Adapted from last week's Daily Telegraph (!!)
Bill Gates has been confirmed as the world's first $100 billion man after
the surge in American shares made his 21 per cent holding in Microsoft worth
more than 12 figures.
With each of the 1,031,555,600 shares in the software company he co-founded
in 1975 worth $98.5 (about £62), Mr Gates's personal fortune now exceeds the
economic output of all but the 18 wealthiest nations.
For every hour of the past year Mr Gates made about $4,566,000 and if his
wealth continues to grow at the 61 per cent compound annual rate it has
enjoyed so far, he will become the world's first trillionaire, worth
$1,000,000,000,000 in 2004.
His personal fortune is more than twice as much as all the $1 bills in
circulation.
The 43-year-old's riches - are already worth more than the gross domestic
products of Singapore and Israel
If the Harvard drop-out was to stash his cash in dollar bills under the
mattress in the $56 million "smart" home on Lake Washington, near Seattle,
where he lives he would have to parachute 16 miles down to his bedroom floor
every morning.
The United Kingdom's gross national product in 1997 was $1,220 billion,
according to preliminary figures from the World Bank. If Mr Gates's wealth
continues its relentless rise, it will overtake Britain's output in 2005.
His $101,608,226,600 share holding in Microsoft is worth the same as the
annual output of 4.9 million Britons.
(No doubt sales of Powerpoint have added directly to these astonishing
figures).
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RGS Economics: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/geoff.riley/
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