https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#1071f979251c

Thanks to all you FBAers out there, he has overtaken Bill Gates.

Americans lead the way with a record 585 billionaires, followed by mainland China with 373. Centi-billionaire Jeff Bezos secures the list’s top spot for the first time, becoming the only person to appear in the Forbes ranks with a 12-figure fortune. Bezos’s fortune leapt more than $39 billion, the list’s biggest one-year gain ever. He moves ahead of Bill Gates, who is now number 2. It is the biggest gap between no. 1 and 2 since 2001.

Edited March 6, 20187 yr by Val-E

Waddoman is the only guy in this thread who knows what he is talking about.  I find it surprising that out of all the replies not one mentions the outsized and unquenchable demand for 'other people's money' that government has.  Instead we talk about how we can squeeze more taxes out of the already overly squeezed.  Anybody believes that government being 50% of GDP is even sustainable hasn't read much history.  The real talk should be how government can be reduced and what programs go on the chopping block.  And this is a problem throughout the western hemisphere, not just several random countries.

 

Won't happen though, nothing will get done until the crisis.  Interest rates are a direct barometer of people's willingness to lend money to government long term.  Has nothing to do with inflation or any other fey Central Bank explanations.  When people realize the risk and price in lack of confidence the resulting 8% 10 year bond that will be responsible for swamping Bezos and his loser company Amazon will kick the crap out of every government in the western hemisphere and reduce them to ashes.  The western world had a choice ten years ago to go down the other fork in the road.  Instead it doubled down on moral hazard and kept on heading to stupid town.  Well good luck with that.  Ten years ago we could have lost an arm, maybe a foot.  Where we end up now there wont be a limb left.  Including the head.   

On 3/6/2018 at 7:29 AM, donbee said:

That’s because Gates gives away billions of his fortune every year.
Bezos literally only gives millions.

Bezos is giving ALOT more than that. Bezos is spending billions of his own money building his own rocket launch complex and developing infrastructure that will allow the NEXT generation of entrepreneurs to take advantage of very cheap off planet transportation. His vision is to make earth a park and take manufacturing off planet. Just as he and his company benefited immensely from the already developed highway and aircraft transportation systems on earth he is donating his talents and energies to put all of that in place for the next generation to exploit almost limitless energy and resources in our solar system where the only roadblock is the massive expense to get off planet. 

We are entering the next phase as a human race where government becomes less important and private enterprise takes over almost everything. Musk, Bezos and Branson are leading the way in space, not NASA. Bezos, Dimon and Buffet are also going to revolutionize healthcare in the USA. 

To help others you must make it first. Gates made it along time ago. Bezos is just getting started.

 

I'm still waiting for my cake.