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Wealth in the era of virtual
In the United States, in the 1930s, the great names of wealth, such as Rockefeller, Ford or Carnegie, have built their fortunes on industry, energy or infrastructure.
These fortunes were derived from the real economy, based on productive activities: Oil extraction, motor vehicle construction, railway networks, steel industry.
The wealth then arose from the development of concrete tools, production chains, export, processing of raw materials into useful goods.
Enrichment was based on tangible turnover, reinvested profits, and growth that often accompanied job creation and sustainable wealth.
This contrast highlights the structural breakdown which has taken place since the industrial era towards an era in which financial speculation now plays a predominant role in the formation of large fortunes.
Today's billionaires have not necessarily built factories or sold millions of products.
Their wealth often comes from shares in technological enterprises, listed on the stock exchange, the value of which rises sharply... at least on paper.
The problem?
This wealth is rarely available in cash. It is based on speculative valuationssometimes disconnected from any real economic activity.
Let us take a simple example: if Elon Musk wanted to sell all his Tesla shares in one day to convert them into money, he wouldn't get it. Never the value displayed on financial platforms.
The market would collapse before it even finished selling. His fortune is therefore largely virtual It exists as long as no one really tries to cash it.
This raises an important question: Does the financial system still create real value, or does it simply produce a illusion of wealth ?
What is a financial bubble?
A sound price rise
One financial bubble, is when the prices of an asset — as a share, a real estate or even a work of art — climb very high, far too high compared to their real value.
This increase is fuelled by theenthusiasm, fear of missing an opportunity, and especially the idea that "It's always going up.”.
But sooner or later, reality catches up with fiction.
The bubble pops and prices collapse. This is what happened with the bubble Internet in the 2000s, or with the crisis of Subprime 2008
The classic cycle of a bubble
Economists usually identify five steps in a bubble:
- Trigger : a novelty attracts attention (e.g. artificial intelligence).
- Enthusiasm : investors are coming in.
- Euphoria : prices are getting bigger.
- Profit taking The smart ones sell.
- Panic : Everyone wants to sell, prices collapse.
Can speculation create value?
An engine for innovation... sometimes useful
Some bubbles have enabled innovative companies to raising significant funds. This is the case.Amazon, which, for several years, did not generate any profits but was able to grow thanks to investors' money. Same for Google or Facebook in their early days.
These periods of euphoria have sometimes financed projects that have then transformed our daily lives. But these successes areexceptionNot the rule.
Overemphasis on innovation
Studies show that when a company presents an innovation, its stock market value increases well beyond what this innovation actually brings.
On average, investors overestimate 40 % The real impact of an invention on future benefits.
Another perverse effect: even when this innovation harms its competitors, the markets do not penalize them.
This shows that speculation often creates a blurred or even false picture of economic reality.
fortunes disconnected from economic reality
Inflated valuations without real activity
Many big fortunes are now linked to very young companies, often without Significant turnover, visible profitability. Some have even no product marketed. Yet they're worth billions.
This is particularly the case in the Artificial intelligence, where start-ups are valued tens of billions of euros simply because they work in a field "Fashion”.
The real estate market case
In some cities such as Paris, London or San Francisco, the price of real estate has exploded, not because the inhabitants make a better living, but because investors are looking for secure investments.
Result : housing becomes inaccessible to the middle class, and this artificial inflation also feeds false fortunes, based on the assumed value of an overvalued real estate asset.
Real economy relegated to the background
Key sectors, but not valued
The "classical" industries as Food, chemicals, or air transportproduce tangible goods and employ millions of people. However, their valuations on the stock exchange are often much more modest that of an unprofitable technological start-up.
This illustrates a paradox: we value more what Promise what actually produced.
A world where money circulates... but does not always create wealth
Investors move billions of one asset to another in search of better yield, but much of that money does not finance the real economy. It is not used to build factories, hire or produce. It mainly feeds bubbles.
The fragility of virtual fortunes: the example Elon Musk
A striking contemporary example illustrates how fragile these virtual fortunes are: in 2025, Elon Musk lost more $100 billion In the space of a few weeks, mainly because of his controversial political positions alongside Donald Trump and his commitment to a government committee.
These losses were related to a immediate and speculative reaction of financial markets, influenced by public image and perceived political risks.
This clearly shows that these fortunes, though colossal on paper, based on highly volatile assessment mechanisms, where perception often prevails over economic fundamentals.
Dangerous limits of virtual wealth
Illusory fortunes
As long as a shareholder does not sell its shares, its wealth is "theoretical". It depends entirely on the price others are willing to pay for these shares. But this price is unstable, influenced by fashion effects, rumors, or even trading algorithms.
A sudden turnaround in the market can therefore erase billions of virtual "rich" in a few days.
The consequences when the bubble bursts
When a financial bubble bursts, it is not only the rich investors who suffer. The entire economy can be affected:
- Companies are reducing their workforce.
- Banks restrict credit.
- Consumption drops.
This is what we saw in 2008: a financial crisis in the United States led to a global recession, whose effects lasted several years.
How to balance things?
Better framework for speculation
Some economists propose taxing speculative transactions, or impose stricter rules on financial markets, to avoid excesses.
The idea is not to block investment, but to ensure that it better serve the real economy : create jobs, finance infrastructure, support the ecological transition.
Supporting innovation otherwise
Innovation can be financed without excessive speculation. The state, universities, or public funds can play a key role in supporting basic research, supporting promising start-ups, and setting long-term goals.
Bringing value to the "real" economy
It's time to revalue the industrial, agricultural and craft sectors, which form the core of the production of concrete wealth. This also requires a better distribution of investment, and taxation that not only favours "fashion" businesses.
Trees that don't go up to the sky... except elsewhere
Modern wealth is often a brilliant illusion, based on promises of the future and not on concrete results. Financial bubbles may sometimes be used to finance useful projects, but they remain fragile. And when reality catches them up, the consequences are heavy for the real economy, but also for society.
Building a sustainable economy requires reconciling speculation and productionwealth and utility, finance and society. This means rethinking our models of growth, fortune, and prosperity. For, as the saying goes: "trees don't go up to the sky"even with a lot of fertilizer.
A look at Africa: a land of wealth without fortunes?
In this global dynamic, a paradox arises: Africa is full of natural wealth, but has relatively few great fortunes.
Why?
Because The speculative economy is weakly developed. Financial markets are still young, shallow, and weak. There is no, or very little, local technological or real estate bubble that can generate billions of market valuation based on uncertain projections.
Where there is speculation, e.g. on raw materials (oil, cobalt, gold, cocoa...), it is played outside the continent.
The major markets are London, New York or Singapore. And these are foreign multinationals, often based outside of Africa, which benefit from speculative exploitation of African resources.
Thus, even when speculation exists around African products, value added, profits and fortunes generated elsewherestrengthening a form of economic dependence and global imbalance.
So it's double absence: lack of local bubbles generating "virtual" fortunes, but also lack of capture of international speculation on African natural resources.
This must encourage thinking about fairer, more integrated economic models, where Africa would no longer be simply resource providerbut also creator and recipient of value.
