Quantitative Comparison of the Billionaires in the Forbes Hall of Fame

In 1982, Forbes published its first ever list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Daniel Keith Ludwig topped this first list with a $2 billion fortune; see the review by Kilachand, Ref. [1]. Ludwig built tankers for the US during World War II and is also credited with building the first supertanker. Thirty six (36) members from the 1982 list, Warren Buffett including, are still among the richest Americans. The full list of 36 may be found in Table 1. Their average net worth in 2012 is $7.1 billion, up from $359 million (or $1.4 billion in todays dollars) in 1982. This is illustrated by the solid blue dot in Figure 1.

Net Worth in 2012, W2 [$, billions]

50.0 45.0 40.0 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40

Buffett

Koch bros.

W2 = 16 W1
( W1m , W2m )

Getty
1.60

Net Worth in 1982, W1 [$, billions]

Figure 1: Thirty-six of Americas wealthiest, who appeared in the first Forbes 400 list of 1982 also appeared in the Forbes list in 2012. Their net worth, W1, in 1982 is plotted here against their net worth, W2, in 2012.

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Here I have quoted the average figures given by Kilachand. A slightly different average is obtained as seen from the data in Table 1. The solid line in Figure 1, with a slope of 16, represents four doublings (24 = 16) in the net worth, for example, from $1B to $2B to $4B, to $8B and to $16B. If the data point falls on or above the line, the net worth is at least 16 times the 1982 value. The blue dot, with the co-ordinates (W1m, W2m), represents the average net worth of the group in 1982 and in 2012. The average ratio W2m/W1m = 18.78. Sixteen (16) billionaires of the 36 in both lists have done better than the average (and the four doublings) with the data falling above these lines.

Table 1: The 1982 Forbes 400 compared with the Forbes 2012 billionaires list
Name Gordon Getty Philip Anschutz Patrick McGovern David Rockefeller, Sr. Sid Bass Samuel Newhouse, Jr. Donald Newhouse Alfred Taubman Anne Cox Chambers Leonard Stern Henry Hillman Richard Scaife David Murdock Average value Donald Bren Henry Ross Perot Sr. Phil Knight Richard DeVos Charles Koch David Koch William Koch Warren Buffett Net worth 1982, Net worth 2012, Wealth Ratio W1 ($, billions) W2 ($, billions) W2 / W1 1.400 2.00 1.43 1.000 7.60 7.60 1.000 3.90 3.90 1.000 2.70 2.70 1.000 1.80 1.80 0.600 7.40 12.33 0.600 6.60 11.00 0.525 2.90 5.52 0.500 10.70 21.40 0.500 4.20 8.40 0.500 2.20 4.40 0.500 1.30 2.60 0.400 2.40 6.00 0.384 7.213 18.78 0.350 13.00 37.14 0.325 3.50 10.77 0.275 13.10 47.64 0.275 5.1 18.54 0.266 31.00 116.54 0.266 31.00 116.54 0.266 4.00 15.04 0.250 46.00 184.00
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Table 1 (Contd). Forbes 1982 and 2012 lists compared

