(OPINION) If you want to determine what people believe, don’t listen to what they say. Rather, closely watch what they actually do. In recent days, the stock market has been hovering near record highs and business leaders have been assuring us that good days are ahead.
But meanwhile, many of our most famous billionaires have been doing things that indicate that they are extremely concerned about what is coming in the future. For example, during the first two months of this year Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon and Mark Zuckerberg “have all sold big chunks of shares in their own companies”…
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have all sold big chunks of shares in their own companies. How come?
Bezos is way out in front after offloading 50 million shares of Amazon in just nine trading days this month, pocketing an estimated $8.5 billion.
Zuckerberg cashed in almost 1.8 million shares of his social-media empire for more than $400 million in the last two months of 2023. JPMorgan’s Dimon joined the club this month, jettisoning about 822,000 shares of the bank he leads for about $150 million.
If these men believe that the U.S. economy is going to thrive and their companies will continue to grow, it would make sense to just sit back and let their portfolios increase in value.
But instead they have all determined that this is a perfect time to sell. And I can definitely understand that. Over the past year, the stocks of all three companies have soared to unprecedented heights…
Meta stock has soared by 186% over the past year, JPMorgan is up nearly 30%, and Amazon has surged close to 90%. All three companies are trading close to record highs.
These men didn’t become filthy rich by being stupid, and selling at the peak of the bubble certainly wouldn’t be stupid. But is that the only reason why these billionaires are feverishly liquidating shares?
In recent weeks, much has been made of the fact that Zuckerberg and his wife are constructing an absolutely massive survivalist compound in Hawaii. The following comes from Time Magazine…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, plan to build a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter on their Hawaii ranch with its own energy and food supplies, according to a Wired investigation published earlier this month.
The plan is that the shelter’s door will be made of metal and filled in with concrete—common in bunkers and bomb shelters, the news outlet reported in its extensive article citing planning documents and interviews.
So why is Zuckerberg going to such effort? Does he know something that the rest of us do not? Yes, it is true that Zuckerberg has always been more than a little bit eccentric.
But many other ultra-wealthy individuals are also preparing for doom. In fact, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel both seem to be extremely alarmed about the times that are approaching…
To keep himself safe, Altman keeps a stash of the usual Doomsday prepper fare including antibiotics and water as well as some more unusual goods. He told the founders of the startup Shypmate, per the New Yorker: “I try not to think about it too much. But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defence Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”
He also said he and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel have an “arrangement” to flee to one of Thiel’s luxury properties in New Zealand in the event the End of the World comes about.
Why would Sam Altman need guns and gas masks? And why would he need potassium iodide? Exactly what does he expect to happen? Other billionaires are going to even greater extremes.
Al Corbi, the founder and president of Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments, says that he is currently working on an “island fortress” for one client that will have a very deep moat around it filled with highly flammable liquid…
Corbi — who worked on the palatial 27-floor, $4.8 billion Mumbai residence of business mogul Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries — reveals to THR that his most spectacular project, due to be completed in 2025, is an island fortress created on a 200-acre property in the U.S., with cutting-edge tactical systems.
“The shelter can withstand a blast one mile from ground zero,” says Corbi. “But that was almost incidental. The client [a business mogul] was saying, ‘I want to make sure that no one can get to my family,’ so we wound up literally building a 30-foot-deep lake [around the compound] skimmed with a lighter-than-water flammable liquid that can transform into a ring of fire. The only access to the island is a swing bridge.”
I have to admit, that sounds pretty cool. I just hope that they have figured out how to keep the fire from escaping the moat. The property will also have “water cannons that can take down parachuters”…
Also at Corbi’s project, “there are water cannons that can take down parachuters, Apache helicopters, whatever’s coming your way 500 feet in the air,” he says.
“Then we took all the dirt removed for the lake to literally build a mountain as natural fortification around the property. And we cut a tunnel through with flame-throwers, gassing systems, a steel wall that closes midway that could stop a 16-wheeler going 80 miles an hour, and bollards at both ends.” (READ MORE)
