In May 2018, a Wall Street Journal analyst concluded that if taxcut effects are removed from the figures, real US corporate profits were not growing anymore, notwithstanding a surge in profits on S&P listed shares. Another analyst commented that "With the profits data, it could take several quarters for clear trends to emerge from the tax-associated noise." From September 2018 onward, as the economic and political news worsened, the bloated US stockmarkets began to deflate, while the VIX index trebled. In November 2018, Michael Wursthorn reported that "The postcrisis boom in U.S. corporate profits may be near its peak." CNBC reported a similar story. At the end of 2018, the record gains for the year by the 500 richest people listed on the daily Bloomberg Billionaires Index had been wiped out – together, they had lost more than half a trillion dollars of net wealth.