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Investment guru with the world on his sh... High-flying market maker gets too close ... |
'Richest' Gates not richest after allOLD money really is bigger money in America, according to a new study which claims that Microsoft's Bill Gates is a relative pauper compared with illustrious names from the past. Gates, the richest man alive, comes fifth behind John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor in a table of the 40 richest Americans. His $61.7-billion fortune is less than one-third of the wealth attributed to Rockefeller. Only two other people on the list are alive. Investment guru Warren Buffett is 13th with $34.2-billion, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is 22nd with $25.4 billion. The list, compiled in a book by Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther and previewed in Forbes American Heritage magazine, uses a formula comparing the original value of an individual's wealth to the size of the US economy at the time. It calculates Rockefeller's $900-million fortune in 1913 at $190-billion in today's money, compared with $101-billion for steel magnate Carnegie, $95.9-billion for shipping and railroad pioneer Vanderbilt and fur trade and property tycoon Astor's $78-billion. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, founded in 1870, controlled 90% of America's oil business by 1881. Rockefeller gave most of his wealth away, keeping only $20-million for himself. But, in 1913, Standard Oil Trust was broken up after it was successfully claimed to be an illegal monopoly. Gates has built a 90% share of the computer operating systems market but faces an anti-trust trial next month. - The Telegraph. Top of page
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