Neither by chance nor by coincidence. The report published by Oxfam wants to resonate with the Davos Economic Forum, where economic and political leaders from around the world will gather this week.
The 2,500 participants at this Swiss summit of the rich are likely to discuss the risks of a global recession linked to inflation and the shortage of raw materials, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine. And as Liberation notes in an article: «With the usual grandiloquence about the «next day», but certainly without any concrete proposal to reduce the inequalities that are widening from year to year».
Oxfam, whose spearhead is the fight against inequalities, chose at the same time to highlight those who have raised extraordinary excess profits during the health crisis. Four economic sectors in particular stand out, as Liberation notes, citing the Oxfam report.
Starting from agribusiness, due to last year's significant increase in food prices: +33.6% according to the UN's specialized agency, the International Food and Agriculture Organization («FAO»). One company benefited from this in particular: the Food Marketing Group «Cargill», which, with a net profit of $4.9 billion (€4.6 billion), recorded the most profitable result in its 156 years of existence. The other three global players in the grain and food commodities trading sector, for their part, posted profits of more than 50% in 2021.
To the delight of shareholders
Ο energy sector, which has seen its prices soar as never before since the end of the health crisis and with the war in Ukraine, is of course no exception. With the explosive rise in the price of crude oil per barrel (+53% in the last twelve months), the big oil companies have been amassing huge profits: $82 billion in cumulative profits for BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exon and Chevron, according to the Oxfam report.
Obviously, the pharmaceutical industry is the big winner of the health crisis, starting with the two big pharmaceutical companies that have supplied most of the vaccines: the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech. The former, alone, recorded a $12 billion increase in its vaccine sales.
Finally, the digital giants have also benefited from the coronavirus because of the increased time spent on video conferencing on social media or e-commerce sites: companies Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon and Alphabet (a subsidiary of Google) have together earned $271 billion, a 94% increase compared to 2019, a pre-coronavirus year.
These results, Oxfam notes, make the shareholders of the companies involved happy. Last year, Wal-Mart, the leading supermarket chain in the United States, paid out $16 billion in dividends, half of which went to the Walton family, the retail group's largest shareholder.
Vaccine maker Moderna has spawned four new billionaires among its founders and executives as a result of its valuation boom. As for the fortune of Jeff Bezos, founder and major shareholder of Amazon, it increased by $45 billion in 2020.
Finally, according to Oxfam, the planet now has 2,688 billionaires (in dollars), 573 more than in 2020. In conclusion, 250 million more people could be plunged into extreme poverty because of the health crisis.
«Tax them!»
Faced with this widening inequalities around the world, the NGO proposes a double fiscal response, as Liberation reports.
First, a tax on extraordinary profits made by large groups during the pandemic. This is an initiative that fits into the philosophy of what the IMF, the OECD and the EU have imagined by proposing a levy on the windfall profits of large energy groups.
In September 2020, Oxfam estimated that a temporary 90% tax on the windfall profits of 32 coronavirus-related multinationals could yield $104 billion in additional tax revenue. Enough to feed and care for hundreds of millions of people around the world who need it.
The NGO also wants to target billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnaud, who have seen their fortunes soar as never before during the crisis, taxing 99% of their profits between 2020 and 2022. Enough to further raise tens of billions to fight poverty and inequality in the world.