Net worth 1982, Net worth 2012, Wealth Ratio W1 ($, billions) W2 ($, billions) W2 / W1 Ted Turner 0.220 2.00 9.09 Ray Lee Hunt 0.200 5.20 26.00 Stephen Bechtel, Jr. 0.200 2.90 14.50 Kenneth Adams, Jr. 0.152 1.15 7.57 Mortimer Zuckerman 0.150 2.40 16.00 Kirk Kerkorian 0.133 2.90 21.80 Leonard Lauder 0.125 7.70 61.60 Gordon Moore 0.125 4.80 38.40 Ronald Lauder 0.125 3.40 27.20 Sumner Redstone 0.100 4.10 41.00 Sheldon Solow 0.100 3.50 35.00 George Lucas 0.100 3.30 33.00 Donald Trump 0.100 3.10 31.00 Herbert Allen, Jr 0.100 2.00 20.00 Frederick Smith 0.100 1.80 18.00 Source: See article by Sean Kilachand, Ref. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/seankilachand/2012/09/20/the-forbes-400hall-of-fame-36-members-of-our-debut-issue-still-in-ranks/ Notice that only five members of the original 1982 Forbes 400 list were billionaires (the top 5 in Table 1). The majority in this Forbes 400 club had fortunes of less than a billion. The price of admission to the Forbes 400 club crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2006 and dropped briefly to $950 million in 2009 (following the financial crisis of 2008) but was back up to $1B by 2010; see references provided at the end of this article. In 1987, Forbes created its first list of the billionaires from all over the world, see Ref. [2]. There were 140 billionaires in 1987 and 1426 in the most recent 2013 Forbes billionaires list, see Refs. [3,4]. In his review, on the 25th anniversary of this Forbes billionaires issue, Durgy has noted that only 24 members from the original list qualified for each and every issue in between. This unique list of 24 billionaires may be found in Table 2.
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Name

Table 2: The 1987 Forbes Billionaires compared with the Forbes 2012 Billionaires
Net worth 1987, Net worth 2012, Wealth Ratio W1 ($, billions) W2 ($, billions) W2 / W1 Eitaro Itoyama 3 2.9 0.97 Henry Ross Perot, Sr. 2.9 3.5 1.21 August von Finck 2.5 7.8 3.12 2.35 7.1 3.02 Samuel (S. I.) Newhouse Warren Buffett 2.1 44 20.95 Leslie Wexner 2.1 4.3 2.05 Masatoshi Ito 2 2.5 1.25 Anne Cox Chambers 1.8 12.5 6.94 David Sainsbury 1.6 1.1 0.69 Li Ka-shing 1.6 25.5 15.94 Average value 1.56 12.79 8.20 Stephan Schmidheiny 1.5 2.7 1.80 Henry Hillman 1.5 2.2 1.47 Ray Lee Hunt 1.3 5 3.85 Erivan Haub 1.3 4 3.08 Bill Gates 1.25 61 48.80 Donald Bren 1.25 12 9.60 Jacqueline Mars 1.15 13.8 12.00 Liliane Bettencourt 1 24 24.00 Ronald Perelman 1 12 12.00 Robert Bass 1 2.1 2.10 David Rockefeller Sr. 1 2.5 2.50 David Koch 0.85 25 29.41 Charles Koch 0.85 25 29.41 Sumner Redstone 0.535 4.4 8.22 Source: Forbes Billionaires Hall of Fame, by Edwin Durgy, March 7, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwindurgy/2012/03/07/forbes-billionaireshall-of-fame/ Over the past 25 years, the average net worth of this 1987 group increased from $1.56 billion in 1987 to $12.79 billion in 2012. However, once again, as with the 1982 list, only a few from this group were able to increase their net
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Name

worth well above this average. This is illustrated in Figure 2. Especially noteworthy is Gordon Getty, with the highest initial net worth W1 of $1.4 billion in 1982 (top spot in Table 1). Gettys net worth had increased to only $2 billion in 2012. Compare this with Buffett, with an initial net worth W1 of $0.25 billion in 1982 and $2.1 billion in 1987. Buffetts net worth had increased to $44 B in 2012.

Net Worth in 2012, W2 [$, billions]

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0.00

Gates

W2 = 16 W1
Buffett

Ka-shing Koch bros. Bettencourt ( W1m , W2m )

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

Net Worth in 1987, W1 [$, billions]

Figure 2: Twenty-four billionaires from the original Forbes 1987 Billionaires list also appeared in the 25th anniversary of the list in 2012. Their net worth, W1, in 1987 is plotted here against their net worth, W2, in 2012. The blue dot, with the co-ordinates (W1m, W2m), represents the average net worth of the group in 1987 and 2012. The dashed line passing through this point and the origin (0,0) separates the billionaires who have done better than the average and those who have fallen below the average. Only 10 of the 24 have done better than the average according to this measure. The solid line with a slope of 16 represents four doublings (24 = 16) in the net worth, from $1B to $2B to $4B, to $8B and to
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$16B. There are only six in this group: Bill Gates (48.8), Warren Buffett (20.95) Li Ka-shing (15.94), Liliane Bettencourt & family (24) David Koch and Charles Koch (29.41), the numbers in the parentheses are the wealth ratios.

