Drea Knufken
Mexican tycoon Carlis Slim Helu’s “empire…accounts for nearly half of the Mexican stock exchange’s $366 billion value,” according to BusinessWeek. “his fortune represents 7% of the country’s annual economic output….’Slim is Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan all rolled up into one person,’” writes the Wall Street Journal.
Slim, 2010’s richest man in the world, owns 92% of Mexico’s landlines and 73% of its cellphones, according to the WSJ, which says he makes $27 million a day. A monopolist in action but not rhetoric, Slim also runs departments stores, mining and railroad companies, a cigarette manufacturer, financial services, a construction company, and owns a handsome portion of Saks Fifth Avenue.
During the past three lucrative months (July-Sept.), Slim has raked in US$3.7m every hour, according to the Financial Times. That’s about a million times the average Mexican’s minimum wage, but who’s counting?
