago

Social Media Tech CEOs who grinned behind Trump at inauguration lose billions in wake of tariffs

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tariff-bezos-musk-zuckerberg-b2727147.html
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u/a-base 20h ago

Much like the 2008 housing crisis in the US, these things tend to work out very well for billionaires - at a cost to the poor, lower- and middle- class.

  • Their losses are just theoretical, it's not like they have to cash out their stocks or sell assets and take any real loss.
  • Even with these 'losses' they are still billionaires and can access cash in numerous ways. They can quite comfortably ride out any period of instability.
  • More likely than riding it out, they'll use it to their advantage. With markets crashing they are perfectly positioned to swoop in, scoop up anything they like, and make out like bandits.

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u/anonymous_lighting 20h ago

i hear ya but to that same point do they really gain anything if their wealth increases by 10% after the fact? 

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u/DankButtHats4sale 20h ago

THE PILE OF GOLD MUST GROW TO FILL THE SPOT WHERE MY SOUL SHOULD BE

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u/Decantus 19h ago

It really is Dragon Sickness.

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u/Gorgon31 18h ago

Maybe we should start praying to Saint George...

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u/Teledildonic 19h ago

The Mesoamerocans had a good solution for a few Spaniards that had insatiable thirst for gold.

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u/aspidities_87 18h ago

So did Khal Drogo

Crown for King

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u/Least-Back-2666 14h ago

Let's take a billion in cash and bury musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg in it. Alive.

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u/Teledildonic 13h ago

What about pennies?

Ass pennies

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u/KeystoneGray 16h ago

Why use large quantities of Element 79 to sate their infinite hunger when a single ounce of 82 will do?

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u/roylennigan 20h ago

They aren't looking to increase their wealth directly, but rather increase their ownership of capital. If the market crashes, the value of everything drops, and you can buy up other companies, buildings, equipment, IP, etc. very cheaply.

This is pretty much the game plan for any wealthy individual or group during a downturn. Just look at Musk's net worth through covid.

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u/xixipinga 18h ago

explain please, if a billionarie has 100B and small business costs 10M, market crash and now the small business only values at 2M but the bilionarie meme stock money now only values at 5B, how is that beneficial to the elite meme stock over valued bilionarie class? they protect thei fake money and tech meme economy at all costs, they will never crash the eoconomy on purpose, real manufactoring business will be much less affected, the trump tech bros will be the one that disproportionate lose in this nonsesne, they are not smart, there is no master plan, they are very stupid and trump is screwing everybody

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u/N3ptuneflyer 18h ago

It's about their percent share or outright ownership of competing companies. The stock market crashes, they can buy shit at a discount, and when it rebounds they own more and have less competition. They've already taken out loans against their stocks when they were at a higher value, so they get the best of both worlds.

Once they reach a level of wealth it's not about money anymore but power, ownership and creating a legacy. They have a vision for the future and they will do anything to achieve it.

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u/xixipinga 14h ago

What if the smaller billion dollar business that lost 50% of their valuation decides to buy nvidia or open ai or amazon shares that devalued 90%, the bigger companies lost all their advantage and are now partly owned by their smaller competitors, the only reason the bigger companies would be pushing for this suicidal market crash would be if their companies were more solid then the compatition, but they are not

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u/SporadicPanic 17h ago

A good example may be Zappos. Zappos absolutely did not want to be bought by amazon; they rebuffed an early offer but when the 2008 financial crisis hit and Zappos' credit lines were affected, they gave in and were bought out by amazon.

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u/xixipinga 14h ago

Ok, but i dont see tesla having a lot of money to buy real car manufacturesrs and nvidia or open ai having a lot of money to buy the competition if their own market value has dropped by 90%, they can take advantage of one opportunity here and there, but crashing their stock valuation on purpose is not something those greedy lunatics would ever do

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u/roylennigan 18h ago

explain please, if a billionarie has 100B and small business costs 10M, market crash and now the small business only values at 2M but the bilionarie meme stock money now only values at 5B, how is that beneficial to the elite meme stock over valued bilionarie class?

Capital holds value better than cash does.

In your scenario, the billionaire buys the small business for 1/5th its original value, even though the physical or IP capital included in that purchase has not changed.

On top of that, buying out your competition consolidates the market in your favor.

I don't think anyone wants a market downturn. But a bear market can be a game changer, and the most successful businesses have plans for taking advantage of such a market. Those working with this admin would have the most opportunity to use those plans.

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u/mloofburrow 4h ago

Because they buy the 2 million dollar company for an 80% discount...

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u/xixipinga 4h ago

yes, but they would never risk losing 95% of their fake value meme stock company in order to do that, thats insane even for those people, they are in total panic, not knowing how to stop trump, they will suffer, sadly the american working people will also suffer, but hard working people tend to dust off and recover, while those parasites will hide in shame for the rest of their lives i hope

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u/mloofburrow 4h ago

First time?

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u/NubAutist 13h ago

Krasus employed the exact same tactic during the latter decades of the Roman Republic and also became filthy rich.

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u/sump_daddy 20h ago

Its not just that. Its their CONTROL. They will be able to buy many new and diverse businesses, dirt cheap because they are on the ropes. The FTC and other federal orgs designed to stop monopolies from forming or abusing their positions will be gutted, of course, so there will be no guardrails to complete consolidation into a dystopian corporatocracy.

