There is a growing chasm between the haves and have nots.  Our world is quickly growing to emulate that of those stories written about in The Tale of Two Cities and other books documenting income inequality.  Some billionaires built real empires based on good, sound business practices … however – for so many … they made it due to rigging the game.  And just think about that … 424 people are equal to 10% of the United States Gross Domestic Product.  That’s just obscene.  To put it another way – the 6 heirs of Sam Walton’s fortune (Wal Mart’s founder) are worth more than the bottom 30% of Americans combined).  That’s insane.

Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management writes HERE:

America’s billionaires have also survived the financial crisis relatively unscathed. Whereas the Japanese tycoons who preceded them were felled as a group by Japan’s crisis in the early 1990s, the top US billionaires rose to dominate the global top 10 in the last 20 years and they held those positions despite the American-born crisis of 2008. That suggests that the Americans were much better at adapting to catastrophic global upheaval. Indeed what stands out on the US list is that the greatest and most stable fortunes have been generated by independent and innovative leaders who founded exactly the kind of productive companies (particularly Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway and Walmart) that would make any economy, developed or emerging, more globally competitive.

***Update: This has been updated to reflect 424 Billionaires – not 37 Billionaires.

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