Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Bankman-Fried: Why has so much wealth been destroyed?

It should make us all think about the nature of wealth – and what is real and what is a shadow, writes Hamish McRae

What has happened to billionaires has happened to most investors on a more moderate scale (Getty)

Elon Musk spent $44bn (£37bn) to buy Twitter two weeks ago. He now says it might be bankrupt – not him, but Twitter. So what happened to that $44bn?

On Monday last week, Sam Bankman-Fried had a net worth of $16bn. On Friday, his companies filed for bankruptcy and that net worth had apparently shrunk to zero. So what happened to the $16bn?

It is true that Elon Musk has many other assets, including his shareholding in Tesla. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index still ranks him top of the global league table, with $189bn on Friday’s close in New York, and Twitter must surely be worth something. No one knows what other assets Sam Bankman-Fried might have – maybe not very much – so his is a very different tale. But the common theme is the destruction of wealth, which should make us all think of the nature of wealth and, in particular, what is real and what is a shadow.