Brief Discussion
The first ever rich list, of 30 wealthiest Americans, was compiled by B. C. Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/27/0927richest_2.html (Ref. [5], or click here), the founder of Forbes magazine, and published on March 2, 1918. I have taken the liberty of reproducing this list here from the article by Hesseldahl and DeMairo. The combined fortune of the 30 richest was $3,680,000,000 ($3.68 B) and the average net worth was $0.123 B ($122,666,666) with no one having a fortune of less than $50 million. Compare this with the average net worth of $12.79 B in 2012 for the unique group 24 billionaires who had maintained their billionaire status for each year starting with 1987. The average net worth has increased a hundred fold. Although the number of billionaires has been growing year after year (with the exception of 2008-2009), and although the average net worth of the worlds billionaires has also been increasing (click here or see http://www.scribd.com/doc/130517722/Growth-in-the-Combined-NetWorth-of-Billionaires-From-2000-2013-An-Interesting-Limit-to-Growth-isRevealed ), individual fortunes have, however, varied widely. Getty and Buffett provide, perhaps, the most conspicuous examples. Gettys fortunes, the highest in 1982, increased from $1.4 B to just $2B. David Rockefeller Sr., grandson of the worlds first billionaire, John D Rockefeller, also found his fortunes increase from $1B to a modest $2.5B. The graphical representation of the data, as attempted here, for these two unique groups of Forbes billionaires, helps highlight these differences in the individual fortunes most dramatically.

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America's Richest (from Ref. [5], by Hesseldahl and DeMairo) Page 15 of 17 from The First Rich List B.C. Forbes, 09.27.02, 12:00 PM ET
Our 30 Richest Americans Name Estimated Fortune 2002 Dollars* Yearly Income Chief Source $13.14 billion 2.46 billion 2.2 billion 1.64 billion 1.64 billion 1.37 billion 1.37 billion 1.09 billion 1.09 billion 1.09 billion 876 million 821 million 767 million 767 million 767 million 767 million 767 million 657 million 657 million 657 million 657 million 657 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 547.5 million 40.3 billion $60 million 11.25 million 10 million 7.5 million 7.5 million 6.25 million 6.25 million 5 million 5 million 5 million 4 million 3.75 million 3.5 million 3.5 million 3.5 million 3.5 million 3.5 million 3 million 3 million 3 million 3 million 3 million 3 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 2.5 million 184 million Oil Coke, Steel Steel Banking Oil, Railroads Oil Packing Automobiles Railroads Banking Railroads Real Estate Cotton, Banking Traction, Tobacco Mining, Smelting Steel Banking Banking Farm Machinery Traction Mining, Railroads Tractions Banking Tobacco Cameras Powder Packing Mail Orders Oil Steel

John D. Rockefeller $1,200,000,000 Henry Clay Frick 225,000,000 Andrew Carnegie 200,000,000 George F. Baker 150,000,000 William Rockefeller 150,000,000 Edward S. Harkness 125,000,000 J. Ogden Armour 125,000,000 Henry Ford 100,000,000 William K. Vanderbilt 100,000,000 Edward Howland Robinson Green 100,000,000 Mrs. Edward H. Harriman 80,000,000 Vincent Astor 75,000,000 James Stillman 70,000,000 Thomas F. Ryan 70,000,000 Daniel Guggenheim 70,000,000 Charles M. Schwab 70,000,000 J.P. Morgan 70,000,000 Mrs. Russell Sage 60,000,000 Cyrus H. McCormick 60,000,000 Joseph Widener 60,000,000 Arthur James 60,000,000 Nicholas F. Brady 60,000,000 Jacob H. Schiff 50,000,000 James B. Duke 50,000,000 George Eastman 50,000,000 Pierre S. du Pont 50,000,000 Louis F. Swift 50,000,000 Julius Rosenwald 50,000,000 Mrs. Lawrence Lewis 50,000,000 Henry Phipps 50,000,000 TOTAL 3,680,000,000 *Column added to original table.

