Nos últimos 12 meses, nenhum escritor ganhou mais dinheiro com sua arte do que a inglesa J. K. Rowling, autora da série Harry Potter. Veja a lista completa dos dez escritores que faturaram mais alto no período, segundo a revista Forbes:

1 - J.K. Rowling, US$ 300 milhões
2 - James Patterson, US$ 50 milhões
3 - Stephen King, US$ 45 milhões
4 - Tom Clancy, US$ 35 milhões
5 - Danielle Steel, US$ 30 milhões
6 - John Grisham, US$ 25 milhões
6 - Dean Koontz, US$ 25 milhões
8 - Ken Follett, US$ 20 milhões
9 - Janet Evanovich, US$ 17 milhões
10 - Nicholas Sparks, US$ 16 milhões

[Fonte: Forbes]

When I posted the link to the article, it didn't get a peep from anyone. If anyone is interested, Seeking Alpha still rents pixels to a response to that article, written rather glibly by Felix Salmon. I was reminded of Tiomkin when I read Wolfgang Munchau's article in the Financial Times. I urge everyone who trades currencies or invests in European equities or who does business in the EU neighborhood countries (to include North Africa and the Levant) to read this article. And watch your arses! This is one of those times when I'm not just reading a good article and passing it along. So listen up sheeples and get yer money outta there if you haven't already. Alrighty? And don't go buying commercial real estate in Dubai or large industrial farms in Southern Egypt with the remains of your risk capital, okay?

Eniway [wink], I've noticed that the only national leader in the EU to get it remotely right is Sarkozy. He spoke about the existential threat to Western capitalism as if it (capitalism, not the threat) had already failed to survive. That was before he furtively backed (and then didn't) a €300 billion rescue plan that utterly failed to be ratified. So what if he's French. So what, I say! This has nothing to do with the fact that among otherwise arrogant and self-serving EU politicians, he was quite simply about as prescient as a politician could be -- even if the monetary system in the EU ends up being spared le guillotine this fact will not change. As politicians go, he is sounding more like Adam Smith than many a number of too-self-conscious champions of free market economics today. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you just haven't been reading up on your economics. That's okay. You can click here to get away from this blog, where I'm sure you will be more entertained.

So let's watch what happens to the euro. I confess, I don't want it to go. I've heard more than one person in the US say they wish the euro and the EU would wither and die, but they don't know what the hell they are talking about. (They should take a look at the mess we have made of things.) Take a look at EURJPY --

As you can see, this isn't a price chart. It is a chart of the daily ranges of this pair since Jan 2, 2008. EURJPY is considered by more than a few sage people to be a barometer of the international monetary system. What is happening here is uncommon, to put it mildly. As the carry trade disappears down the rabbit hole and the notion of the euro as a fiat currency looks increasingly untenable (for now), there is absolutely no reason for the yen to appreciate the way it has. It is no small coincidence that in this period of painful deleveraging, the carry trade was one of the more highly leveraged plays out there -- and it was thought at one time to be "risk free". (And just take a look at AUD, NZD and GBP!) Those spikes, which started around the beginning of September, represent a death rattle of the carry trade a warning sign of the trouble ahead for the euro, the EU, and the international monetary system. If the euro dies in the next three years, the effects will be painful and widely felt. I suspect our international financial leaders are trying to figure out a way to protect it. I wish them well.

In the meantime, I tried to trade AUDJPY after the RBA announcement. (In case you missed it, they cut rates by 100 bps.) Of course, I wasn't filled even though I specified bounds of 30 on either side of price. It would have been a killer news trade with very low risk, and I was just too small, too slow, and too retail. EURJPY buy-backs have almost erased today's selling, with resistance currently sitting in the mid-14400s. The pair has been bouncing around in 100 pip waves the way it used to bounce around in 40 pip waves "back in the day". The Kern River after a summer flood comes to mind. (In other words, wear a damn life-preserver!) I may enter long on a retracement toward today's lows, but I may also just wait for a signal that goes with the current. I am wary of countertrend signals that print in strong and sustained moves. (Did anyone see those cascading stops below 10280 on the USDJPY last night? Danger for exporters in Japan!)

Not much scheduled on the calendar in the way of data for the rest of the day -- but plenty of potential action as all the fatheads try to preserve what is left of liquidity and credit and the MSM clings to every little idea -- no matter how banal -- as if it were important enough to rip another 800-point hole in the Dow. EURJPY trades 13948 at 0523 UTC.

