One thing we can say for sure about Joe Biden’s three and half years in office: it’s been a very rewarding time to be an American capitalist. Since the end of 2020, the S. & P.
500 has risen by nearly fifty per cent, and the companies in the index have seen their earnings per share nearly double. Big banks, hedge funds, and private-equity funds have all made bumper profits; the recently reported that “founders and top executives of the largest private equity groups in the US have seen the value of their shares rise by more than $40bn since the beginning of 2023.” The swelling tide has also benefitted many investors and executives in the tech sector.
According to the Institute for Regional Studies, a Silicon Valley research group, the market capitalization of companies based in the Valley reached $14.3 trillion last year, and “venture capital funding reached an astounding $30 billion.” How grateful is the capitalist class to Biden for presiding over this showering of riches? In certain cases, not grateful at all, it seems.
In the past few weeks, the political media has been awash with stories about Wall Street bigwigs and tech barons throwing their support behind Donald Trump, whom some of them disowned following the January 6, 2021 . Back then, the billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, who is chief executive of the Blackstone Group, a big private-equity shop, denounced the attack as “appalling and an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans.” Last .