Note that three women (3 of 30 or 10%) appear in this 1918 list.

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Related Articles on the Forbes Billionaires List

1. Quantitative Comparison of the Billionaires in the Forbes Hall of Fame, Published March 17, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130826078/Quantitative-Comparison-of-theBillionaires-in-the-Forbes-Hall-of-Fame 2. Growth in the Combined Net Worth of Billionaires from 2000-2013: An Interesting Limits to Growth is Revealed, Published March 15, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130517722/Growth-in-the-Combined-Net-Worthof-Billionaires-From-2000-2013-An-Interesting-Limit-to-Growth-is-Revealed 3. Growth of Billionaires Worldwide and in the USA: Analysis of the number of billionaires data since 1982, Published March 14, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/130377891/The-Growth-of-BillionairesWorldwide-and-in-USA-Analysis-of-the-data-since-1982 4. Countries with the most billionaires in the 2013 Forbes Billionaire List, Published March 9, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129406030/Countrieswith-Most-Billionaires-in-the-Forbes-2013-Billionaires-List 5. Average worth of the Top 10 Billionaires in a Country, Published Mar 11, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129863162/Average-Worth-of-the-Top-10Billionaires-in-a-Country 6. Per Capita Trends for Ultra High Net Worth Residents in US Cities, Published March 11, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/129722844/Per-CapitaTrends-for-the-Ultra-High-Net-Worth-UHNW-Residents-in-US-Cities 7. Europe and Asia-Pacific billionaires in the Forbes 2013 list: Whats the difference? Published March 10, 2013 http://www.scribd.com/doc/129634796/Europe-and-Asia-Pacific-Billionairesin-the-2013-Forbes-List-What-s-the-difference 8. The Rate of Creation of Billionaires: Analysis of the Forbes 2013 Billionaire List, Published March 6, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/128944910/The-Rate-of-Creation-ofBillionaires-Analysis-of-the-2013-Forbes-Billionaire-s-List 9. Billionaires and Calculus: Ratio versus Rate of Change Is Einsteins Work Function Observed In this Problem? Published March 5, 2013.

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/128610494/The-Forbes-Billionaires-andCalculus-Is-Einstein-s-Work-Function-Observed-Here 10. Billionaires and the Population Law: Analysis of the 2013 Forbes Billionaires List, to be published shortly.