0804 UTC Update: Short USDJPY 10293 at 0720 UTC
0908 UTC Update: Close USDJPY 10179.9 at 0908 UTC 

Paul Maidment, the executive editor of Forbes magazine, understood this well when he commented in an interview Feb. 25, 2005 during "On the Media" with Brook Gladstone: "What will happen next is that audience will say: 'If you're going to sell us to advertisers, then you've got to pay us. And that's the real long-term challenge that I think newspapers are going to be facing.' '' 

At Federated Media, John Battelle, writing in 2005, also understood the power of allowing ads to find their own users.

Think opportunity, not challenge. Why not lead the readers to the ads, whereever they are, and take a cut of the compensation the readers receive? Or, more directly, why not lead the reader/viewer into a relationship with a sponsor or product vendor, and take a cut for doing so. Are there ethical issues with that, so long as the role is transparent and disclosed?

Cisco, the article demonstrates, has jumped in with both feet into the area with the greatest promise: data centers. This unglamorous chunk of reality that underlies all the fun and fancy Web 2.0 that, for now, is keeping Silicon Valley from tanking along with the rest of the economy. (Unless you believe the NYT, of course.)

To quote the Forbes article: "This is what the online computing revolution has become, a giant electricity hog of Internet searches, phone calls, blog posts, wireless downloads, bank transactions and office documents. And video, lots and lots of video. " The article also includes a chart comparing new server spending v. power and cooling costs.

All of which leads us to the inexorable conclusion--which TechTarget's Dave Raffo refers to in a recent post--that one of the few places that is sheltered from the current storm is anything that reduces the cost of storage. So yes, storage optimization is the place to be in today's tough economic climate. But the main point is that it could help keep lots of companies afloat that might otherwise crumple under the weight of their storage costs.

(http://www.forbes.com/media/2008/10/01/books-publishing-media-biz-media-cx_lr_1001authors.html)

According to the paper, Forbes has named her the biggest-earning author in the last year.

They estimate that she earned $300 million; that's six times the total of Number 2 in the list, thriller-writer James Patterson.

So what to make of such awesome earning power by an author? Does being financially successful somehow cheapen her artistic merit?

Well, frankly, I don't see why it should. Her books are equally as enjoyable and skilful (if occasionally a little under-edited) as 'The Philosopher's Stone'.

Surely, if anything, the first book was written under financial imperative, the later novels for the pure joy of writing?

The tortured genius

Popular mythology loves to paint authors as poverty-stricken genii, battling against cold, starvation and everything else you can think of. Just recall the way the media (and we, the readers) lapped up the tales of Rowling writing in an Edinburgh cafe because she couldn't afford the heating in her flat.

No matter that Rowling herself has dismissed these fairytale embellishments; the myth persists.

I suggest that more inspirational than the story of the writer who happened to get lucky and be spirited out of poverty, is the tale of the writer who combined her literary skill with a canny business savvy and made her fairytale happen herself.

Her next release though, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, due out on December 4th, will not be swelling Rowling's Gringott's account. All net profit is being donated to kid's charity 'The Children's High Level Group', of which she is co-founder.

So I say "(sorting) hats off to J K Rowling - may the Galleons continue to roll in!"

[T]here is only one thing necessary to understanding what is happening and it is this: no one at U.S. Banks, no one at the Federal Reserve and no one in politics can accept the reality that real estate assets in this country remain oversupplied, overpriced and overleveraged.

It is that simple.

To see if your representative voted for the bill, visit the House Roll Call Vote. Want to know who made Karl Marx smile today? Want to know who stands with Chairman Mao, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and FDR? Here are just a few in their new color, sickle hammer yellow, not to be confused, of course, with Republican Red.

NEWLY MINTED RINO IN FIRST PLACE - Zach Wamp

Today, Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) attempted to ameliorate the impending voter wrath at his next election. He said and I quote from the International Herald Tribune:

"Nobody in East Tennessee hates the fact more than me that I am going to vote 'yes' today after voting 'no' on Monday," Representative Zach Wamp, a Republican, said in a speech on the House floor.

"Monday I cast a blue-collar vote for the American people," he said. " Today I am going to cast a red, white and blue-collar vote with my hand over my heart for this country, because things are really bad and we don't have any choice. We're out of choices and our backs are up against the wall."

