America’s most wealthy people such as Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Jeff Bezos saw their wealth rise by $6.5 trillion in the last year. The increase was due to high stock prices and strong financial markets. according to the Federal Reserve.

According to the Federal Reserve’s latest report on household assets, total wealth for the 1% was a record $45.9 Trillion at the close of the fourth quarter 2021. Their fortunes rose by more that $12 trillion (or more than a quarter) during the Pandemic.

Edward Wolff (New York University professor of Economics) said that the numbers were “astonishing”. The pandemic wealth boom ranks near or at the top among all wealth booms in the past 40 years.

Data show that the top 1% held a record 32.3% share of America’s wealth at the close of 2021. Also, wealth belonging to the bottom 90 percent of Americans has fallen slightly in the past decade, decreasing from 30.5% and 30.2%, respectively.

Stock declines have caused a slowdown in wealth growth and possibly a halt to it.

Last year, stocks and private business were the major drivers of America’s wealthiest citizens. The Fed data shows that $4.3 trillion was made from mutual fund shares and corporate equities last year. According to the Fed data, stock portfolios of top 1% have a value of $23 trillion and they hold a record 53.9% number of shares.

Although there are claims that the stock market has been democratized, millions of retail investors have opened trading accounts through Robinhood or other platforms. However, stock ownership is actually more concentrated in America than it was before the pandemic. At the close of 2021, 89% of individual corporate equity and mutual funds shares were owned by the top 10%.

A Gallup in 2021 found that 56% of Americans owned at least some stock – slightly above the average of 55% in 2019 and 2020, but still down from the 62% high before the 2008 financial crisis.