"just a few more billions"? Thats not their end game, Zuck literally is mapping out where Meta vertically controls a significant portion of the country (of course alongside important allies at Amazon, XAI, Alphabet, etc)

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u/Useful-Perspective 19h ago

They will be able to buy many new and diverse businesses, dirt cheap because they are on the ropes.

Yeah, pay close attention to the IP that they gobble up on the cheap

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u/OkAd134 19h ago

This is exactly the path to riches that the Russian Oligarchs took

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u/restingstatue 19h ago

This. Money itself can only buy so much. But when you can change laws? Geopolitical boundaries? Definitions of human rights? Become untouchable and take your mask off to show your truly malevolent nature? Ahhh, that's the real dream of sociopaths.

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u/TakuyaLee 19h ago

No one is untouchable. No one. Did no one learn from the French Revolution? The rich actually had a good thing going in the US, but some of them don't think that's enough.

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u/carcar134134 18h ago

The French aristocracy didn't have access to f-22's and a global surveillance network.

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u/kos-or-kosm 17h ago

Nor did they have access to sophisticated propaganda techniques and massive media networks to disseminate said propaganda. "People have gotten dumber" is a sentiment I encounter a lot, and I fundamentally disagree. Humanity has gotten smarter over time and has learned better and better ways to trick each other.

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u/N3ptuneflyer 18h ago

Shit will have to get way worse before it actually becomes dangerous to them. Look at Russia, as long as those oligarchs suck up to Putin they are untouchable. The idea that the American public will rise up in revolt is ridiculous. The French were literally starving to death while the rich were living in luxury.

We will still have food to eat, a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep in, and a phone to entertain us. They need to maintain a bare minimum of livability and the American public will avoid revolting in fear of losing that much.

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u/Acrobatic-Event2721 19h ago

How? Losing half your wealth will leave you in a worse position to leverage, never mind the difficulty of acquiring loans in a recession as banks go more conservative to protect themselves from ruin.

This is a lose/lose situation. I think what happened is billionaires were caught off guard with Musk backing Trump and his win so they all bowed down to Trump to be on his good side. More billionaires actually supported Kamala’s campaign.

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u/sump_daddy 18h ago

Losing half your wealth is fucking fantastic if every other 'rich person' (the sorry little single digit billionaires and below) lost 90% of their wealth.

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u/xixipinga 18h ago

deregulation is one thing they always do, but nobody is convincing me zuckeberg is willing to give up 75% of his fortune to get the deregulation he wants

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u/sump_daddy 18h ago

Youre still too focused on the number of dollars. That will go up and down as the seasons change. They dont give a shit about that really. They care about WHAT they own. Numbers of users. Distance of reach of media. Dominance of competition. Thats where the battle is fought.

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u/xixipinga 18h ago

i understand we live in something much closer to feudalism than capitalism and dollar numbers are worth way less than it should be in a real capitalist society, but they have big egos, all the media is always talking about "the richest man" their influence is also based on those big numbers, when a fortune goes too low their influence vanishes, thats why you see the state/king always rushes to bail out 100% of the lossoes as fast as they can, if the bilionarie ceases to be a bilionarie for too long he is no longer accepted in the inner circle

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u/Intelligent_Gold3619 15h ago

Controlling a country isn’t sexy. Do you know what’s sexy? Controlling the world

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/m_Pony 19h ago

Of course they all would,

they have already done so,

uncountable times.

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u/FuckingColdInCanada 19h ago

I want you to be Fred so bad...

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u/Sen0r_Blanc0 19h ago

These are the people who GAINED 3.7 trillion in wealth during covid. They want to be kings, and to do that they have to destroy the democracy

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u/Edie_T 19h ago

To help them, Trump/Musk/Yarvin want to crash the economy and ultimately replace the dollar with an electronic currency they can directly control. They'd freeze the assets of any adversary who got too close to landing a punch.

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u/throwawaygamer76 17h ago

You can thank the Federal Reserve for pumping up the stock market and printing money. The federal government giving out PPP loans to business. Don’t know if they can do it again this time around.

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u/Martel732 19h ago edited 17h ago

This are vain greedy fucks. Money doesn't matter to them for its specific buying power. It matters as a high score for life. While they all have more money than God they still stew in anger whenever someone else has more. And once they are on top they have to protect their status from others.

We need to stop idolizing the acclimation of wealth over all else. We have created a society that celebrates greed, and now we are surprised that our country is ruled by its greediest members.

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u/Deranged40 20h ago

You know what a billionaire wants more than anything in the world?

Ten more bucks.

I once heard someone say "Once you make your first million, you have to decide what type of millionaire you are gonna be". Lots of people get that first million, look at the numbers, and say "You know what? I can retire on this amount" and just live in peace from there. But then you have others that say "I can make my second million faster".

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u/saynay 20h ago

A sense of accomplishment, I imagine? Maybe they buy up some competitors, on in to a new market, and therefor gain in power.

In any material way that is relevant to their life? No. But you don't become a billionaire without the mentality of wanting to run up the score.

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u/IAmPandaRock 18h ago

It's about control, power and ego at that point.  Elon didn't buy Twitter to make money, he bought it to control the narrative. 

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u/Air-Keytar 18h ago

They gain 10%. If you're looking for logic as to why that would matter it's the same logic why they would want to have 500 billion instead of 200 billion dollars. There's not really a whole lot more to benefit in your lifestyle or quality of life in any way with that much money. It's just an ego trip after about a billion.