9486 in the collection
Forbes List of the World's Richest Billionaires Has More than One Link to Public Education
Ohanian Comment: Forbes' annual worldwide list of billionaires contains information to watch out for. We'll ignore Bill Gates for now. Note that Helen Walton, wife of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and four members of her family were tied for sixth as the world's wealthiest people, each worth an estimated $20 billion -- making for a Waltons' mountain of money that's bigger than the holdings of Gates and Buffett combined. And it's plenty of money for the John Walton to continue pursuing his objective of promoting vouchers. He is the voucher movement's most prolific giver.
Billionaires' list grows to a record 587 names 'Harry Potter' creator one of 22 newcomers
NEW YORK -- It's been a good year for billionaires. A rallying stock market and a strong euro made Forbes' annual worldwide list a record 587 names long, up from 476 in 2003. Their total net worth jumped to $1.9 trillion from $1.4 trillion last year.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates remains perched atop the list for the 10th straight year, but investor Warren Buffett is nipping at his heels. Forbes estimated Gates' net worth at $46.6 billion, less than half the $100 billion it peaked at in 1998 but up about 13 percent from 2003.
Buffett wins bragging rights for reaping the best gains of the year. He increased his net worth by $12.4 billion to $42.9 billion.
German supermarket magnate Karl Albrecht remained in third place, with a fortune of $23 billion.
Close behind were Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, whose $21.5 billion nest egg put him just ahead of Microsoft's other co-founder, Paul Allen, who came in fifth with $21 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 were Helen Walton, wife of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and four members of her family. They were tied for sixth, with each worth an estimated $20 billion -- making for a Waltons' mountain of money that's bigger than the holdings of Gates and Buffett combined.
The strength of the euro currency in comparison with the dollar helped launch 22 new billionaires to the list, for a total of 164 Europeans. Their net worth as a group surged 47 percent to $578 billion.
Rising oil prices helped Russia add eight new billionaires, for a total of 25. That puts the country in third place, behind the United States and Germany.
In the United States, billionaires gained last year not only from a 20 percent rise in stock prices, but also from reductions in taxes on dividends, capital gains and estate taxes, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com.
"High-income, high-net-worth households have done very well under the Bush administration," Zandi said.
As usual, older, married men dominated the list, which includes only 53 women and 24 single people. The average billionaire's age is 64; only 27 are under 40. The young billionaires club includes Michael Dell, 39, whose net worth rose to $13 billion from $9.8 billion last year.
Fifty-six billionaires returned to the list after dropping off in the previous few years, including Yahoo! founders David Filo ($2.2 billion) and Jerry Yang ($1.9 billion).
They returned to find their upstart search-engine rivals, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page ($1 billion each), making their debuts.
Other newcomers included "Harry Potter" creator J.K. Rowling, ($1 billion); the Canadian creator of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte ($1.1 billion), and Hong Kong's Michael Ying ($1.8 billion), chairman and CEO of clothing company Esprit Holdings Ltd.
And there were three billionaires behind bars, including Russia's richest man, former Yukos oil chief Mikhail Khodorkovsy ($15 billion), as well as Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev ($1.8 billion) and Japanese tycoon Yasuo Takei ($6.2 billion.)
— Michael P. Regan, Associated Press
Billionaires' list grows to a record 587
American-Statesman
2004-02-27
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/auto/epaper/editions/friday/business_04e3af611723704b0015.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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