Musk, Rockefeller and the Age of the Trillionaire: Essay

We seem to be entering our trillionaire era. As recently as late 2017, no one on Earth had ever been worth more than $100 billion. Less than a decade later, 18 people on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index clear that mark. A successful SpaceX initial public offering could make Elon Musk, whose fortune now tops $670 billion, the world’s first trillionaire. And at this rate, he may not be the last this decade.

If this feels unprecedented, it is. But it’s also reminiscent of another era. At the turn of the 20th century, bewildering social and technological changes, polarized politics and soaring ...