February 2026
Welcome to The Billionaire Bulletin, brought to you by Tax the Greedy Billionaires and the Extreme Wealth Center. Each month, we explore how extreme concentrations of wealth are distorting our economy and eroding our democracy. Join our mailing list to get this newsletter in your inbox every month.
THE TRUE STATE OF THE UNION
As the State of the Union approaches, Americans across the country are eager for leaders to tackle the growing affordability crisis. They’ll be watching to see if President Trump acknowledges the real culprit behind rising costs or continues to protect the billionaire class that bankrolled his campaign. Each week brings a new example of Trump’s willingness to hurt regular Americans to help his fellow billionaires.
The combined effect of all of this largesse for billionaires at the expense of everyday Americans is undeniable: rising costs in housing, health care, child care, groceries, consumer goods, and energy, all caused by the unprecedented concentrations of extreme wealth and economic power in the hands of the ultra-wealthy.
Billionaires are increasing the cost of housing. Billionaire-run private equity firms currently own at least 1.6 million housing units in the United States and deploy aggressive revenue-maximizing tactics that benefit their investors while increasing costs for families. Many of the metropolitan areas where private equity landlords own a large share of apartments have experienced sharp increases in rent.
Billionaires are increasing the cost of health care and degrading care quality. Billionaire-run private equity loads hospitals with debt, cuts operating costs, and shuts down “unprofitable” services so billionaire investors can extract more cash—while patients in entire regions lose access to basic care or pay more for care. As just one example, private equity firm Apollo Global Management now owns two of the largest hospital systems in the United States and controls 235 hospitals across 37 states. These hospitals have been burdened with sky-high debt, reduced staff, and degraded essential services. Meanwhile, the largest healthcare companies increased shareholder dividends and stock buybacks by 315% between 2001 and 2022, allocating 95% of their profits to Wall Street investors while premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage climbed to over $25,000 annually.
Billionaires are increasing grocery prices. Billionaire-run private equity firms have contributed to rising grocery costs by using highly leveraged buyouts to acquire supermarket chains, saddling them with billions in debt that must be serviced through aggressive cost‑cutting and higher margins on everyday items. Cerberus Capital Management’s Albertsons‑Safeway has reported gross margins in the high‑20 percent range—significantly above key competitors—while its private‑equity owners have extracted billions in dividends, fees, and real‑estate sales. This leaves the chain with fewer resources and incentives to invest in stores or compete on price, shifting the burden onto consumers through higher grocery bills.
Billionaires are increasing the costs of consumer goods and hobbies. Decades of market consolidation and laissez faire federal oversight have created de facto monopolies in everything from consumer tech to beef production, from pharmaceuticals to rental cars, from airlines to cowboy boots. During the pandemic, corporations were able to use their unchecked market power to boost prices far above their real costs, lining their pockets at consumers’ expense. We might not even know how extensive this “greedflation” was but for the fact that CEOs kept bragging about their actions on shareholder earnings calls. And then, of course, there’s the ever-present role that private equity has played in squeezing every last dime out of Americans, from knitting to youth sports. Want to record your own kid playing youth hockey? You can’t without first paying a hefty fee to the private equity firm who owns the rink.
Billionaires are increasing energy costs. As billionaire tech giants build energy‑hungry AI data centers, working families are footing the bill. These data centers already consume more than 4% of all U.S. electricity and are projected to claim up to 12% by 2028, driving up demand and pushing household electricity bills higher. Residential electricity prices jumped about 7% in 2025—more than double the overall inflation rate—while data centers accounted for roughly 40% of U.S. electricity demand growth.
President Trump’s policies are only worsening the disparity in wealth and power. Under his watch, billionaire wealth grew 22% in 2025, from $6.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion and the number of billionaires increased from 814 to 935.
The State of the Union offers President Trump a choice: Will he finally confront the billionaire wealth extraction that’s crushing American families, or continue the giveaways to his ultra-wealthy donors? Since the affordability crisis is a wealth hoarding crisis, any serious effort to shift power in our economy away from billionaires and toward working people must begin with taxing extreme wealth.
HARD TRUTH
Of course President Trump didn’t sit back and passively watch as billionaire wealth grew across the first year of his second term, he and his family were active participants. Donald Trump’s personal net worth has skyrocketed from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $6.3 billion today. That $4 billion growth has come largely from the Trump family leveraging his position as the president of the United States for lucrative profiteering opportunities.
These deals have all been done out in the open, with the conflicts of interest plain to see. After Trump hosted Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman in the White House, the Trump Organization found itself awash in Saudi Arabian licensing deals for a golf course, luxury hotel, and more. The digital finance startup World Liberty Financial, which lists Eric, Don Jr., and Barron Trump as co-founders and the president himself as “co-founder emeritus,” received a $2 billion investment from an Emirati billionaire shortly before the White House allowed the United Arab Emirates access to advanced computer chips. None of this is unexpected; it’s a natural consequence of allowing the ultra-rich to wield their fortunes to influence public policy.
BILLIONAIRE BLIGHT OF THE MONTH
The Trump family also pocketed around $28 million for the Melania documentary courtesy of Jeff Bezos, who we’re highlighting for his decimation of The Washington Post. Earlier this month, the Post laid off more than 300 journalists, a 30 percent reduction in the company’s workforce. But it’s Bezos, not these employees, who is directly responsible for the erosion of the Post’s credibility as he personally stifled their endorsement of Kamala Harris and reshaped the opinion page to focus on “personal liberties and free markets.”
Even amid the public outrage over the layoffs, the Washington Post continued to opine about the supposed dangers of taxing the ultra-rich – an unpopular policy according to the newspaper owned by the world’s fifth-richest man. We joined Washington Post Guild Tech Guild members and affected employees at a rally outside the Post’s DC headquarters and they were clear-eyed about the dangers of billionaire-controlled media. Watch our video to see their message for Jeff Bezos.
BRIEFING: TAXING THE ULTRA-RICH
Last week we co-hosted a briefing with the Economic Policy Institute to lay out the case that taxing the ultra-wealthy is more critical than ever. We covered policy proposals, polling, history, and more, so if you missed the live briefing it’s worth catching up with it on YouTube.
NEWSWORTHY NUGGETS
- “Should Billionaires Exist” – Democracy Journal
- “The Second Greediest Man in America” – Extreme Wealth Center
- “We went to the ‘March for Billionaires’ in San Francisco. What we heard will shock you.” – More Perfect Union
- “At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich” – The Guardian
- Oversight Democrats probe whether billionaire’s contacts with Lutnick led to Trump threats against vital US-Canada bridge – CBC Radio Canada
WHAT IS THE BILLIONAIRE BULLETIN?
This monthly newsletter aims to highlight the many ways in which extreme wealth concentration threatens our economy, democracy, climate, and more. In each issue, we tackle timely topics by pulling back the curtain and exposing how billionaires are rigging the system against ordinary Americans.
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- Encourage your friends and colleagues to sign up for our newsletter here.
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