Bill Gates knocked off the top spot in the ‘World’s Richest’ rankings

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US investment guru Warren Buffett has beaten his friend and occasional card playing partner Bill Gates to the title of the world’s richest man - according to the most recent Forbes ‘Rich List’.

The Microsoft co-founder had topped the Forbes business magazine’s rich-list for the past 13 years, but Mr Buffett’s wealth increased by $10bn last year to $62bn.  Mr Gates’s fortune climbed by $2bn during the same period, putting him down to third on the list with a fortune of $58bn. He was narrowly squeezed from second place by the Mexican communications magnate Carlos Slim Helu, whose $60bn net worth has doubled in the past two years.

Does the growth of mega wealth excite or disturb you?  The background to the spectacular rise of the new hyper rich offers some reasons to be cheerful.  According to Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes magazine, “The reason for this explosion in wealth is that we’re in the midst of a phenomenal global boom.  Never before in human history have so many people in so many parts of the world advanced so quickly economically as has happened in recent years.”

Furthermore, two-thirds of those on the list are classified as self-made billionaires, and 50 of them are under the age of 40.

The world’s richest woman is the French L’Oreal chief, Liliane Bettencourt, 17th on the Forbes list with a net wealth of $22.9bn. Mark Zuckerberg, 23, the founder of the social networking site Facebook, joins the list as the world’s youngest billionaire. His $1.5bn fortune makes him only the world’s 785th richest person, poor chap.  Other inclusions in the ultra-rich list include US chat-show host Oprah Winfrey, ($2.5bn) and Harry Potter author JK Rowling ($1bn).

A final reason not to envy and loathe Buffett and Gates is their proven determination to give away nearly all the money they have made.  It’s odd to hear the international aid community complaining of being almost swamped by the spending power of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Mr Buffett also contributes.

The BBC reports on the new list of the world’s richest people

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