Chamath Palihapitiya Warns Fed And Trump May No Longer Rescue Markets As Bottom 50% Of Americans Have 'Zero Interest' In Stocks

As global markets experience their worst selloff since March 2020, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya suggests traditional stock market bailouts may no longer be politically viable.

What Happened: The former Facebook executive wrote on X Sunday that “the top 10% of American households own 88% of the total equities owned by American households” while “the next 40% of households own 12%.” This means “the bottom 50% of Americans have zero interest in the stock market,” Palihapitiya noted.

His comments followed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent‘s remarks that market volatility is “more a MAG Seven problem than a MAGA one,” referring to major tech companies Microsoft Corp. MSFT, Apple Inc. AAPL, NVIDIA Corp. NVDA, Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, Meta Platforms Inc. META, and Tesla Inc. TSLA.

Palihapitiya agreed with Bessent’s assessment, adding that Americans in the bottom half of the economic spectrum “are likely in debt and, simply, just want to do better.”

The top 10% of American households own 88% of the total equities owned by American households.

The next 40% of households own 12%.

This means the bottom 50% of Americans have ZERO interest in the stock market, are likely in debt and, simply, just want to do better.

This… https://t.co/wSxXGxAquc
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) April 5, 2025

Why It Matters: The venture capitalist challenged market orthodoxy, suggesting “conventional wisdom has been that there is always a Fed put or a White House put if the stock market contracts enough,” but warned investors that “this may be a moment to hold a radical new view which is that the put is off the table.”

Palihapitiya’s comments come amid significant market turmoil. The S&P 500 plunged 6% Friday, pushing two-day losses past 10%, while the Nasdaq entered bear market territory after falling 22% from its record high. On Sunday, Dow futures fell 3.26%, extending the selloff.

President Donald Trump has shown limited concern about market losses, saying on Sunday, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has emphasized caution, noting the Fed “does not need to be in a hurry” to cut rates despite Trump’s public pressure. Powell warned that Trump’s tariff package could raise inflation with “more persistent effects possible.”

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