HOME |
RSS | 
Forbes has posted their annual list of the twenty richest people in the world. Number one is not Bill Gates, nor is it Warren Buffet. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu edged out Gates with a net worth of $53.5 billion, which is $18 billion more than he had a year ago.
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.
Bill Gates was the world’s richest person fourteen of the past fifteen years. Link -via Slashdot
What do billionaires have in common besides a lot of money? Forbes magazine decided to find out, and did an in depth analysis of the 657 self made billionaires on their list from a few months ago. Amongst the things they analyzed are the billionaire’s parents, education, job, and social standings.
Some of the surprising common traits they found are:
September Birthdays
Of the 380 self-made American tycoons who have appeared on the Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires in the past three years, 42 were born in September–more than in any other month. Maybe that’s because September is the month the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans is published.
Tech Titans Who Dropped Out of College
Forget everything your guidance counselor told you: You don’t have to go to college to be successful. More than 20% of the self-made American moguls on the most recent list of the World’s Billionaires never finished college. Many of them made their fortunes in tech. Among them: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, (Oracle) and Theodore Waitt (Gateway).
Skull and Bones
Several current and former billionaires rounded out their Yale careers as members of Skull and Bones, the secret society portrayed with enigmatic relish by Hollywood in movies like The Skulls and W. Among those who were inducted: investor Edward Lampert, Blackstone co-founder Steven Schwarzman and FedEx founder Frederick Smith.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Who ever said that crime doesn’t pay? It certainly did for this guy: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, who made the rank in Forbes’ annual list of The World’s Billionaires.
Mexico’s most wanted man, "El Chapo", or Shorty, heads the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest suppliers of Cocaine to the U.S. In 1993 was arrested in Mexico on homicide and drug charges. Escaped from federal prison in 2001, reportedly through the laundry, and quickly regained control of his drug trafficking organization, which he still controls today. In 2008 Mexican and Colombian traffickers laundered between $18 billion and $39 billion in proceeds from wholesale shipments to the U.S. Shorty, an alleged tunnels expert, is believed to have directed anywhere from a third to half of that during the past 8 years. Apparently started out working with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, "El Padrino", or the Godfather, head of the most powerful drug trafficking group in Mexico at that time. U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for his capture.
Needless to say, Mexican authorities are livid:
Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at the publication and described Forbes’ calculations on Guzman Loera’s fortune as mere "speculation."
"I will never accept that a criminal could be recognized as someone distinguished, even if it is by a magazine like Forbes," Medina Mora said to local media during a drug traffic summit Thursday in Vienna, Austria.
Forbes is "comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen," he said.
Link | CNN Article (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)
