Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011, reporting on the Forbes billionaires list of that month. The rankings and fortunes, with Slim first and Ortega seventh, are 2011 data and have changed many times since.
Forbes has once again put together its list of the 10 richest men in the world, the 10 biggest fortunes on the planet. The top three spots have barely changed, with Mexico’s Carlos Slim holding first place again.
Spain’s own Amancio Ortega (Inditex) has moved up the ranking. In 2010 he was in ninth place, and in 2011 he’s up to seventh.
As a curious and striking detail, and one that confirms the saying that the rich keep getting richer, every single one of them has increased their fortune by a few billion despite the crisis. I suspect that if we asked them whether they’d noticed the crisis, their answer would be: “Crisis? What crisis?”
Another fact reported by Forbes is that if Bill Gates hadn’t made his donations to philanthropic causes, he would top the list of the richest with $83 billion.
Featured image: Imperio Reséndiz (Presidencia de la República), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