Folks, the only color on the vote Zach cast is RED, COMMUNIST SICKLE HAMMER RED. Good job Zach, you must be so proud. Better start spinning your vote now Zach because it's gonna be a tough election next time around.

For you Tennesseans out there, what else did you expect from a man who publicly kneeled in front of Richard Simmons? Zach came out of the closet to fulfill his position as new hostest of the RINO Club. Here's the evidence:

I can't help but ask, but why Rep. Wamp, WHY do you put your hand on this man's leg?

Now for the Dishonorable Republican runners up who gave up and opted for regulation. They, too, are newly minted RINOs who used the Constitution like toilet paper and cast their oaths askant. Shocking conduct indeed!

#2 - John Shadegg

#3 - Tom Tancredo

#4 - Spencer Bachus

Add your own reps to the list if you feel the urge.

To Summarize the technology:

More connected & active you are - more influential you become - more influential you become - more attractive you become to the advertisers

"Google search displays Web pages with the highest influence—it makes complete sense for them to extend this to online communities and people," says Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester Research (FORR).

This technology sounds interesting, but I don't think this is great enough! It is again a step towards exploiting consumer data for revenue generation & online domination. I as a marketer would absolutely adore this information because it will help me connect my brand message with relevant audience. But, as a common consumer I feel cheated... It's like, I upload videos, photos, and other content every week, creating mountains of inventory that the sites can sell to advertisers—and the sites don’t have to pay a dime for any of it. it's my profile, my content, my friends, my life & a marketer is making money out of it! not done right?

Traackr a start-up company from Boston acknowledges the the plight & has come up with a revolutionary concept that gives the generators of all this user-generated content a way to monitor how influential, and therefore how valuable, their content is becoming—and, someday, to make some money on it.

“We think there’s a market for influence, but it has not emerged yet because there is no currency for it; no one knows what it’s worth,” explains Traackr’s co-founder, Pierre-Loïc Assayag. “If you happen to be one of the power users on YouTube and Google is making tons of money on you through contextual advertising, or if you’re a book reviewer on Amazon and your review inspires 10,000 people to buy a particular book, you should be getting a cut. At Traackr, we are going to tell you that you are worth x amount compared to other users—and you can use that as a negotiating angle.”

This Boston-based company scans Web pages and aggregates data about how people interact with each other online. For instance, Traackr generates statistics about how many comments their YouTube videos generate, their number of social network connections and the number of views pictures on sites like Flickr receive. The data is then normalized and assigned a value relative to other Traackr users.

How do I start Guide?

1. go to www.traackr.com
2. create a personal account on the public beta version of the site
3. link your existing  video sharing accounts, photo-sharing accounts, your music profile, etc. (At the moment this list is limited to YouTube, Flickr, Revver, Dailymotion, MySpace, Vox, and Last.fm.)
Thats it! sit back & wait fro  your "popularity" & "buzz" scores!

Now comes Traackr's turn

4. Traackr goes to those sites & sucks all the information about your content
5. Traackr comes back & distills the information into different scores!
6. you get your "popularity" & "buzz" score displayed on the site in form of Percentiles.

(for better understanding)
Percentile: If your popularity rating is 48 (which is where mine settled after I linked my Traackr account to my Flickr photostream), that means your stuff gets more page views than 48 percent of other Traackr users. Or fewer pages views than 52 percent
Popularity: no. of people see your stuff
Buzz: no. of reactions you get to what you published)

As per the Co-founder  the company is working on rolling out two additional measures - reach (measure of how often your content is passed on) & perceived quality (a measure of quality)

Sounds much like what Google isn't? exactly!  we're seeing this huge explosion of vendors that provide social media monitoring solutions. But most interesting thing for me is the potential another big problem pertaining to social media- Generate Revenue! According to an article in Forbes.com "Turning the influential power of users into a free market may just create the economic model companies specializing in it desperately need to survive. And it's a model people are unlikely to ignore."

Everything said & done... one thing to understand is that the current version of Traackr will drastically evolve as time passes. I believe if these models by Google, Traackr & other vendors are successful advertising on social media will be much more relevant & profitable to both the advertiser, the business related to the social media.

But I ask myself, will a consumer ever get paid to be cool or influential on social medium? Will they earn money for their influential power & hard work they put to create & share the content?  will be online platform always be business centric? I guess,  as time passes & as new business models evolve around us we will be more competent to answer this. But one thing I can surely say...This is time to make social networks advertising more relevant & profitable!

