Are you rich or poor ! - when someone talks about Biscuit, if your mind wanders of that glistening yellow metal ! and the nos. you have – you are !! – and if one thinks of the brittle famous (or otherwise) Marie cookies - that you relish with cup of hot tea – you are !! - how good was the last month for you ?
Billionaires at the top of the Forbes list had a pretty good December—at least in terms of their stockholdings. As of January 1, 2024, seven of the world’s top 10 richest people are wealthier than they were a month ago! Their fortunes collectively rose by $30 billion during December—a much smaller jump than the $115 billion rise during November 2023. One of the biggest gainers —Mark Zuckerberg—leaped into the No. 5 spot, up from No. 7 richest in the world on December 1. He now ranks ahead of Bill Gates, who for years was the world’s richest person.
Forbes has been keeping track of the world’s billionaires since 1987. Earlier this year, they found 2,640 of them for their annual list. Throughout the year, Forbes updates their fortunes on a daily basis. Many billionaires hold much of their net worth in the stock of the company they founded or cofounded. As that stock price moves, their fortune moves along with it.
Together the world’s 10 richest people, according to Forbes, are worth $1.47 trillion as of the strike of midnight on January 1—up from $1.44 trillion a month ago. The two biggest gainers in the past month (in dollar terms) were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault; each is up $9.4 billion compared with December 1 due to increases in the share price of their respective companies.
Elon Musk is still the world’s richest person, worth $251 billion. The CEO of electric carmaker Tesla, Musk also owns stakes in privately held rocket firm SpaceX and social media company X, formerly known as Twitter.
For most of the first half of 2023, French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault was the world’s richest person, per Forbes—but that changed on June 8, 2023, when Musk overtook Arnault to become No. 1 in the world again. As of January 1, Arnault still ranks No. 2 richest, worth an estimated $200.7 billion. Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH, has built the company into a giant with more than 70 brands, from Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior to Tiffany & Co. and Sephora.
Jeff Bezos is rich. This much we know to be true. But exactly how rich he is, and how his wealth compares to the 7.594 billion people in the world (minus one) who aren’t Jeff Bezos is difficult to fathom. Trying to comprehend it usually involves one of those descriptions of eternity where a bird sharpens its beak on a mountain every thousand years until the rock is worn away, except in this case the mountain is made of money and the scratches represent the average annual income of an American worker.
In our school days, as we walked unhurriedly in the streets
(life has changed, most parents now are late by 5 mins or so and rush to
schools in a 2 wheeler, blaring horn and cursing everyone!) – there were shops
on the road, on wheels and shops in buildings.
We deciphered that one owning a shop on a building was richer and
thought that the son / daughter of the
shop selling biscuits was the luckiest one !
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The Marie biscuit was created by the London bakery Peek Freans in 1874 to commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh. It became popular throughout Europe, particularly in Portugal and Spain where, following the Civil War, the biscuit became a symbol of the country's economic recovery after bakeries produced mass quantities to consume a surplus of wheat.
With regards – S Sampathkumar
20.1.2024
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