Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world

[Posty]

He had a good run tho

MEXICO CITY — Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest man, worth an estimated $67.8 billion, after overtaking Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, according to a respected tracker of Mexican financial wealth on Monday.
A 27 percent surge in the share price of America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone operator controlled by Slim, from March to June made him close to $8.6 billion wealthier than Gates, said Eduardo Garcia in Sentido Comun, the online financial publication he founded.

Garcia estimated that Gates was worth $59.2 billion.

Forbes magazine reported in April that Slim had overtaken billionaire investor Warren Buffett for the No. 2 spot in the world's richest stakes but was still behind Gates.

Mexico has a huge rich-poor divide, with a tiny elite holding most of the country's wealth and around half the population living on less than $5 a day.

Forbes bumped up Slim because gains from his holding company Carso and fixed-line telecom Telmex added to the Mexican's fortune while shares of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. fell in the same period.
Three months ago, Sentido Comun's Garcia begged to differ with Forbes and calculated Slim's wealth as more than Gates' — but only by a whisker. Now he says there is no doubt whose fortune is bigger at current share values.

"When I put Slim ahead three months ago Forbes bumped him up to second place (in world rankings) a few days later," Garcia, also the publication's editor-in-chief, told Reuters. "Let's see if the same happens again."

Spokespeople at Forbes magazine were not immediately available for comment.

Garcia, who uses Forbes' calculations for U.S. billionaires' wealth, says the 5.7 percent increase in Microsoft share prices in the second quarter is no match for the sharp rise in valuations of Slim's companies.

Shares of Telmex in the second quarter rose 11 percent and Slim's bank, Inbursa, saw its stock advance 20 percent.

Garcia's Sentido Comun, which translates as "common sense," reckons Slim and his family own a fortune equivalent to 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product.

For Gates to be worth 8 percent of the U.S. economy, his fortune would have to grow to more than $13 trillion, 17 times his current wealth, according to Sentido Comun.

Slim, known for his Midas touch in turning around struggling businesses and turning them into profit-making machines, told Reuters in an interview this year he was not in the habit of calculating his fortune on a regular basis.

Slim and his chief spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub were not immediately available for comment.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287936,00.html

 

[Kreeeee]

Repost.

 

[daven1986]

yeah but gates is/will be giving his money away via his charity...

 

[MrSix]

I actually can't comprehend that amount of money.

I would LOVE to have that much cash. For all of those who say money can't buy happyness, I'd sure as hell give it a try.

 

[dirtybeatfreak]

tbh i know it sounds silly but, i dont think people should be allowed to have that much money, they will never ever spend it even just 1 billion u could spend spend spend and prob not get through it (unless you were ridiculous for the sake of it)...just seems silly, 50 billion could clear a countries debts or improve an economy tenfold.

 

[andy@moFo]

Mate, the pressure that would come with all that money would be uncontrolable. Having to look over your shoulder 24/7 and never being by yourself. I would quite easily adapt to the life of a millionaire without a shadow of a doubt but a billionaire.. I think its a position of power and wealth in which i wouldnt like to find myself in.

 

[dirtybeatfreak]

yea thats a good point of view, i hadnt thought about it like that, still think they should be made to give it away or whatnot

 

[MrSix]

Mate, the pressure that would come with all that money would be uncontrolable. Having to look over your shoulder 24/7 and never being by yourself. I would quite easily adapt to the life of a millionaire without a shadow of a doubt but a billionaire.. I think its a position of power and wealth in which i wouldnt like to find myself in.

I would buy an army and have them camp in my back garden...because I could afford to

 

[SK07]

Too much cash, Bill Gates doesn't even spend it like you would think he would. He gives a lot to charity though, but then again with his over-priced operating systems no wonder.

 

[A2Z]

Repost.

 

[Fraggr]

Too much cash, Bill Gates doesn't even spend it like you would think he would. He gives a lot to charity though, but then again with his over-priced operating systems no wonder.

He's given over half his current wealth of $60bn or so to charity.

 

[Nash]

Their figures don't add up:

Garcia estimated that Gates was worth $59.2 billion.

For Gates to be worth 8 percent of the U.S. economy, his fortune would have to grow to more than $13 trillion, 17 times his current wealth, according to Sentido Comun.

$59.2 billion multiplied by 17 isn't $13 trillion, not even close, more like $1 trillion.

There's also this rubbish:

Garcia's Sentido Comun, which translates as "common sense," reckons Slim and his family own a fortune equivalent to 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product.

In that comparison, this Slim fella is worth what Mexico produces in goods and services (in a year, it can be assumed).

The comparison they did with Gates isn't the same. For starters they said worth of the whole economy, that's a stock and not a flow like GDP. American GDP per year is something like $13 trillion.

They're misusing words to make America seem better :\

 

[krisboats]

I wonder if bill gates's pc will run crysis?

 

[snowdog]

Mate, the pressure that would come with all that money would be uncontrolable. Having to look over your shoulder 24/7 and never being by yourself. I would quite easily adapt to the life of a millionaire without a shadow of a doubt but a billionaire.. I think its a position of power and wealth in which i wouldnt like to find myself in.

Pfff why get in public stuff anyhow, just build your own racetrack in your backyard, and race with bugatti's on it .
Then buy my own rocket and go built my own private space station, complete with x64 & windows compatible mainframe (for gaming ).
Dancing naked girls in every corner of my house.
Hell, I think I wouldn't even have enough with 60 billion, with all my wishes.
I'd be buying the most expensive stuff possible, rockets for everyday travel @ faster than sound speeds, space station stuff, personal military collection, as many weed & alcohol and stuff as i want, my own private 18 lane motorway to my home, design&build my own planes etc, private maglev trains, personal game studio with thousands of geeks workign form e makign the perfect computer game of my likings, hundres of simulators for diff stuff, I doub't I'd ever run out of ideas what to do with my money.
Why look behind my shoulder, I can afford a whole army to protect me, i can buy a tank and drive around in it.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

I wonder if bill gates's pc will run crysis?

i rekon it will.

 

[dbmzk1]

tbh i know it sounds silly but, i dont think people should be allowed to have that much money, they will never ever spend it even just 1 billion u could spend spend spend and prob not get through it (unless you were ridiculous for the sake of it)...just seems silly, 50 billion could clear a countries debts or improve an economy tenfold.

Why not, so long as they didn't steal it then they earned it or inherited it fair and square. What's wrong with that?

Oh and I could EASILY spend a billion, believe me!