4 HN users recommended this explainer4 months2020–2022score 4
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN recommends it to explain why comparing billionaire net worth by share price is misleading.
An Economics Explained video on the different kinds of billionaires, from founders to oligarchs. It explains how wealth is held in illiquid stock and why diversification is a problem for some.
“fyi youtube video of why these simplistic comparisons of "net worth" based on shares-times-stockprice is meaningless” (HN, 2020)
Just because he has Amazon stocks of that value doesn't mean he can turn all of that into cash. Economics explained has a great video on the various types of billionaires [1], which uses Jeff directly as an example of the lowest class of billionaire. [1]: [this video]
Explains types of billionaires and liquidity of stock wealth
fyi youtube video of why these simplistic comparisons of "net worth" based on shares-times-stockprice is meaningless... - The Ranks of Global Billionaires: Not All Billionaires Are Made Equal : [this video] E.g. Theranos owner Elizabeth Holmes once had a "net worth" of 4.5 billion (as calculated by Forbes Magazine[1] for attention-grabbing headlines) ... but that doesn't really mean she was actually 2x richer than Dropbox's Drew Houston who's worth ~2 billion. That said, Elon Musk is a bonafide billionaire but the comparison to Buffett via a volatile Tesla stock price is meaningless. [1] [link]
Shows why share-price net worth comparisons are meaningless
Here's a fun video which discusses the phenomenon you're describing. Its a bit click-baity but does provide an overall summary pretty nicely. Economics Explained - The Ranks of Global Billionaires: Not All Billionaires Are Made Equal: [this video] It even covers the oligarchy scenario :)
Fun if slightly clickbaity summary of billionaire types, incl. oligarchs
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