Defying the pandemic January 19, 2021 On November 24, 2020, the S&P 500 hit a record, "defying” the pandemic the Wall Street Journal notes. The Journal added that stocks’ stellar year defied the virus and economic slump—describing it as dazzling and as a “euphoria.” At the same time, the rich are getting wealthier. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and now second richest man in the world, became richer by 13 billion dollars in just one day (while denying his workers paid sick leave at the same time). The richest American family, the Walton’s, increased their account balance by $21 billion within 20 weeks. Elon Musk became the second richest person in the world and has since overtaken Bezos as the world’s richest person on the planet. In fact, this is a defining trend for the rich since the start of the pandemic.