Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has warned that Americans need an 11% increase in their net worth just to keep up with the falling value of the U.S. dollar since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency.
The U.S. Dollar Index has slipped from 109.29 on Trump’s inauguration day, January 20, to 98.07 as of Thursday a decline of roughly 10%. “Unless your dollar-denominated net worth has increased by at least 11% this year, you’ve become poorer,” Graham stated on X, adding that the dollar’s value erosion has already affected real wealth.
Exchange-traded funds tracking the dollar have also mirrored this trend. The Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund dropped 6.6%, while the WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund fell nearly 5% since Trump took office.
However, America’s wealthiest individuals continue to thrive despite the weakening currency. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows major gains for tech giants, with Larry Ellison up $115 billion this year and Mark Zuckerberg up $63.5 billion. Elon Musk, even after losing $68.1 billion, remains the richest with $364 billion.
Graham concluded with irony, suggesting Trump might boast of having created “unprecedented billionaires” when measured in what he dubbed “Trump dollars,” now worth just 0.9 Biden dollars.
