Monday, March 16, 2009

Billionaires got richer in 2008

The Wealth Report - WSJ
These Billionaires Actually Got Richer in 2008.

* Mayor Mike. Who says government is bad for wealth? Financial-data king and New York City Mayor Michael Blomberg added $4.5 billion to his fortune to rack up a net worth of $16 billion. Forbes doesn’t really give a reason, saying only that it is due to a “re-evaulation” of his company after he bought out Merrill’s stake in news and information provider Bloomberg LP.

* John Paulson. The hedge funder’s Advantage Fund rose 38%, doubling his fortune to $6 billion.

* Jim Simons. The hedge funder’s Medallion Fund surged 80% last year, using “complex algorithms,” giving Mr. Simons a $2.5 billion boost to $8 billion.

* Tadashi Yanai. Japan’s richest guy and his family gained $2.6 billion from their discount clothing business, Fast Retailing.

* George Soros. The king of gloom and doom added $2 billion to his war chest and now has a net worth of $11 billion, largely with bearish bets at his hedge fund.

* John Arnold. The fresh-faced head of Centaurus Energy is said to be up 80% this year, kicking his net up $1.2 billion to $2.7 billion. He now is moving into hard assets like power plants and storage facilities.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Monday, March 02, 2009

A VC

I found this fascinating quote today:



3) Berkshire's two most important businesses are insurance and utilities, sectors that "produce earnings that are not correlated to those of the general economy."A VC, Mar 2009 You should read the whole article.