Willy Stanley, in his New York Times article, discusses a real life money issue – How many billionaires are there actually? He analyzes different media outlet’s numbers and tries to make sense of them, but one thing’s for sure – the number of billionaires is rapidly growing. His article, “How Many Billionaires Are There, Anyway?”, begins as follows:
In 1981, Malcolm Forbes, the eccentric and fabulously wealthy magazine publisher, came to his editors with a request: Could they pull together a special issue about the 400 richest Americans? The idea was inspired by Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the doyenne of Gilded Age New York, who regularly hosted the city’s high society in her Fifth Avenue ballroom, which was said to fit about 400 people. It’s quite possible Forbes saw something of himself in Astor. This was a different era of magazine publishing; Forbes — who wound up making the cut on his own list — lived like a sultan. He entertained celebrities and politicians on a 126-foot yacht called the Highlander. By the end of his run he owned a chateau in Normandy, 12 Fabergé eggs and a collection of hot-air balloons in fantastical designs — one shaped like the Sphinx, one like a bust of Beethoven, one like a Fabergé egg, one like the chateau in Normandy and, of course, one in the image of a sultan, about as tall as his yacht was long.
To see the full article, click: “How Many Billionaires Are There, Anyway?”
Posted by Mallory Wentz, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.
Wealth Strategies Journal 