Mexican tycoon Slim overtakes Gates as world's richest man: report

[Black Hawk]

Mexican tycoon Slim overtakes Gates as world's richest man: report

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim has become the world's richest man with a total fortune of around 67.84 billion U.S. dollars, overtaking the United States's Bill Gates, who has 59.2 billion dollars, the Mexican financial website Sentido Commun said on Tuesday.

The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the Mexican Stock Exchange, whose index has quintupled in value since 2002, has created vast fortunes for many local businessmen, it said.

Slim's wealth has soared due to the 26.5-percent surge in his mobile phone operating business America Movil and the 11.3-percent gain in the value of Telmex, Slim's near-monopoly fixed-line telecom company.

This means he is worth nearly 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product, and 8.6 billion dollars more than Gates.

In April, Forbes magazine listed Slim as the world's second richest man, with 56 billion dollars, overtaking U.S. investor Warren Buffet for the second place on the world's wealth billboard, but below Gates, founder of the software giant Microsoft.

Sentido Comun said that Slim's wealth soared by 10.8 billion dollars in the April to June period alone.

Mexico has a clear rich-poor divide, and the richest Mexicans have personal fortunes worth more than 123 billion dollars while over half of Mexicans live in poverty.

According to the Sentido Comun website, the country's 38 wealthiest families are holding 14.4 percent of the nation's assets.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/6207597.html

Looks like those Mexicans ain't doing so bad

Still this whole accumulation of wealth thing seems to be getting a bi out of hand, how long before only a select few hold all the wealth and leave us with bread crumbs?

[Miraj]

Boy, are Americans going to be pissed at this.

[MonTeZuma]

Depends on the bread crumbs?

Plus Gates can blame the xbox360 realibility as its cost him a cool billion to sort.
Don't worry Billy boy will infect his computers with a virus.

Who is the richest women in the world?
I heard it was about to be JK Rowling who wrote Harry Potter, but don't know if that was just for the UK or for the world.

[Rhinosaur]

Slim basically just replaced a Government monopoly with his own. If you know the right people when something like a deregulation goes down, you can buy all sorts of **** you have no real right to own. He didn't make his money in as cool of a way as Gates, or Pablo Escobar for that matter, so Slim can eat me.

[madscientist22]

Well, Gates basically became a full-time philanthropist so it's not too surprising that he's not maintaining first place. I think the Gates foundation is near 30 billion and that's more than half his net worth.

According to the Sentido Comun website, the country's 38 wealthiest families are holding 14.4 percent of the nation's assets

That's somewhat worrying though... The whole deal with Mexico is that it's not poor but that it has a surprisingly small middle class and really poor poor....

[boofhead]

1 dude owns 8% of GDP?

That is ****ing demented. Not good.

Also if you took the average US per-capita annual earnings and compared it with Mexico's, this guy outstrips Gates by a mile. Gates wouldn't have 1% of US GDP.

[jimkatalanos]

Why is this guy so rich?

[Giorgos]

smart+ruthless.

You don't get both of these hand-in-hand very often which is why billionaires are so few in number.

[Mathias]

I heard it was about to be JK Rowling who wrote Harry Potter, but don't know if that was just for the UK or for the world.

If that's true, then the world has finally gone to hell. I mean, you don't become the richest person in the world by writing books. Books that are good at best, and far from the greatest out there.

[jimkatalanos]

So, which is the richest woman?

[Gary88]

Who is the richest women in the world?
I heard it was about to be JK Rowling who wrote Harry Potter, but don't know if that was just for the UK or for the world.

its very possible, shes far richer than the queen (in terms of pure money) and is the best selling author of all time with 3 times as many sales as the second best.

Billy Gates gives **** loads to charity doesnt he, so that must have some affect and also isnt he scalling back his roles in work now, so he might not be earning as much as he could be

[jimkatalanos]

I don't think JK Rowling is the richest woman.

[Gary88]

just checked its the Sisters in the Waalton familly, the ones who own Walmart, they have about 15 odd billion each

[jimkatalanos]

just checked its the Sisters in the Waalton familly, the ones who own Walmart, they have about 15 odd billion each

Do you have a link?

[MadBurgerMaker]

Do you have a link?

The Waltons are excessively rich. Forbes will have them on their lists of billionaires.

Edit: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/...inalWorth.html 6, 7, 9, & 11.

Heh...Check out the candybar people at 21.

[Gary88]

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/...l?boxes=custom

no 24

[jimkatalanos]

Thanks, I'll check it.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Billy Gates gives **** loads to charity doesnt he, so that must have some affect and also isnt he scalling back his roles in work now, so he might not be earning as much as he could be

They give huge amounts of money to charity (they actually started their own). IIRC, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is worth around $30 billion dollars, or some similarly insane sum.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Billy Gates gives **** loads to charity doesnt he, so that must have some affect and also isnt he scalling back his roles in work now, so he might not be earning as much as he could be

They give huge amounts of money to charity (they actually started their own). IIRC, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is worth around $30 billion dollars, or some similarly insane amount.

[Pelican Man]

Billy Gates gives **** loads to charity doesnt he

Tax write off.

well, at least in Canada... don't know about the states.