Also the bit that everyone's leaving out, since election day, all these guys had huge boosts to their stocks. All the current losses basically corrected whatever gains they got since November.

Basically, they aren't hurting yet.

I don't know. I were filthy rich, I for one probably wouldn't mind a small (and quite likely temporary) hit on my net worth if it means I get to buy promising upstarts and some of my competitors for small change because they're now grossly underfunded/undervalued thanks to the crash.

But then again, I'm a cynic, and probably just projecting here.

That's the neat part. You don't give them credit. Their lawyers and hedge funds do this for them and are rewarded the more fraudulent they can get

what do they need more than they already have?

These people have an illness. They wouldn't be billionaires if they didn't have an all-consuming desire to obtain and hoard wealth and power at all costs.

They still have people that can say no to them, their workers can quit, they need to deal with consumers boycotting their products.

Globally, China is rapidly catching up to and surpassing Americans in more and more industries, and they need to protect their status.

Nothing is enough for them.

By making it impossibile for the state to run, so that private companies will step in and charge people for stuff. That and destroying small and medium enterprises allowing companies to buy on the cheap

Trump and Putin seem to like each other.

Anyone who plays it right:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_(finance)

Bonus points for anyone with insider information.

The people with real money and power are taking huge gains. They are and will not suffer losses, other than temporary, strategic losses. This is prestidigitation. We're focused on exactly what they want us to see, not what's happening while we continue to be entertained by side shows.

I've been wondering the same about a lot of right wing economic policy. Why push for policy that is a net negative for everyone in the long run? I have since realized that it does make sense if you don't look at it in terms of wealth, but rather in terms of power. The control you have over other people doesn't depend on your absolute wealth, but rather the relative wealth you have compared to others, and so for someone looking for that kind of power (i.e. most billionaires as far as I can tell) it wouldn't matter if something they do hurts everybody, as long as it hurts you more than it hurts them.

If the numbers mean nothing to them, then why are they literally destroying societies and killing people to make the numbers go up?

Yes, Tesla stocks are merely back to pre-election levels. Looks like they will keep dropping though.

There are tankies that proudly did this.