The mind-boggling ascent of Amazon and Jeff Bezos

Professor of Finance Hendrik Bessembinder's research examines the 30 greatest wealth creators in the stock market from 1926 through 2016 — and the fledgling retail giant is one of them.

Recently, Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos reached two impressive milestones: The online retail giant's stocks rose above $500 billion and the company's rising share price propelled Bezos into first place in the rankings of the world's wealthiest people, if only for a couple of hours.

Finance Professor Hendrik Bessembinder, who is the Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Endowed Chair in Competitive Business, was interviewed in this post in The New York Times on July 28, 2017:

"Amazon now belongs in a very small group of stocks," said Hendrik Bessembinder, a finance professor at Arizona State University. "It's one of the greatest wealth creators since 1926, and it's reached that status in a very short period of time."