World’s Richest Men Do Not Know What Crisis Is
The number of dollar billionaires in the world has exceeded 1,000 people. The richest man in the world today is Carlos Slim, a Mexican media tycoon, Forbes magazine wrote this week. Slim’s fortune is evaluated at $53.5 billion. The total capital of 10 richest people in the world has grown to $342 billion over one year.
A year ago, the index made up $254 billion - $3.5 billion for each person on the list, which marked a $500 million increase in comparison with the previous year.
The total number of members of the billionaire club increased too – from 793 to 1011. It just so happens that there is no crisis on top of the world. Only 12 percent of billionaires became “poorer” in 2009. The number of female billionaires has grown too – from 72 to 89.
Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates comes second of Forbes’s list with $53 billion. Warren Buffett takes the third position with $47 billion.
Most likely, Gates and Buffett were not upset with the news: their fortunes increased by $13 and $10 billion respectively.
The top ten of the list has new faces too. French billionaire Bernard Arnault, the owner of Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon (LVMH), appeared on the seventh place with $27 billion. No. 8 belongs to Brazilian entrepreneur Eike Batista, who made his fortune on mineral resources - $7.5 billion.
The number of Russian billionaires on Forbes’s list has doubled. Sixty-two Russians have fortunes larger than $1 billion, which makes Russia the leader among European countries. Germany comes second at this point with 53 billionaires.
248 members of Forbes’s list live in Europe: their fortunes total $1 trillion. The USA has 403 billionaires - $1.3 trillion. The Asian and Pacific region has improved its positions too: 234 billionaires and $729 billion in total.
World’s richest people mostly live in New York – 60 billionaires of the list can be found in Big Apple. Moscow is the world’s second billionaire city – 50 billionaires. The third place belongs to London – 32.
Russia ’s richest man is ranked 32nd on the list of Forbes magazine: Vladimir Lisin, the owner of Novolipetsk Steel Company. He owns a $15.8-billion fortune. Mikhail Prokhorov is Russia’s second richest man (39th on Forbes, $13.4 billion).
Anastasia Romasheva
Pravda.Ru