Reference List
1. The Forbes Hall of Fame: 36 Members of Our Debut Issue Still in Ranks, by Sean Kilachand, Sep 20, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/seankilachand/2012/09/20/the-forbes400-hall-of-fame-36-members-of-our-debut-issue-still-in-ranks/ 2. Forbes Billionaires Hall of Fame, by Edwin Durgy, March 7, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwindurgy/2012/03/07/forbesbillionaires-hall-of-fame/ Unfortunately, this compilation does not include the 1987 net worth for the Koch brothers (since it was less than $1B); only their 2012 net worth is stated ($31 billion). Hence, other sources were consulted to get their 1987 net worth. 3. Forbes Billionaires Hall of Fame, by Edwin Durgy, March 7, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwindurgy/2012/03/07/forbesbillionaires-hall-of-fame/2/ 4. The 400 Richest People, http://articles.latimes.com/1987-1013/business/fi-13869_1_real-estate List of the 400 is available here with following the Koch brothers. 61--Koch, David Hamilton, $850 million, New York, inheritance, oil services, 47, OG 62--Koch, Charles de Ganahl, $850 million, Wichita, Kan., inheritance, oil services, 51, OG, 111--Koch, William Ingraham, 550, Boston, inheritance (oil services), 47, OG 112--Koch, Frederick Robinson, 375, New York, inheritance (oil services), 53, OG 116--Redstone, Sumner Murray, $535 million, Newton Centre, Mass., movie theaters, investments, 64, M 5. The First Rich List, by Arik Hesseldahl and Claudia DeMairo, September 27, 2002, http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/27/0927richestphotos.html see also http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/27/0927richest.html The
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combined fortune of the 30 richest was $3,680,000,000 ($3.68 B) and the average net worth was $0.123 B ($122,666,666). The full list of the 30 richest men in 1918 may be found on page 15 of 17 of this article. 6. Billionaires List: Koch Brothers, Right Wing Bankrollers, Clare OConnor, March 10, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2011/03/10/billionaires-listkoch-brothers-right-wing-bankrollers/ 7. Forbes History: The Original 1987 list of International Billionaires, March 21, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/seankilachand/2012/03/21/forbeshistory-the-original-1987-list-of-international-billionaires/2/ 8. Forbes Releases 1987 List of 49 Billionaires, Published: October 13, 1987, http://newsok.com/forbes-releases-1987-list-of-49billionaires/article/2201809 NEW YORK (AP) Here is the Forbes magazine 1987 list of the 49 American billionaires in descending order of wealth, showing estimated fortune in millions, residence, source of wealth, age and industry.
The industry codes are: MF, manufacturing; R, retail; M, media; T, high technology; AG, agriculture; OG, oil and gas; F, financial operations; RE, real estate; EC, engineering and construction; S, services. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) Walton, Sam Moore, $8500, Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart Stores, 69, R Kluge, John Werner, $3000, Charlottesville, Va., Metromedia, 73, M Perot, Henry Ross, $2900, Dallas, electronic data management, 57, T Packard, David, $2870, Los Altos Hills, Calif., Hewlett-Packard, 75, T Newhouse, Samuel Irving Jr., $2350, New York, publishing, 58, M Crown, Lester, $2100, Chicago, inheritance, industrialist, 62, MF Murdoch, Keith Rupert, $2100, New York, publishing, 56, M Buffett, Warren Edward, $2100, Omaha, Neb., stock market, 57, F Wexner, Leslie Herbert, $2100, Columbus, The Limited Inc., 50, R Pritzker, Robert Alan, $1900, Chicago, financier, 61, F Pritzker, Jay Arthur, $1900, Chicago, financier, 65, F Bronfman, Edgar Miles, $1800, New York, Seagram Co., 58, MF Chambers, Anne Cox, $1800, Atlanta, inheritance (Cox Enterprises), 67, M Anthony, Barbara Cox, $1800, Honolulu, inheritance (Cox Enterprises), 64, M Arison, Ted, $1800, Miami Beach, Fla., cruise ships, banking, 63, S Taubman, Adolph Alfred, $1500, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., real estate, art, 62, RE Hillman, Henry Lee, $1500, Pittsburgh, industrialist, 68, F Davis, Marvin Harold, $1450, Denver, oil, entertainment, real estate, 62, OG Hewlett, William Redington, $1450, Portola Valley, Calif., Hewlett-Packard, 74, T
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Helmsley, Harry Brakmann, $1400, New York, real estate, 78, RE Anschutz, Philip Frederick, $1350, Denver, oil, investments, 47, OG Busch, August Anheuser Jr., $1300, St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch, 88, MF Dorrance, John Thompson Jr., $1300, Gladwyne, Pa., inheritance (Campbell Soup), 68, MF 25) Petrie, Milton Jack, $1300, New York, Petrie Stores, 85, R 26) Kauffman, Ewing Marion, $1300, Mission Hills, Kan., Marion Laboratories, 71, MF 27) Hunt, Ray Lee, $1300, Dallas, inheritance, oil, real estate, 44, OG 28) DeBartolo, Edward John, $1250, Youngstown, Ohio, shopping centers, 69, RE 29) Gates, William Henry III, $1250, Seattle, Microsoft, 31, T 30) Bren, Donald Leroy, $1250, Newport Beach, Calif., real estate, 55, RE 31) LeFrak, Samuel Jayson, $1200, New York, real estate, 69, RE 32) Bass, Robert Muse, $1200, Fort Worth, Texas, oil, investments, 39, F 33) Gaylord, Edward Lewis, $1150, Oklahoma City, broadcasting, publishing, 68, M 34) Mars, Forrest Edward Sr., $1150, Las Vegas, Nev., candy, 83, MF 35) Mars, Forrest Edward Jr., $1150, McLean, Va., candy, 56, MF 36) Mars, John Franklyn, $1150, Arlington, Va., candy, 53, MF 37) Vogel, Jacqueline Mars, $1150, Bedminster, N.J., candy, 48, MF 38) Simmons, Harold Clark, $1150, Dallas, investments, 56, F 39) Goldman, Sol, $1100, New York, real estate, 70, RE 40) Hill, Margaret Hunt, $1100, Dallas, inheritance (oil), 72, OG 41) Bass, Sid Richardson, $1100, Fort Worth, Texas, oil, investments, 44, F 42) Bass, Lee Marshall, $1100, Fort Worth, Texas, oil, investments, 31, F 43) Tisch, Preston Robert, $1000, New York, Loews Corp., 61, F 44) Tisch, Laurence Allan, $1000, New York, Loews Corp., 64, F 45) Rockefeller, David, $1000, New York, inheritance, banking, real estate, 72, F 46) Stern, Leonard Norman, $1000, New York, pet supplies, real estate, 49, MF 47) Lindner, Carl Henry II, $1000, Cincinnati, insurance, banking, 68, F 48) Milliken, Roger, $1000, Spartanburg, S.C., textiles, 71, MF 49) Kroc, Joan Beverly, $1000, La Jolla, Calif., inheritance (McDonald's), 59, R BIOG: NAME: Archive ID: 323478

