Wealth of Worlds Billionaires Surges Past $7 Trillion in 2015.
(1)The combined net worth of the worlds billionaires has reached a new high in 2015 of $7.05 trillion, according to the latest compilation published by Forbes magazine on Monday.
There are a record 1,826 billionaires, each with an average wealth of $3.8 billion. Relative to last year, the worlds billionaires have increased their combined wealth by more than 10 percent, from $6.4 trillion in 2014, while the total number of billionaires has grown by 11 percent.
(2)At the top of the list of billionaires in the US are familiar names, including Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, whose individual wealth alone surged by $3.2 billion, to $79.2 billion. Among Americans, Gates was followed by investor Warren Buffet, the lists biggest gainer for the year, who now has a net worth of $72.7 billion, up $14.5 billion from last year.
Further down the list, one finds individuals like hedge fund manager Steven Cohen, a personification of the essentially criminal character of American capitalism. A year ago, Cohens former hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges. Cohen himself was never charged, and he simply transferred his fortune to a new firm, Point72 Asset Management. Cohen made $1.3 billion last year, bringing his total net worth to $11.4 billion.
3)Overall, the country with the second largest number of billionaires is China, with 213, followed by Germany, India and Russia.
China, which remains a cheap labor platform for world capitalism, is home to 71 of the 290 billionaires on the Forbes list this year, or about a quarter of the total. The richest individual in China is Wang Jianlin ($24.2 billion), a real estate magnate, followed by Jack Ma ($22.7 billion), the founder of Alibaba Group, an Internet trading company.
4)A surge in equity markets in China last year has benefited not only Chinese billionaires. Forbes commented, If you invested in the companies run by billionaires on the top 20 China billionaire list, youre tracking their wealth right into your brokerage account. The initial public offering of Alibaba last year became an international spectacle of speculation and greed, netting global investors tens of billions in profits.
5)On India, Forbes commented that the countrys 90 billionaires are riding high on Prime Minister Narendra Modis promise of good times. The right-wing Hindu fundamentalist politician, elected last year, has quickly pushed through a raft of pro-business measures, while promoting the country as the worlds sweat shop.
The richest Indian is Mukesh Ambani (net worth of $21 billion), the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited. About 60 percent of the population in India, or 750 million people, live on less than $2 a day.
6)Russia has seen a significant decline in the number of billionaires, from 111 to 88, dropping from third to fifth on the overall list of countries. This is one result of the economic crisis that has engulfed the country, due to the sharp drop in oil prices and crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. One of the primary aims of these sanctions is to encourage a section of the Russian oligarchs, fearful of the impact on their wealth, to turn against the government of Vladimir Putin.
