posted May 11, 2010 12:11 AM         

from FORBES.COM ...

"World's Billionaires 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Introduction by Matthew Miller and Luisa Kroll

Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.

Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil (AMX), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.

Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.

Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade (CAE) also soared with the rest of the markets.

Buffett's fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion on rising shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). He ranks third.

The Oracle of Omaha shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs (GS) and $3 billion in General Electric (GE) amid the 2008 market collapse. He also recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) for $26 billion.

In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, "We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble."

Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.

This year the World's Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500 million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year's list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline.

U.S. billionaires still dominate the ranks — but their grip is slipping. Americans account for 40% of the world's billionaires, down from 45% a year ago.

The U.S. commands 38% of the collective $3.6 trillion net worth of the world's richest, down from 44% a year ago.

Of the 97 new members of the list, only 16% are from the U.S. By contrast, Asia made big gains. The region added 104 moguls and now has just 14 fewer than Europe, thanks to several large public offerings and swelling stock markets.

The new billionaires include American Isaac Perlmutter, who flipped Marvel Entertainment (MVL) to Disney (DIS) for $4 billion last December. The Spider-Man mogul netted nearly $900 million in cash and 20 million shares of Disney in the transaction.

Also new to the ranking: 27 billionaires from China, including Li Shufu, whose automaker, Geely, announced plans to buy Swedish brand Volvo from Ford in December. The deal is expected to close in March 2010.

Finland and Pakistan both welcomed their first billionaires.

For the first time China (including Hong Kong) has the most billionaires outside the U.S. with 89.

Russia has 62 billionaires, 28 of them returnees who had fallen off last year's list amid a meltdown in commodities. Total returnees to the list this year: 164.

Eleven countries have at least double the number of billionaires they had a year ago, including China, India, Turkey and South Korea.

Thirty members of last year's list fell out of the billionaire's club. Moguls who couldn't make the cut: Iceland's Thor Bjorgolfsson, Russia's Boris Berezovsky and Saudi Arabia's Maan Al-Sanea.

Another 13 members of last year's list died. Among the deceased: real estate developer Melvin Simon and glass tycoon William Davidson."

someone's making out like bandits doncha know!

years ago it was explained to me, and seemed preposterous at the time, that this is what recessions are made for - made being the operative word. seems some things never change. the glory of the "free" market...

all aboard for the train to bejjing - the land of bling? if i had 26 billion to spend on a railroad you would all be invited to the party of the century. never mind all the homeless people along the tracks folks...i gave a couple million to the charity for victims of foreclosure...and i must have hired 50 people to run the train for us!!

posted May 11, 2010 12:40 AM         

AAAIIIEEEE!!!

posted May 11, 2010 08:33 AM         

That money would not run the government of the United States for even 1 year.

The problem with leftists is they think the pie is only so large and if someone has more than them...well, they have too much and they're greedy.

Capitalists know the pie is of infinite size and work to make it larger...for everyone to have a bigger slice.

Now, here's a crotch kick for the bone head Karl Marx.

Let's take only one of those billionaires, Bill Gates who is worth $53 Billion.

It cannot be denied Bill Gates increased the size of the pie by $53 Billion dollars. In doing so, Gates didn't take away from the size of the slice of anyone else. In fact, Gates has hired hundreds of thousands of people and they were paid out of the slice of pie Bill Gates MADE. I say MADE because after Gates, there are products in the market place...very useful products which never existed before.

I said Gates increased the size of the pie by $53 Billion. That was for simplification. Actually, Gates has increased the size of the pie by TRILLIONS of dollars and has spent TRILLIONS into the economies of the world...including the United States, hiring employees, buying steel, concrete, glass, and a variety of commodities with which to build his business. Every purchase Gates has made put not only his employees to work...but the employees of other businesses as well.

Capitalism is a wealth multiplier...which increases the size of the pie for everyone.

How about this?