21) 22) 23) 24)

8. The Forbes 400: Two Decades of Wealth, http://www.forbes.com/static_html/rich400/2002/timemapFLA400.html Data on number of billionaires and the total net worth from 1982 to 2002. 9. The 400 Richest Americans, September 21, 2006. All 400 were billionaires http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The400-Richest-Americans_Rank_16.html The lowest rank was 374 all occupied by individuals with net worth or $1B. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-RichestAmericans_Rank_15.html. In the 2005 list, the lowest rank 384 was occupied by individuals with a net worth of $900 million.
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10. The Forbes 400, by Matthew Miller and Duncan Greenberg, September 9, 2009, http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/forbes-400-buffett-gatesellison-rich-list-09-intro_2.html In 2009, following the financial crisis the lowest rank was occupied by net worths of $950 million, down from $1.3 billion in 2008. 11. Bill Gates Tops Forbes Ranking of 400 Wealthiest Americans, Bloomberg, by Margaret Collins and Alexis Leondis, Sep 23, 2010, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-22/bill-gates-tops-forbes400-ranking-of-richest-americans-with-54-billion.html The cutoff for the Forbes 400 list is back up to $1 billion after falling to $950 million last year. Forbes also released a separate list of the worlds richest people in March. 12. Forbes Billionaires: Who are the Top 5 Richest People on the Planet? By Joesph Orovic, March 7, 2012, http://www.ibtimes.com/forbesbillionaires-who-are-top-5-richest-people-planet-554569 13. Should the billionaire club start paying dues? March 18, 2012, Inequality.org Staff, http://inequality.org/billionaire-club-start-paying-dues/ 14. Worth of 400 Richest Americans up 41% from 1986 Forbes says, Oct 13, 1987, The Los Angeles Times, Assoc. Press. http://articles.latimes.com/1987-10-13/business/fi-13847_1_billionaires Average net worth of the 400 members is given as $550 million, After
Walton, the Forbes top 10 include John W. Kluge, 73, German-born head of Metromedia Co., worth $3 billion; H. Ross Perot, 57, Texas investor, worth $2.9 billion; David Packard, 75, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co., $2.87 billion; publishing-empire brothers Samuel I. Newhouse Jr., 59, and Donald E. Newhouse, 58, each worth about $2.35 billion; industrialist Lester Crown, 62, $2.1 billion; publisher Rupert K. Murdoch, $2.1 billion; investor Warren E. Buffett, $2.1 billion; and retailer Leslie H. Wexner, $2.1 billion. The most notable changes this year were the 23 new billionaires on the list. Among them was Jacqueline Mars Vogel, recently discovered by Forbes to be an heiress to the Mars confection company's family fortune, who is worth $1.15 billion. Others included Budweiser brew master August A. Busch Jr., $1.3 billion, and Ted Arison, Palestine-born son of an Israeli ship owner, who built Carnival Cruise Lines and last year took it public, quadrupling his worth to $1.8 billion.