Future will be fun! once people start realizing their worth (influence) on online social medium there is going to be a revolution - where people will demand compensation. And may be COLLABORATION will be the name of the game!

]]> http://chandlermariecraig.wordpress.com/?p=561 Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:16:26 +0000 cmcraig http://chandlermariecraig.de.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/a-clerical-error/ Here, thought y'all might want to check out the World's 10 Best Paid Authors over at the Forbes website.

I am shocked and appalled that I was not included. There must been some glitch in the numbers. I'll be making calls today to attempt to remedy the situation.

I expect to come in somewhere around #4......................

...............35789 billionth...................

Did y'all just miss the cut as well? Bummer.

Status: Big news! I finally was approved for FULL MEMBER STATUS over at the Verla Kay Blueboards. I know, I know. The good news just keeps on coming for me. But with a little luck, hard work and a strict regimine of one post a day, you too can become a full member.

Rowling 'makes £5 every second'

JK Rowling has sold more than 400 million copies of her books worldwide

JK Rowling is the world's highest-earning author, making more than £5 every second over the past year, US business magazine Forbes has announced.

The Harry Potter writer, who made a total of $300m (£170m) last year, wrote the first of her best-selling books about the boy wizard in 1997.

Her income was six times more than literature's next-biggest earner, James Patterson, of Along Came A Spider fame.

The magazine described her work as "a children's literary sensation".

Potter franchise

A Forbes spokesman said: "It was wizardry that transformed JK Rowling from a destitute single mother on welfare into a best-selling billionaire.

TOP 10 BEST-PAID AUTHORS 1. JK Rowling - $300m (£170m) 2. James Patterson - $50m (£28m) 3. Stephen King - $45m (£25m) 4. Tom Clancy - $35m (£20m) 5. Danielle Steel - $30m (£17m) 6. John Grisham - $25m (£14m) 6. Dean Koontz - $25m (£14m) 8. Ken Follett - $20m (£11m) 9. Janet Evanovich - $17m (£10m) 10. Nicholas Sparks - $16m (£9m) Source: Forbes magazine

"Over on the big screen, her Potter franchise has already generated $4.5bn (£2.5bn) at the worldwide box office - and she still has three more flicks to come."

Since the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published, the series has taken the world by storm.

The books have sold more than 400 million copies and been translated into 67 languages.

The final instalment of the series, Deathly Hallows, has sold 44 million copies since it came out last summer - including 15 million in the first 24 hours, the magazine said.

Elsewhere on the list was horror author Stephen King in third place, followed by Tom Clancy, best known for his 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October.

At number five was Danielle Steel, with John Grisham and Dean Koontz equal in sixth place.

Best-selling author of Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett, was in eighth place, while Janet Evanovich, the writer behind the Stephanie Plum novels, was at number nine.

US writer Nicholas Sparks rounded off the top 10.

According to Patrick Groenendaal, creative director at Hampshire Group, a sweater manufacturer, the more welcoming the environment and personalized the customer service, the more comfortable men are with shopping for clothes.  Unique amenities such as a wine bar or videogames are the sorts of things that are becoming essential to attracting--and retaining--male shoppers.

Proof of the effectiveness of these tactics can be seen clearly in the numbers-  According to the NPD Group, a retail market research firm, sales in men's apparel increased 1.6% in July, while women's sales actually dropped 4.1%.

WIth its workman inspired inventory and emphasis on tradition, quality, and products with heritage, Burg & Schild in Berlin has motorcycles, wood salvaged from former East Germany, and a sponsorship by Jack Daniels.

 This shop features halfpipes and skateboard ramps to encourage skaters and surfers to feel at home.

Cuffs, an upscale tailor and mensshop featuring brands like Hermés, has an extensive wine selection to put customers at ease while browsing. 

The new John Varvatos shop on Bowery in NYC is housed in the former CBGB club and subsequently features a decor as an homage to the great rock and punk bands of the past.

A Suazilândia, última monarquia absoluta da África, defrontou-se com protestos na quinta-feira [18 de setembro], na véspera das eleições, com o crescimento da raiva num país que permanece profundamente empobrecido, apesar do pródigo estilo de vida do Rei.

Sindicatos e partidos políticos banidos planejaram bloquear as fronteiras diante das eleições parlamentares na sexta-feira [19 de setembro], descritas como insignificantes por aqueles que têm lutado por mudanças.