Leave the billionaires and ultra rich alone. If you envy them...then use your energy to emulate them, create something which doesn't exist and make the pie bigger so everyone can have a bigger slice.

Without the billionaires we have in the world...or a lot of someones just like them who have existed down through history.....everyone would have a subsistence existence...a poverty stricken existence where the main thought of every waking moment would be...where am I going to find enough food to keep me alive for one more day.

If you don't believe me....just ask the people in the Communist Worker's Paradise of North Korea. More than a million...perhaps 2 million have already starved to death...and millions awake wondering where they're going to find enough tree bark and grass to eat to survive another day.

posted May 11, 2010 10:52 AM         

no, absinthe, it doesn't make me sick. but i do think there's room for improvement in the system! not by them making less necessarily..

the american dream "it could be me!!" is a big fat carrot for most people cast in the role of mules. and the recession is CREATED by the people who profit by it. it's no coincidence that warren buffet invested in goldman sachs and GE...who stand to make a killing whether the energy we use is clean or filthy. whether the market goes up or down. you get my drift. and don't let's kid ourselves - until ALL the work can be done by machines, we the worker ants are as necessary to them as they are to us. you think i couldn't keep myself if there were no money? i would disagree. i would be at least as well off without warren buffet making money out of money as i am now.

it's no coincidence that about 8 of the top 20 billionaires on the list are WALTONS, whose store chain consistently hire immigrants who will work for less than minimum wage...thousands of them!! how is that helping those out of work? more relevant, how does it discourage immigrants or encourage the government to crack down on immigration?

and i find it interesting that india and china and russia are very well represented on the list as well.

but most of these people on the list are "nouveau riche" and will be replaced or edged down the list at some point in the near future. they represent the tip of the iceberg of "havemores" many of whom have been in position for hundreds of years. i do find it interesting that if your family was in place by the mid 16th century it is probably never going down. is that capitalism or feudalism?

i am well aware of the theory that if you took all the money in the world and evenly distributed it amongst all the people, within a few years the same people would be rich again and the rest would gravitate to whatever level they were at before too...

but at least a few of those on the bottom would be able to put some of that capital to use making something of it. at the moment they have no such chance, do they?

so nice of buffet, and gates, to "give" huge amounts of their fortunes to foundations - which they control - to create programs to help the rest of us...even though gates' idea of help is reduction of population for those too stupid to practice birth control...seen the clip LTT posted where he talks about how these great vaccines will bring the global headcount DOWN? interesting to say the least.

i'm not against these guys. but i don't like the way they start to play mama and papa to the peons once they get to a certain level. and i don't necessarily agree that using money to consolidate more and more is a "productive" career...buying out all the little people who can't fend them off because they just don't have enough fighting money...

posted May 11, 2010 11:31 AM         

How about a little truth here katatonic.

Walmart is not exempt from US minimum wage requirements. If you believe otherwise, show me in the minimum wage law that Walmart is exempt.

On the other hand katatonic, Nancy Pee-Lousy exempted the citizens of Samoa from minimum wage requirements...to benefit her campaign contributors who just happen to have their corporate headquarters in California..one in San Francisco. The tuna canning business employs almost 70% of the workforce in American Samoa

Do the corporate names Starkist and Chicken of the Sea ring any bells for you katatonic?

You scored a direct hit on yourself katatonic by suggesting a handout, gift or payoff for keeping quiet...of 20 grand would start you out on the way to your first billion.

posted May 11, 2010 11:39 AM         

i not only have never asked for a handout, i have never applied for any government "benefits" either. i actually consider it bad karma to envy the rich and powerful. however some of them could be more scrupulous in how they make and/or use their money. sorry. it doesn't do the market any good to let money sew up more and more money, whether they employ people or not that is called monopoly which is terrible for competition...in fact it is no better than the government (WHICH WE HAVE ESTABLISHED IS THE PEOPLE, RIGHT?) sewing up the market.