Several investors who used their money in both friendly and unfriendly takeover attempts acquired billionaire status this year. Among them were Edward J. DeBartolo, who runs the largest U.S. shopping mall developer, $1.25 billion; A. Alfred Taubman, a shopping mall owner, $1.5 billion; Carl H. Lindner, who heads a financial services conglomerate, $1 billion; Harold Simmons, a Texas-based takeover strategist, $1.15 billion; three of the four Bass family brothers, also of Texas, who together hold about $3.2 billion, and the Tisch brothers,
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Laurence A. and Preston R., of New York, whose holding in Loews Corp. is worth about $2 billion. At 31, William H. Gates won the title of youngest new billionaire. A math genius and Harvard dropout, Gates founded the Microsoft Corp. computer software company 13 years ago. His 40% stake is now worth $1.25 billion. Other well-known members of the Forbes 400 list include Denver oilman Marvin Davis, $1.45 billion; New York real estate developer Harry Helmsley, $1.4 billion; financier David Rockefeller, $1 billion; Los Angeles investor Kirk Kerkorian, $950 million; Maryland poultry king Frank Perdue, $500 million; designer Ralph Lauren, $350 million, and entertainer Merv Griffin, $300 million.

13. Retail King From Arkansas Again Tops Forbes' List Of The Super-rich, Philly.com, From Inquirer Wire Services, Posted: October 13, 1987 http://articles.philly.com/1987-10-13/business/26216673_1_taikichiromori-wal-mart-stores-discount-chain-new-billionaires The list is given below with the 1987 net worth.
THE WEALTHIEST AMERICANS IN BILLIONS NET 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) PERSON WORTH BUSINESS Sam Walton $8.50 Wal-Mart Stores John Kluge 3.00 Metromedia H. Ross Perot 2.90 Electronic Data Systems David Packard 2.87 Hewlett-Packard Donald Newhouse 2.35 Publishing Samuel Newhouse 2.35 Publishing Lester Crown 2.10 Inheritance, industrialist Rupert Murdoch 2.10 News Corp. Warren Buffett 2.10 Investor Leslie Wexner 2.10 The Limited Jay Pritzker 1.90 Financier Robert Pritzker 1.90 Financier Edgar Bronfman 1.80 Seagram Co. Ann Cox Chambers 1.80 Inheritance Barbara Cox Anthony 1.80 Inheritance Ted Arison 1.80 Carnival Cruise Lines Alfred Taubman 1.50 Real estate Henry Hillman 1.50 Industrialist Marvin Davis 1.45 Oil, entertainment, real estate William Hewlett 1.45 Hewlett-Packard