"Como essas eleições são chamadas de democráticas está além da minha compreensão", disse Mario Masuku, líder do People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) [Movimento Popular Democrático Unido], um dos partidos políticos banidos da Suazilândia. "O sistema político do país o torna uma gozação da democracia na região. Na Suazilândia não há eleições, apenas seleções das pessoas que dançam conforme a música do Rei".

O Rei Mswati III, que ascendeu ao trono aos 18 anos, mantém um forte e tradicional controle do poder, e é responsável pela nomeação do primeiro-ministro [executivo], do legislativo e do judiciário.

O seu país é um dos mais pobres da África, com uma das taxas mais altas de soropositividade, e alguns têm culpado o estilo de vida extravagante do Rei, financiado pelo Estado, pelo esgotamento das finanças públicas.

Há duas semanas, o governo suazilandês desperdiçou 100 milhões de emalangeni [plural de "lilangeni", moeda da Suazilândia] (12,2 milhões de dólares) em um controverso aniversário duplo para celebrar a independência do país perante a Grã-Bretanha e o aniversário do Rei.

Dúzias de carros de luxo novos em folha da BMW foram trazidos especialmente para transportar convidados para a cerimônia, e uma viagem de compras ao exterior para algumas das 13 esposas do Rei antes do evento causaram protestos.

A viagem atraiu protestos de estudantes, grupos políticos e civis sem precedentes, que denunciaram o passeio enquanto mais de dois terços da população de um milhão de habitantes do país vive na pobreza.

Liberdade de Associação

As eleições de sexta-feira foram as primeiras a acontecerem sob a nova Constituição, posta em vigência em 2006, que permite a liberdade de associação. Contudo, os candidatos só podem participar das eleições como indivíduos, e não como integrantes de partidos políticos.

A oposição e grupos da sociedade civil têm lutado por uma política plural e pela abolição da monarquia, que eles alegam ser ditatorial.

O secretário-geral da Swaziland United Democratic Front [Frente Democrática Unida da Suazilândia], Vincent Ncongwane, questionou essa semana o envio de observadores para o que chamou de uma eleição "simulada".

Observadores da Comunidade para o Desenvolvimento da África Austral, que congrega 15 nações, do Parlamento Pan-Africano [órgão legislativo da União Africana, inaugurado em março de 2004 em Adis Adeba, na Etiópia], do Commonwealth [Comunidade das Nações - Associação constituída por 53 territórios autônomos, mas dependentes do Reino Unido, criada em 1931] e da União Africana [bloco criado em 2002, nos moldes da União Européia, que possui 53 membros] vão monitorar a votação.

"É duro de compreender por que eles estão endossando esta piada", ele disse.

Os partidos políticos neste país situado no sul da África e sem saída para o mar foram banidos em 1973 pelo falecido Rei Sobhuza, após ele ter dissolvido a Constituição, declarando que ela era impraticável, já que promovia o ódio entre os suazilandeses.

A Suazilândia funciona atualmente baseada num sistema político criado internamente chamado "Tinkhundla", com eleições parlamentares organizadas a cada cinco anos, após as quais o Rei nomeia um novo primeiro-ministro.

Com uma taxa de desemprego de 40%, a votação iminente não tem significância para a maioria dos suazilandeses, disse o analista Thembinkosi Dlamini.

"As pessoas querem ver um objetivo para este país devastado pela fome, acesso a benefícios sociais e assistência médica. Eles votaram anteriormente, mas nada mudou", disse Dlamini. "Estas eleições não contemplam as virtudes da democracia moderna e a vontade do povo".

Mswati III, que lidera o país lado a lado com sua mãe, foi nomeado pela revista Forbes como um dos 15 monarcas mais ricos do mundo, com uma fortuna de 200 milhões de dólares.

O Rei foi o único monarca africano que entrou na prestigiosa lista, publicada em agosto. De acordo com a Forbes, a riqueza de Mswati III provém dos investimentos e de bens imobiliários.

Sibongile Khumalo

Acesse o texto original clicando aqui.

He thinks the global economy is getting worse, even as we speak.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan may have to be bought up by Japanese companies. And he's not sure that the 700 billion package will be enough to save the American finance system from melting down. 

Money quote:

Even Goldman Sachs is under severe stress: Most of its lines of business (including trading) are now losing money.

