Carlos Slim continues to slam Buffett, Gates on markets
Let’s get all the stereotypes out in the open: when you think wealthy Latin American, you think drug kingpin. Of course you do; it’s what movies have told us to believe, time and again.
Yet perhaps the latest shuffling among the world’s top power brokers will change our unfair perceptions, once and for all.
Because Carlos Slim, the self-made Mexican tycoon, is blowing the rest of the world’s billionaires out of the water.
According to a report released this week by Bloomberg, mining and communications giant Slim has outgained the Western world’s more famous billionaires on the stock market for the second straight year.
Slim’s publicly disclosed holdings spiked about 37 per cent in 2010, boosting his fortune to a staggering US$70 billion. The other top fat cats – Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett (22 per cent gains) and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (a slight loss, Bloomberg’s data says) – couldn’t keep pace last year.
What Slim’s ascension among the top billionaire rankings says about his business chops may also reflect how the world may be viewing Mexico as an investment hub.
Indeed, Slim leapfrogged both Buffett and Gates last year to become Forbes’ richest man in the world, and his second-straight year of whopping growth is doing no disservice to his home country. Where once other population-rich nations appeared to be the next big thing in investment circles, Mexico has quietly positioned itself quite nicely among them.
“Slim is in for a very good year,” Walter Molano, head of research at BCP Securities Inc., told Bloomberg about 2011. “With China overheating, and clearly Brazil looking like a very crowded trade, people are starting to look at Mexico as an alternative.”
Mexico will be “the emerging market of 2011,” Molano added.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: SP | Feb 3, 2022 5:39:46 PM
Look into how much Carlos Slim makes out of the Mexican Cell Phone market and you quickly begin to see where Rogers and Bell get their ideas from. A country where 95+ million people live in abject poverty with a few Billionaires that leave European wealthy families in the dust. Tunisia had a very rich man too a few weeks ago.
Posted by: rob | Feb 3, 2022 11:09:06 PM
Did these net worth comparisons and % annual account for charitable donations over the previous year (saying Bill Gates took a loss when he probably gave billions away is a bit misrepresenting) the fact that Carlos Slim is amassing such a ridiculous fortune in a country where his local citizens are starving is actually a bit disgusting.
Posted by: Quarmby | Feb 4, 2022 12:48:32 PM
Anyone that actually followed the meteoric rise of Carlos Slim, would be aware that he is not much different from a druglord, save that at least druglords are honest about where their fortunes come from. Were it not for the fact that he accumulated his wealth in one of the most corrupt and socially unbalanced countries on earth (this should tell you something about his character), which he could never have accomplished in a truly democratic and lawful country, he would be running a 7-11 in Pokipsie.
Posted by: greg | Feb 7, 2022 2:10:55 PM
I sense that Quarmby is poor and upset that he never acquired much welath.
Posted by: Quarmby | Feb 7, 2022 6:07:41 PM
Actually I'm very content, financially and otherwise thankyou Greg. Either you work for Slim as a lackie, or haven't a clue as to how he actually accumulated his wealth.
Posted by: Superich | Feb 7, 2022 9:24:39 PM
I would not attack someones character just for winning or making the most money.
If we can get over the jealosy factor and figure a way to encourage billionaires to re-invest their weath without taxing them, then why not use their experience and knowledge to perhaps create more employment/empowerment of the common person.
If we target the rich simply for being 'rich' then we run the risks of communism which only stifles innovation and prosperity.
On the other hand capitalism has not been proven to work so well in developing nations either.
Posted by: Steve | Feb 8, 2022 12:24:51 PM
"risks of communism" You'll need expand on that a bit. Cuba is under an embargo (as was much of the USSR). In fact, come to think of it Communism is working just fine for many many Chinese whereas "Capitalism" for the poor and Socialism for the rich as we have in Canada/USA/Mexico/UK/Brazil etc etc etc, doesn't seem to be working well for us or for the people in Egypt or even Tunisia.