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14. List of Member of Forbes 400. The 2012 list here includes Koch Bros. with a net worth of $31 B. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Forbes_400 15. Bill Gates again leads billionaires list, Deseret News, Assoc. Press, Sep 19, 2012, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765605442/Bill-Gatesagain-leads-Forbes-billionaires-list.html?pg=all Koch Bros. at $31 B for 2012. 16. Billionaire Profiles, David Koch, March 2013, http://www.forbes.com/profile/david-koch/ 17. Billionaire Profiles, Charles Koch, March 2013, http://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-koch/ 18. The filthy rich: Forbes lists Americas top 400 for 2007, by Hiram Lee, November 27, 2007, World Socialist Web Site, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2007/11/forb-n27.html 19. The Worlds Billionaires, by Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan, March 4, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ 20. Inside the 2013 Billionaires list: Facts and Figures, by Luisa Kroll, March 4, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2013/03/04/inside-the-2013billionaires-list-facts-and-figures/ 21. The 10 worst people on Forbes billionaires list, The Salon, by Lynn Stuart Parramore, March 3, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/the_10_worst_people_on_forbes_201 3_billionaire_list_partner/ 22. The Forbes 400, the Pareto Wealth Distribution and Efficient Markets, May 2004, by Oren S. Klass, Ofer Biham, Moshe Levy, Ofer Malcai, and Sorin Solomon, Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem http://www.sorinsolomon.net/~sorin/ccs/Forbes-pdf-fig.pdf

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About the author V. Laxmanan, Sc. D.

The author obtained his Bachelors degree (B. E.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Poona and his Masters degree (M. E.), also in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, followed by a Masters (S. M.) and Doctoral (Sc. D.) degrees in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. He then spent his entire professional career at leading US research institutions (MIT, Allied Chemical Corporate R & D, now part of Honeywell, NASA, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and General Motors Research and Development Center in Warren, MI). He holds four patents in materials processing, has co-authored two books and published several scientific papers in leading peer-reviewed international journals. His expertise includes developing simple mathematical models to explain the behavior of complex systems. While at NASA and CWRU, he was responsible for developing material processing experiments to be performed aboard the space shuttle and developed a simple mathematical model to explain the growth Christmas-tree, or snowflake, like structures (called dendrites) widely observed in many types of liquid-to-solid phase transformations (e.g., freezing of all commercial metals and alloys, freezing of water, and, yes, production of snowflakes!). This led to a simple model to explain the growth of dendritic structures in both the groundbased experiments and in the space shuttle experiments. More recently, he has been interested in the analysis of the large volumes of data from financial and economic systems and has developed what may be called the Quantum Business Model (QBM). This extends (to financial and economic systems) the mathematical arguments used by Max Planck to develop quantum physics using the analogy Energy = Money, i.e., energy in physics is like money in economics. Einstein applied Plancks ideas to describe the photoelectric effect (by treating light as being composed of particles called photons, each with the fixed quantum of energy conceived by Planck). The mathematical law deduced
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by Planck, referred to here as the generalized power-exponential law, might actually have many applications far beyond blackbody radiation studies where it was first conceived. Einsteins photoelectric law is a simple linear law and was deduced from Plancks non-linear law for describing blackbody radiation. It appears that financial and economic systems can be modeled using a similar approach. Finance, business, economics and management sciences now essentially seem to operate like astronomy and physics before the advent of Kepler and Newton. Finally, during my professional career, I also twice had the opportunity and great honor to make presentations to two Nobel laureates: first at NASA to Prof. Robert Schrieffer (1972 Physics Nobel Prize), who was the Chairman of the Schrieffer Committee appointed to review NASAs space flight experiments (following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986) and second at GM Research Labs to Prof. Robert Solow (1987 Nobel Prize in economics), who was Chairman of Corporate Research Review Committee, appointed by GM corporate management.

Cover page of AirTran 2000 Annual Report

Can you see that plane flying above the tall tree tops that make a nearly perfect circle? It requires a great deal of imagination to see and to photograph it.

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