Both institutions should stop playing for time, as delay will be destructive: They should merge now with a large foreign financial institution, as no U.S. institution is sound enough and large enough to be a solid merger partner. If John Mack and Lloyd Blankfein don't want to end up like Richard Fuld, they should do a John Thain today and merge as fast as they can with other large commercial banks. Maybe Mitsubishi and a bunch of Japanese life insurers can take over Morgan.

The only institution sound enough to swallow Goldman may be HSBC. Or maybe Nomura in Japan should make a bid for Goldman. Either way, Mack and Blankfein should sell at a major discount before they end up like Bear and are offered, in a few weeks, only a couple of bucks a share for their faltering operation. And the Fed and Treasury should tell them to hurry up, as they are both much bigger than Bear or Lehman, and their collapse would have severe systemic effects.

When investors don't trust even venerable institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, you know that the financial crisis is as severe as ever. When a nuclear option of a monster $700 billion rescue plan is not even able to rally stock markets, you know this is a global crisis of confidence in the financial system.

The next step of this panic could be the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar-plus of the cross-border short-term interbank liabilities of the U.S. banking and financial system, as foreign banks start to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to U.S. financial institutions. A silent cross-border bank run has already started, as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of U.S. banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates--as it may now--a total meltdown of the U.S. financial system could occur.

Rising prices of oil and art paved the way for 31 new members and eight returnees, while volatile stock and housing markets forced 33 plutocrats from our rankings.

With a net worth of $57 billion, Bill Gates remains the richest man in America despite losing his crown to Warren Buffett for a few months this spring. Buffett's shares in Berkshire Hathaway have fallen 15% since February.

More from Forbes.com: • In Pictures: Secrets of the Self-Made Billionaires • In Pictures: 25 Years of Wealth • In Pictures: Service Industry Billionaires In Pictures: The 400 Richest Americans

Newcomers to the list include fertilizer tycoon Alexander Rovt, car dealer and art collector Norman Braman and Patrón tequila founder John Paul DeJoria.

Also new: Mark Zuckerberg, the 24-year-old founder of social networking site Facebook, who debuts on The Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion.

Among the returnees are Urban Outfitters chief Richard Hayne and Gap founders Donald and Doris Fisher, who rode the swelling contemporary-art market back onto the list. The couple's art collection is believed to be worth more than $1 billion.

The Forbes 400 is a snapshot of estimated wealth on Aug. 29, 2008, the day we locked in prices of publicly traded stocks. Given how unsettled the stock market is, some of those on our list will become significantly richer or poorer within weeks--even days--of publication. Many, including AIG shareholders Eli Broad and Steven Udvar-Hazy, have lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The average net worth of The Forbes 400 is $3.9 billion.

The biggest loser this year was casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, whose fortune has fallen $13 billion in the past 12 months--$1.5 million per hour--as shares of his Las Vegas Sands have dropped 75% from their all-time highs last October.

Fellow casino kingpin Kirk Kerkorian lost $6.8 billion this year as his stock in MGM Mirage fell 70% since last fall.

Other tycoons who have lost big bucks this year include Min Kao of global positioning system maker Garmin (down $2.9 billion), Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page (down $2.7 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (down $2.6 billion) and media maven Sumner Redstone (down $2.5 billion).

This year's biggest gainer is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose estimated net worth rose $8.5 billion after he bought back a 20% stake in his financial data and news firm Bloomberg L.P. from Merrill Lynch this summer, finally putting a price tag on the private media outfit.

Several Forbes 400 veterans fell off the list this year. Among them: former AIG head Maurice (Hank) Greenberg and former eBay chief Margaret Whitman.

Two-thirds of the members of The Forbes 400 have fortunes that are entirely self-made, while only 19% of the group inherited their entire fortunes.

There are 42 women on the list with an average net worth of $4.2 billion. Oprah Winfrey saw her wealth increase $200 million to $2.7 billion.

Six members of last year's list died, including potato king John Simplot and building supplies magnate Kenneth Hendricks. He is replaced by his wife, Diane. Other deaths included medical device inventor James Sorenson and Cargill heir John Hugh MacMillan III.

Sumber : Forbes.com

As children of Baby Boomers, the number of people--with money to burn--born as Millennials is 70 million and growing. That's much larger than Generation X, which includes about 46 million Americans. Gen Xers' spending power--which amounts to about $125 billion annually--can't compare with that of the Boomers, who boast an estimated buying power of $2 trillion a year with a population of 79 million, according to Mind Comet, an Orlando-based market research and consulting firm.

