15 ways things have changed for billionaires in the past year

NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump (R) and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault (L).

• 2019 was a good year to be a billionaire - sort of. Billionaires in France, for example, saw their collective net worths soar, while the opposite happened in China.
• But billionaires in the US have been increasingly forced to contend with the prospect of a wealth tax.
• The public is also increasingly holding billionaires accountable for how they make and spend their fortunes.
• As we approach the end of the year - and the decade - Business Insider took a look back at how things have changed for billionaires over the course of 2019.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Depending on where you live and how you made your fortune, 2019 was either a very good year to be a billionaire - or a very bad one.

French billionaires, for example, enjoyed surges in their net worths this year, while months of mass protests and political unrest sunk those of Hong Kong's billionaires. Meanwhile, ultra-wealthy people who made their fortunes in controversial ways - no matter where they lived - were forced to deal with public reckonings amid growing income inequality.

Keep reading to learn how life has changed for billionaires in 2019.