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Aircraft industry on same course despite Boeing deal bluster
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Billionaires are a dime a dozen nowTHEY are a new class of super- rich, the greatest concentration of wealth in history. Now that America's billionaire elite has accumulated more money than it could possibly spend, the question being asked is: what will they do with it? Such speculation has acquired a new urgency after it was disclosed that Forbes, the financial magazine, has dispensed with millionaires altogether in its annual list of the world's richest people. Membership of this club - so large that it cannot be called exclusive any longer - is now restricted to those with 1 000 times as much money as millionaires.
Forbes has unearthed so many billionaires it has space to list only the top 200. The 98 left out almost exactly matches the total billionaire population only 10 years ago. Charitable organisations are beginning to rattle their begging bowls in anticipation of huge donations. If the signs are right, the bullish American economy is heralding an era of philanthropic largesse not seen since the days of the Rockefellers, Mellons and Carnegies. Randolph Jones, chairman of The American Benefactor, a magazine launched this year to appeal to the better instincts of the new rich, says the clue to how these huge fortunes will be disbursed is in the background of the people who have made it. "These are baby boomers who are idealists in the Sixties, idealistic capitalists in the Seventies and Eighties, and are looking to the millennium to bring meaning to their wealth," he says. Charitable giving in the US stands at $150-billion a year, most coming from individuals. Jones estimates that his magazine's readers have a minimum income of $1-million a year. According to the Bank of America, the country now has up to 11-million "mere" millionaires. These are people whose liquid assets - meaning the cash they have even before selling their homes - would total more than $1-million. Their numbers are rising by about 300 a month. "They have plenty of time to look around before deciding how to spend their money," says Jones. "This is a very idealistic generation who will want to make a difference that they can see in their lifetimes."
Bill Gates, the richest man in the world with a personal worth of $38-billion, last month donated $200-million to connect every US library to the Internet. Paul Allen, the $14-billion-worth co-founder with Gates of Microsoft, the software giant, is donating millions to many causes, as did Paul Packard, who created the Packard computer company and on his death left a $7-billion foundation for investigating both scientific and social issues. The worthy, if unspectacular, nature of these donations betrays "techno-nerd" origins. The donors are a far cry from the often brash personalities of the oil and railway barons of a century ago.
Forbes will now only guarantee a place on its list to self-made people, rather than those living on daddy's inheritance. Rising stars include Michael Del, 32, who began selling personal computers at college and is worth $3.3-billion. Another is Kenneth Trout, who was born on a council estate in Illinois and has made $1.4-billion after launching a direct marketing company less than 10 years ago. More traditional figures in the list include the eccentric Ted Turner ($2.2-billion) founder of CNN, who has huge ranch holdings used for conservation. George Soros, the currency speculator, last year spent $2.5-billion on a referendum to legalise marijuana for medical purposes in California and Arizona. Those with share options in technology companies have found themselves with huge and sometimes unexpected windfalls from the explosive Wall Street bull market. In cities such as Seattle, where Microsoft is based, dozens of these new millionaires are retiring in their thirties. Estimates of how many millionaires Microsoft has produced range between 5 000 and 10 000, depending on how much of the stock is held or has been sold. Younger and more idealistic than the baby boomers, these micro-millionaires support smaller community and environmental projects. Meanwhile Forbes predicts the billionaire will be overshadowed soon by the "centibillionaire" -- the first person to be worth more than $100-billion. - Financial Times. Top of page
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