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Having to scrape by with a measly $54 billion as Forbes rich list has its third leader in three years.
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Having to scrape by with a measly $54 billion as Forbes rich list has its third leader in three years.
Why does it say Carlos Slim '& family'? I reckon that most of the people in the top are not competing for number 1. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are two of the most generous philanthropists in the US, and Carlos slim also has his organisation.
If we're talking family, then the Waltons (Owners of Walmart) have 4 members in the top 20 list.
Compared to the rich Arabs in the middle east, these guys over there are in the top 1000 :D
No. The arabs are simply not that rich. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa...ayed_Al_NahyanQuote:
Originally Posted by SammEl
Sheikh Khalifa is one of the richest. I'm sure the sultan of brunei is there as well (thought that's not the middle east)
The problem is do you include the oil in the ground in the wealth of some of these Arabs. The awnser not all of it.
By the same idea that you don't count how much money Microsoft might be making in 2050.
As such you will find these arab's aren't that high, and the current list is all going to be shaken up by the emerging markets anyway!
Most likely because his close family are the legal owners of a significant proportion of his business interests.Quote:
Originally Posted by TooNice
e.g. He may effectively control 51% of a company, but legally 10% of shares are owned by his wife and 5% each by his 3 children (this is merely an example - I have no idea of his family status).
An even bigger problem is that these "rich lists" are always utter cobblers. I'd bet money that nobody, including the people on them, could put an accurate figure on their "wealth" .... and certainly not without a team of accountants and an extensive valuation, which would be out of date by the time they finished doing it, and even if it wasn't would be the result of some egregious assumptions.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAnimus
For a start, what's Gates' home worth? It's an extremely expensive bit of real estate, and you can't exactly gauge it's value by comparing to sales of similar properties on his street.
What's his stock in MS worth? You can take today's value, but it'll be different in 30 minutes (or 30 seconds), and until he sells it, it's a notional value anyway. An individual MS share might be worth $x, but if Gates tried to realise that and dumped all his shares on the market, my guess is MS share price would dive and he'd get nothing like the apparent per-share dollar value. So it's somewhat notional if the mere act of selling it depresses the price.
And what does he own in the way of unique items, like major works of art? How the hell can Forbes know unless he tells them (and I also bet he didn't), and what are they worth? Again, with such things, you don't know until you sell them. Similarly, what does he own in the way of IP, and what are they worth? And so on.
The same applies to all individuals with high net worth - Forbes no doubt have their procedures, but they're never going to convince me it's much more accurate than a high-tech version of licking their finger and sticking it up in the air to test wind speed and direction. $53.5b versus $53.0b so he's "lost" first place. Hah!
You aren't trying to say this was a deliberate result, intended to get far more publicity for the "rich list" than it has attracted in several years? are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
:mrgreen:
Because that's exactly how I view it. If it had been a significant margin then fair enough, but $0.5bn strikes me as such a happy coincidence.
Actually I wasn't saying that, but the thought did go through my mind as I wrote that, and I'm certainly cynical enough to be very suspicious about it. Did they do it? Dunno. Are they capable of being that manipulative? I don't know much about them, but I'm not in much doubt that they are.Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkstar
Doesn't most of his (Gates) go to his charity anyway? I remember reading somewhere that he didn't like being #1.
I think his intention is to spend the rest of his life divesting himself from all the billions he has. He doesn't like the idea of leaving his family an estate of that size, granted when he does die there will still be a lot of millions to inherit, but not the GDP of a small country.
I heard bill gates makes $4 million every night when hes sleeping. It shouldn't take long to make it up :P