In a year when populist voters reshaped power and politics across Europe and the US, the world’s wealthiest people have US$237 billion more than they had at the start.
Triggered by disappointing economic data from China at the beginning, the UK’s vote to leave the EU in the middle and the election of billionaire Donald Trump as the next US president at the end, the biggest fortunes on the planet whipsawed through US$4.8 trillion of daily net worth gains and losses during the year, rising 5.7 percent to US$4.4 trillion by the close of trading on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“In general, clients rode through the volatility,” UBS Wealth Management chief investment officer for ultra-high-net-worth clients Simon Smiles said. “It [2016] ended up being a spectacular year for risk assets. Pretty remarkable given the start of the year.”
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The gains were led by Warren Buffett, who added US$11.8 billion during the year as his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc saw its airline and banking holdings soar after Trump’s surprise victory on Nov. 8.
Buffett, who has pledged to give away most of his fortune to charity, donated Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at US$2.6 billion in July.
The US investor reclaimed his spot as the world’s second-richest person two days after Trump’s victory ignited a year-end rally that pushed Buffett’s wealth up 19 percent for the year to US$74.1 billion.
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“[The year] 2016’s been event-driven with global news driving prices rather than fundamentals,” said Ascent Private Capital Management president Michael Cole, whose firm has about US$10 billion of assets. “The belief that Trump is going to come in and deregulate big parts of the economy is driving the markets right now.”
The individual gains for the year were dominated by Americans, who had four of the five biggest increases, including Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates, the world’s richest person with US$91.5 billion, and oil mogul Harold Hamm.
The nation’s richest were largely opposed to a Trump presidency during the election, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who told reporters in May that stocks could fall as much as 20 percent if Trump were to win the election.
US billionaires — including Buffett — favored Trump’s rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Still, they profited from his victory when they added US$77 billion to their fortunes in the post-election rally fueled by expectations that regulations would ease and US industry would benefit.
The New York real-estate mogul is building a Cabinet heavy on wealth and corporate connections, while light on government experience, a mix that hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio said last week would unleash the “animal spirits” of capitalism and drive markets even higher.
Dalio is the world’s 63rd-richest person with US$14.1 billion.
Investors and executives welcomed Trump’s picks, including billionaire Wilbur Ross to lead the US Department of Commerce and former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive Steven Mnuchin as his secretary of the Treasury, who have a combined net worth of at least US$5.6 billion, according to the index.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day