How do the richest Americans compare to the richest people worldwide?
That’s a fascinating question, and one that points to a tremendous amount of flux at the moment. For two decades, Americans have dominated the Forbes companion list of the World’s Richest People. But other nationalities are catching up fast. Americans accounted for 44 percent of the world’s richest people in 2007, but that’s down 3 percent from a year before. The list currently includes billionaires from 53 countries, which shows the growing globalization of wealth. The top 20, who accounted for an eye-popping $537 billion among them, came from 11 different countries. (The list does not include royals and dictators, or anyone who makes his or her money directly from the state.) And just as Americans make their money in increasingly varied ways, so too do the world’s billionaires. Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim Helu, the second richest man in the world after Bill Gates–some claim he has now surpassed Gates–made his fortune in banking, construction, mining, auto parts, real estate, in
