Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media platform: The Degel HaTorah party, which has four members in the Knesset, announces its withdrawal from Netanyahu's cabinet.
Local Syrian sources: The raids targeted the road between the village of Al-Mazra'a and the city of Sweida, where forces and factions affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Defense are advancing.
Local Syrian sources: New raids carried out by Israeli warplanes targeted vehicles and gatherings of military factions affiliated with the new Syrian Ministry of Defense.
Local Syrian sources: Israeli raids target, for the third time, gatherings of Syrian Defense Forces military factions in the southern countryside of Sweida.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza: Gaza Strip hospitals received 120 martyrs and 557 wounded in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli Walla! website: We are running out of stockpiles, our forces are exhausted, and the lives of the captives are in danger. It is time for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Several wounded in an Israeli bombardment of a tent in al-Mawasi, south of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media: Three wounded, three killed in an ongoing operation in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon: Israeli artillery shelling targets the outskirts of the town of Shebaa
Al-Qassam Brigades: The targeting took place at the intersection of 'Street 5' with the western line north of Khan Younis

Food & energy fortunes grew by $453 bln during pandemic, war

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 23 May 2022 13:59
3 Min Read

Crisis profiteering has exhibited itself brazenly in the last two years.

  • x
  • Cargill plant in Venezuela.
    Cargill plant in Venezuela.

Food and energy billionaires have raked up profits that grew their fortunes by $453 billion over the past two years, thanks to soaring energy and commodity prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, both of which have sunken the world into an economic crisis.

According to the Oxfam report, the crises have helped create "62 new food billionaires" in no more than two years.

One of the world's largest food corporations (and the US' largest private company), Cargill, now has 12 billionaire family members - four up since the start of the pandemic. The company controls 70% of global agricultural market. 

On average, food prices have been up 30% over the past year - this will likely push 263 million more people into acute poverty in comparison with pre-pandemic times. There will be 860 million people living on less than $1.90 a day by the end of 2022. That is the populations of the UK, France, Germany and Spain combined.

The chief executive of Oxfam GB, Danny Sriskandarajah, said “It is morally indefensible that people in east Africa are dying of hunger while the fortunes of the world’s super-rich are fuelled by skyrocketing food and energy prices.

“At a time when hundreds of millions more people are facing extreme poverty, there can be no excuse for governments not to address gargantuan profits and wealth in order to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Related News

Bolton dismisses Trump’s Nobel hopes over Ukraine policy shift

US pressure on Lebanon grows over Resistance disarmament plan

In a meeting between ultra-rich businessmen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam called on world leaders to introduce wealth taxes on the exceptionally rich to help tackle “the biggest increase in extreme poverty in over 20 years”.

Governments, according to Oxfam, should follow suit with Argentina, and introduce a "one-off solidarity tax on billionaires' pandemic windfalls." Last year, Argentina raised $1.88 billion from this policy. 

Oxfam also called for the introduction of permanent annual wealth taxes to “rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power," which would tax millionaires 2% and billionaires 5%, making $2.5 trillion per year.

According to Oxfam, this would lift 2.3 billion out of poverty, make enough vaccines for everyone on the planet, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone in low and lower-middle-income countries.

Read more: COVID-19 hurts US purchasing power

 

A windfall tax should also be introduced on all major companies, which would limit "crisis profiteering:" The organization contended that a tax on “just 32 super-profitable multinational companies could have generated $104 billion in revenue in 2020”.

During the pandemic, 573 millionaires became billionaires: The pandemic, according to Oxfam, had been “the best time in recorded history for the billionaire class”.

Billionaires' wealth altogether make $12.7 trillion, according to Forbes - that not only constitutes 13.9% of the world's gross domestic product, but it's also a threefold increase from 2000. The richest 20 billionaires in the world have more money than the entire GDP of sub-Saharan Africa. 

Read more: 2021 Roundup: Two years after COVID-19, we crunch numbers
  • Cargill
  • United States
  • Oxfam
  • Ukraine
  • Russia
  • Billionaires
  • COVID-19
Russia & NATO

Russia & NATO

As the Draconian Western-led sanctions on Russia exacerbate the economic crisis worldwide, and as Russian troops gain more ground despite the influx of military aid into Ukraine, exposing US direct involvement in bio-labs spread across Eastern Europe and the insurgence of neo-Nazi groups… How will things unfold?

Most Read

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Major ambush in Gaza kills 6 Israeli troops, injures dozens

Major ambush in Gaza kills 5 Israeli troops, injures 14

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Israeli soldiers are seen in Beit Hanoun ahead of an operation by the al-Qassam Brigades, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)

'Israel' on blast as media exposes report discrepancies in Gaza ambush

  • Palestine
  • 8 Jul 2025
Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned
Politics

Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned

Rutte, Trump
US & Canada

Trump threatens 100% secondary tariffs on Russia, sets deadline

Syrian government soldiers on a motorcycle pass by a burning tank on the outskirts of Sweida city, where clashes erupted between the Druze community and Bedouine clans, in southern Syria, Monday, July 14, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Israeli airstrikes target Syrian military factions near Sweida

Lebanon, US, disarmament
MENA

US pressure on Lebanon grows over Resistance disarmament plan

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS