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…at least for some…

[quote]Castro worth $900 million: Forbes

Its good to be King!

By Michele Gershberg Thu May 4, 7:09 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cuban President
Fidel Castro was furious when Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $550 million last year. This year, the magazine upped its estimate of the communist leader’s wealth to a cool $900 million.
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Castro, who says his net worth is nil, is likely the beneficiary of up to $900 million, based on his control of state-owned companies, the U.S. financial magazine said in its annual tally of “Kings, Queens & Dictators” fortunes on Thursday.

Kings and sheikhs of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states still top the Forbes list, to be published in its May 22 edition.

Saudi King Abdullah is number one with an estimated $21 billion, followed by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei at $20 billion and United Arab Emirates’ President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan at $19 billion.

Among Europeans, Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein improved upon his family fortune of palaces, real estate and artwork with an investment in a U.S. producer of hybrid rice, for total estimated riches of $4 billion.

Perhaps the most industrious of the leaders listed is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, with a net worth of $14 billion.

Forbes estimates the renowned racehorse breeder also helped raise Dubai’s gross domestic product from about $8 billion to nearly $40 billion since 1994 by diversifying its industries outside of oil and making successful investments overseas.

“He would probably be the shrewdest of the bunch,” said Luisa Kroll, associate editor at Forbes.

Africa’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea, made the list of wealthiest leaders for the first time. He is estimated to hold up to $600 million, the magazine said, although an oil boom has not prevented his country’s slide down the
United Nations’ development rankings.

Castro had said he was considering suing after Forbes released its 2005 list, scoffing then his wealth was estimated to be close to that of the queen of England.

“Do they think I am (former Zairian President) Mobutu (Sese Seko) or one of the many millionaires, those thieves and plunderers that the empire has suckled and protected?” he said last year, referring to his capitalist archenemy, Washington.

This year, Castro would be well above the British monarch. Queen Elizabeth came in with some $500 million in estates, gems and a stamp collection built by her grandfather. The list does not include Buckingham Palace or the crown jewels.

A copy of the list, compiled by Forbes editors and not confirmed by the royals themselves, was released on Thursday.

“People are always intrigued. What is the ultimate fantasy but being a rich princess or prince?” said Kroll, who edits the magazine’s annual list of global billionaires.

“We keep it separate from the billionaires because there are some very tricky things about these folks,” Kroll said. “It’s very hard to separate state from personal wealth. Some of these fortunes literally go back 800 years.”
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060504/ts_ … ulers_dc_1[/quote]

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It really starts and ends right there, don’t you think? :unamused:

HG

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So many mindless lefties… Castro, Carter, Chavez… who do we hope goes first…

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I bought a lottery ticket the other day and I’m clearly the likely beneficiary of a squillion dollars. Care to loan me a million or two to see me through a temporary cashflow problem?

HG

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A million or two? My God that is more than I spend on Champagne every year…

FS V

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…

Hmmmm…

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Ah yes but that’s because you gulp that M

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Sure does.

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[quote=“Richardm”]
Sure does.[/quote]
graphic from “http://www.giveitupcheney.org”…LOL…uhh…that would be Capitalism which history has confirmed does indeed work…thanks for the help!.. :smiley:

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I thought capitalism was based on competition.

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Wow! Richardm, can you be my stock broker? I see you research is coming along nicely.

HG

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[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Wow! Richardm, can you be my stock broker? I see you research is coming along nicely.

HG[/quote]
I can get you some good deals. As long as you don’t mind causing about 40,000 people to be blown up.

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Spare me the liberal concsience and lead me to the money, baby! Anyway, as you said, it’s likely less than .00001 person/per share. What price my happiness?

HG

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Ha, that’s peanuts. Forget socialism; the Catholic Church is where the money’s at. The Pope is the richest person in history based on his control of church-owned properties.

[quote]The Vatican has large investments with the Rothschilds of Britain, France and America, with the Hambros Bank, with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. In the United States it has large investments with the Morgan Bank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank, the First National Bank of New York, the Bankers Trust Company, and others. The Vatican has billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc. . .

the Boston archdiocese listed its assets at Six Hundred and Thirty-five Million ($635,891,004) . . . It is not difficult to discover the truly astonishing wealth of the church, once we add the riches of the twenty-eight archdioceses and 122 dioceses of the U.S.A., some of which are even wealthier than that of Boston. . .

Some idea of the real estate and other forms of wealth controlled by the Catholic church may be gathered by the remark of a member of the New York Catholic Conference, namely 'that his church probably ranks second only to the United States Government in total annual purchase . . .

The Vatican’s treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. . .

The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars. . .[/quote]
chick.com/reading/books/153/153_10.asp

It’s good to be Pope. :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

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Yes, but how many people does the Pope have locked up being tortured in the basement of the Vatican? How many Italians does the Pope shoot for trying to leave the Catholic Church?

Here, once again, we see this disturbing trend, this need to apologize for the worst sort of perpetrators of violence, the worst sort of individuals who bring such suffering to millions. Why? Take any objective standard. Examine Cuba’s record. It continually scores at the very bottom of human rights indexes, political and economic freedoms, etc. Why would anyone feel the need to defend such a regime? Why?

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Well that’s good news, I should be able to stick him for some [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/im-having-fabios-baby/27665/6 alimony.[/url]

HG