Stunning disparities in income that are the order of the day in much of the world have at least one silver lining: They are creating a new cottage industry for international reporting. I refer to the great billionaire hunt.
There are now at least 1,426 world billionaires by the conservative count of my own Forbes Media. We like to think we own the wealth-list franchise that yields such a roster. Of course, though, there’s now plenty of competition. Many countries have their own rich-list compilers, and globally, Bloomberg LP has gotten into the game too. We have a head start, but their pockets are much deeper.
For reporters and readers, however, this is a premium in an age when foreign coverage is so hard to pay for. This particular content tends to be more self-supporting because rich people like to read it so they can compare themselves to other rich people, and sponsors like to get near them when they are comparing. In the process we are able to follow sizable international business developments, and regularly develop interesting profiles that shed light on powerful people and how they operate.
Many times these people are not like Donald Trump and do not wish to have their names and faces in public places. So, we are arguably performing a service by “outing” them, at least reminding the everyday consumer of Trader Joe’s or Dixie cups or Whiskas pet food that the moneybags taking their dollars are not who a homespun company symbol might suggest. Oh, it’s probably no surprise that it’s a “big corporation,” but in fact sometimes there’s only one stockholder. How do you like them apples?
Beyond that, the long reach of many of these tycoons is a lesson in geoeconomics and even geopolitics. I am focused on Asia in my job. No one can understand the development of post-war Asia without appreciating how the ethnic Chinese business world has integrated so much of the region’s commerce. A handful of the richest are nominally from Southeast Asia, but increasingly they are migrating back (business-wise) to the mainland whence their clans came. They often have family quarters in Hong Kong (as well as the U.S. or occasionally the U.K.). Even where state regimes have cordoned off much of their industry or for that matter their people, they have let friendly moguls in. Wealth or the prospect of gaining a piece of it can trump ideology.
The Indian diaspora — including the various tribes that migrated there centuries ago — is similarly far-flung. I’ve learned a lot about the Parsi people and others who became traders out of necessity and these days have made it a virtue.
Finally, we’d argue that the coverage has brought about more philanthropic behavior on the part of the world’s richest—the Observer Effect in action. It would complete the circle if this philanthropy could support more international coverage.
Tim Ferguson is the editor of Forbes Asia and of Dateline.