A century of billionaires 'Andrew Carnegie to BILL GATES'.. What is important to note since turn of the century is that it is change in direction of global economy, not the amount of accumulated wealth.
compiled from Forbes various issues and some self thoughts.. Iqbal Latif
The story of tracing and evaluating the wealth of this century richest man is also a story of 'directions' of global economy in the 20th century. From Industrial Revolution of early 20th century to Japanese land barons of 1980?s we are now in the age of internet cyber billionaires. This is new age of 'communication revolution' and our billionaires of this age represent billions made with ease.
In early 20th century the first billion took a lifetime... except in the Internet age. What use to take decades to amass a billion-dollar fortune now is matter of luck or being at the right place at the right time. When Andrew Carnegie sold his steel empire in 1901 to J.P. Morgan for $480 million dollars, Morgan congratulated him on becoming "the richest man in the world." Today, with the right Internet hook, it takes only months. During the American Industrial Revolution men like Andrew Carnegie, George Westinghouse made Pittsburgh the center of the American Industrial Revolution.
In the Internet age Gary Winnick reached the billion-dollar mark in 18 months, a rate of $1.8 million a day. Former sidekick of Michael Milken left Drexel Burnham in 1985 to start own investment firm, Pacific Capital. Spotty record until a gamble on bandwidth. Knew nothing about fiber-optic technology, but invested $15 million anyway. Stake in Global Crossing is now worth $4.5 billion. Internet shopping pioneer Pierre Omidyar Net worth: $6.7 billion founded electronic auction house Ebay after his wife wanted to trade the collectible candy dispensers.
By the time Andrew Carnegie died in 1919, he had given away over $350 million dollars. Intrigue, profiteering on human misery and two great wars war also made many a fortunes in this century, one example is the story of Onassis in 70?s, a cunning, ruthless, powerful man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted in business or in pleasure. However, new riches are more connected with new 'information technology'. In the Internet age, new billionaires are being created as result of 'bringing together' not 'breaking apart'.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates may be the richest American now, but a new study finds that Gates ranks only No. 5 on the list of the richest men throughout U.S. history. The survey by American Heritage, a magazine published by Forbes Inc., found that John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, amassed far greater wealth when compared with the size of the U.S. economy of their time.
You've got to have money to make money," the old saying goes. Judging from research, that's still mostly true. The world's wealthiest got even richer this year on paper. Thanks to rebounding stock markets in Asia and Latin America, the new-issue technology boom in the U.S. and pockets of prosperity in Europe. BILL GATES may have had his legal problems over the past year but, financially, things have been going very nicely indeed for the Microsoft chairman. Warren Buffett, number 2 on the list of 99, worth U.S., $36 billion the value investor is still hanging on to Coke and Gillette, but Berkshire's up only 10% over the past year. Intel founder Gordon Moore Net worth: $11 billion author of Moore's Law does not even make it to the list of top ten. His Moor's Law that the power of microchips doubles every 18 months is now being eclipsed by the growth in bandwidth, which is doubling every year. Michael Dell Net worth: $16 billion having staved off competitors trying to copycat his direct-order PC business, young Dell must be getting jumpy again as upstart Internet companies give away PCs.
Strong stock markets and communication revolution is behind the new world's wealthiest. They are for the most part, richer than ever. For the first time since FORBES has tracked billionaires around the globe, their combined net worth surpasses $1 trillion. The U.S. leads the way, but others are catching up. With wealth increasing faster, it's no surprise they found some 465 billionaires, more than ever before. Although Pinpointing an individual's net worth is in some cases as much art as science. Forbes choose to list the 200 richest who are still earning it, or are working hard with what they've inherited. The poorest is worth $1.6 billion. The U.S. accounts for the lion's share of the world's wealth. Seven of the ten richest this year are from this country, up from just two in 1990.
Some folks had better years than others. Bill Gates' net worth jumped 76% from a year ago. One most interesting fact emerges the rate of growth of wealth this year the credit of making fastest million per hour goes also to Bill Gates 5.4 million per hour. Gary Winnick of QWEST, he reached the billion-dollar mark in 18 months?a rate of $1.8 million a day. In the past year, on his march to $100 billion, Bill Gates made $1 billion every eight days. Two other guys also had nice hourly gains. Bill Gates 5.4 mph, Gary Winnick 1.8 mph, Jeffrey Bezos 0.9 mph, Michael Dell 0.8 mph
A comparison to 1990 list gives a good reason to believe the drastic change we have seen in the economic direction of the world, from real estate the emphasis is on 'cyber space'. 'Information is the king', it is no more about commodities, gold or oil, the riches will be made by those who conquer the bandwidth and are rightly placed in the technology of 21st century. In 1990 the list was topped by Japan's speculative land barons and included Paul Reichmann & brothers, Canadian real estate developers of Canary wharf project. The top total wealth of top 200 : $463 billion
10 RICHEST:
1. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, Japan, $16 billion
2. Taikichiro Mori, Japan, $14.6 billion
3. Walton family, U.S., $13.5 billion
4. du Pont family, U.S., $10 billion
5. Hans & Gad Rausing, Sweden, $9.6 billion
6. Kitaro Watanabe, Japan, $9.2 billion
7. Paul Reichmann & brothers, Canada, $9 billion
8. Kenkichi Nakajima, Japan, $8.4 billion
9. Shin Kyuk-ho, Korea, $7.5 billion
10. Eitaro Itoyama, Japan, $5.8 billion
In a decade we have seen a quantum wealth shift: Japan's speculative land barons give way to American innovators. The real asset had lost the attraction, dust to dust may be? The Internet craze and boiling U.S. stock market turn millionaires into "dot.com" billionaires in mere months. Seven of top ten richest are Americans. The total wealth of top ten : $1000 billion
William Gates III., U.S., $90 billion
2. Warren Buffett, U.S., $36 billion
3. Paul Allen, U.S., $30 billion
4. Steven Ballmer, U.S., $19.5 billion
5. Philip Anschutz, U.S., $16.5 billion
6. Michael Dell, U.S., $16.5 billion
7. S. Robson Walton, U.S., $15.8 billion
8. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, Saudi Arabia, $15 billion
9. Theo & Karl Albrecht, Germany, $13.6 billion
10. Li Ka-shing & family, Hong Kong, $12.6 billion
From apparent look of concentration of wealth and direction of gloal economy, the economy of 21st century will be economy of 'cyber space' and nformation based money'. Nations who fail to master those technologies now will be the ?third world? of tomorrow's 21st century. If possession of commodities like Oil, and 'assets' would not secure wealth, than only nations who shall be well placed to take leadership in tomorrow's world will be nations with higher human skills. Software writing and producing nations like India and Malaysia and any nation that produces 'higher quality of human skills' by investing in human capital with emphasis on lot of mathematical skills will lead tomorrow's world. The changing list of billionaires and increase and decline in fortunes of nations, if anything else, makes this message loud and clear. Your populace quality is your biggest capital don't waste it on trivial pursuits..
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