General Discussion

I've been pondering lately about what happens to economies when there is a glut of unspendable wealth (to quote Molly Jong Fast) -- so much money that the uber-rich can't reasonably spend it all.

Elon Musk is now worth $7 billion, give or take a few... America has another 1000 billionaires, or so...

Much of that wealth is locked up in stock options. But some of it is also invested in interest-bearing bonds/funds to make more money. I'm wondering if we eventually get into a self-perpetuating spiral where they can essentially suck all the wealth out of an economy. Then what happens?

I can't think of another period in history where this many oligarchs had so much money. Are there any modern economic theories that explain what happens to economies when there is THIS much unspendable wealth floating around?