Gates loses No. 1 spot in net worth

[Nomad559]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/04/news/newsmakers/ikea_founder.reut/index.htm

Ingvar Kamprad, the Swede who founded furniture retail chain IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man, Swedish TV news reported on Sunday.

Citing next week's edition of the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affarer, public service SVT2 television said Kamprad, 77, has a personal fortune of 400 billion crowns ($53 billion).

Gates's fortune is put at $47 billion, according to the latest list of the world's rich in U.S. Forbes magazine, SVT2 said.

Kamprad, known for frugal habits such as flying economy class, lives in Switzerland and no longer takes part in the daily running of IKEA, but has kept ownership of the company with more than 180 stores in over 30 countries in the family.

SVT2 said the dollar's slide against other currencies is the main reason why Kamprad has now overtaken Gates.

[neoteric lefty]

1. yeah

the dollar is worth so little compared to the european currencies. No worry though. My spot as #1,376,163,734 is safely in hand.

[Bucky]

3. HA!! I'm way up at #1,203,413,606

That makes you my beeyatch!

[neoteric lefty]

4. well, i guess

Kerry is gonna raise your taxes, you "top-one-percent"er. Eat that! :)

[democraticgator]

9. great sig line pic neoteric lefty..........

[IronLionZion]

2. The dollar has tumbled a good bit

and using it in Iraq hasn't helped. You know what would suck royally? If OPEC switches to the Euro. Then we'd have to invade another oil country.

[Rick Myers]

5. Hell, we're in the neighborhood anyway...

Let's take Saudi Arabia!!!

:evilgrin:

[IronLionZion]

6. Ha, they are a bigger threat to us then Iraq

so why not?

[pagerbear]

15. I read an article suggesting just that

That one reason our friends in DC wanted to control the world oil industry is to keep more oil countries from switching to the euro. Iraq under Saddam had switched to the euro--guess it's back to the dollar now!

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Well...

so much for the argument that Socialist welfare states like Sweden destroy initiative and keep everyone equally poor.

[Kellanved]

10. well, he lives in Switzerland

But the argument is Bogus anyway. There are several Europeans in the Forbes list, some are not even living in a tax shelter like Switzerland.
The statistics are pretty clear: the dish-washer turned millionaire -story is way more likely to happen in an European country than in the US.

My problem with the IKEA guy is his extreme right past.

[nuxvomica]

11. Ha ha. Good point.

:D

[Frederic Bastiat]

16. FWIW Sweden drastically cut corporate taxes during the 90's

Their economy was in full meltdown mode. Google it.

[Sandpiper]

8. If Sam Walton were still alive

He'd be #1 by a comfortable margin.

After his death his estate was divided among his wife and four children, each of which now has a personal fortune of $17.5 billion.

So, if Mr. Walmart were alive today, he'd be worth $87.5 billion.

[jmowreader]

14. Assuming he took on the business practices of his heirs, that is

Sam Walton wasn't nearly as predatory as his heirs.

[President Jesus]

12. Bill Gates campaign contributions in detail

interesting list...not quite sure what to make of it
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=WA&last=Gates&first=William

[FDRrocks]

13. How Ironic

Gates got rich off of making crappy software... Kamprad got rich off of making crappy furniture.