-Caveat Lector-
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Tatman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> MICHAEL SPITZER <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > The ranking of the world's richest people as estimated by
> > Forbes magazine, excluding dictators and royalty [added in
> > further below]. Listings include name, home country, wealth in
> > billions of dollars and source of wealth, where available.
>
> Do you realize how many of these billionaires have acquired their
> fortunes in just the past five years?? I haven't taken the time to
> count them, but there are at least a dozen in Internet services
> alone... And add in the news media barons, like Murdoch and Turner...
> They are, quite literally, *creating* money out of electrons.
Or, out of stocks and options. For instance, Bill Gates doesn't
have US$100 bln laying about; rather, he holds a majority of the
shares of MS stock that were issued when he started the company,
and some small percentage of the remaining shares now trade at
such a price, that his shares are COMPUTED to be worth US$100 bln
[give or take a few bill, fluctuating daily.] Same with other
dot-coms and media-magnates - were they to cash-in their shares,
they'd provoke a panic that'd drop the perceived values by 90%.
So, the basis of their wealth is precisely the same as the basis
of all commercial valuations - someone/something is worth about
what you THINK they're worth. I think Fuji apples are worth the
59 cents per pound CostCo charges; somebody else thinks they're
worth the 99 cents that SafeWay charges; we're both right, in
our contexts. I think Bill Gates is worth jackshit; somebody
else thinks he's worth 100 bill; we're both right, in context.
So, people don't create *money* out of electrons, they create
*perceptions*. It's bankers who create *money*, by lending more
than they have on deposit - but that's another issue, eh?
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