So of course, this means we aren't as relevant, aren't as valuable. What the fuck else is new?

Anyway, this isn't really news. It's long been common knowledge that the Boomers and Millenials are a bigger demographic. So it only stands to reason that they would have more mone and a result more buying power. Not to mention both generation spend fucking money like water. Evidence: the national debt. And if you take a look at just about any random young 20-something, you'll find they own a lot of shit, unnecessary shit in most cases -- iPhones, iPods, blackberries, laptops, overpriced t-shirts, shoes, hair gels, etc.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying GenX doesn't own it's share of irrelevant crap, but I'm going to go ahead and guess it isn't nearly to the extent that Millennials, who just have to latest, hippest newest new thing, do. Simply because we are older now and have long since learned that buying such garbage is a waste of money, especially when you have little, if any, to begin with. Of course, that hardly seems to be a problem for many Millennials.

In any case. This "revelation" doesn't really bother me. In fact, I find it encouraing. Perhaps it will mean that more marketers and advertisers will leave us, GenX, specifically me, the fuck alone. We, us, I have got better things to do. Don't you?

Let the Millenials fuel the economy:

In other words, it's not that companies are definitely profiting from hipsters in the here and now, it's that the hipster demographic is currently more powerful than any previous counterculture, yet still has a lot of growing up and spending to do in the future. Millions of hipsters are too young to spend real money yet.

It certainly seems to suit them. And leave us/me to do what we/I please. Unfettered by the gobbledygook of the commercial world. It'll be there if we feel the urge, but otherwise we/I can, as we/I, always pretty much, follow our/my own path.

Part of the path, for me anyway, is to save my money.

And when the economy starts tanking. We can always throw up our hands and say, "Hey, don't blame GenX. We don't have any significant buying power. You al said as much. Got talk to the Millennails. Tell them to get off their hipster asses and start buying some shit. We got a backyard jell-o balloon competition to get to."

Each year Forbes Online honors The Forbes Fictional 15, the richest fictional characters existing today.  Apparently all 15 together are worth a total of $137 billion, which is basically enough to give every non fictional person on Earth $20. Damn that top 1% of fictional characters, keeping the little guy down.  Anyways, the list is very cool, and has a lot of fun facts, plus a few surprise entries.  Also you should check out The Top 25 Fictional Companies if you have a chance.

Every time I move out of a place, a barrage of boxes comes with me, some of them that were never even opened but mysteriously manage to cling on… like there is a ‘boxed’ conspiracy going on… but I was wrong… not just a conspiracy, it’s a revolution. Here is the autobiography of a box that I had a chance to converse to in my living room during ‘after-move-slumped-down-resting-period’.

 The Autobiography-

I still remember the day like it happened yesterday. Or perhaps it did. I am still dazed. I was young, freshly off the assembly line from the recycling facility, full of new ideas within me.  My name is Brownine and I am a box. My friends called me Mr. Idea box – I always thought inside the box, and I was looking ahead to my future. I was built strong – double layered recycled cardboard hemmed across all of my edges. I was the state of the art box, ready to tackle the most difficult tasks of the world. I even had two little openings on my sides for humans to stick their hands right by my neck to pick me up. I liked humans. I looked at them cheerfully and aspired to hold true to their beliefs that I can hold great things. It started as the happiest day of my life when this human picked me up. I don’t know his name or don’t understand the language. All the humans look exactly the same to me. Nonetheless, I was very happy. 

They called him the ‘Leader-Box’, the heaviest of us all, sitting in the dead center of the ‘The Box World’, filled with magazines and old text books, thus carrying the wisdom of the old and the new and revered equally among all the boxes of the free world, including the spare kitchen-dishes box and the extra-cleaning-supplies-bought-from-Costco-and-long-forgotten box. He must be able to sense that our box world is about to collapse. I think he got his clue from the sudden change in our environment, with suitcases (always alien to us) beginning to disappear mysteriously one by one and the new boxes like me started coming in their places. I could never find out how he did it. I was in awe of him, despite his age evident by his outer shell, he was sitting tall carrying the entire load and with the voice that would shake the world. I immediately knew what I would want to become in my life, if I lived as long as he did. How many great things he has seen, how many great box-worlds he has been to, I wondered!

The great leader box called upon a meeting of all the boxes of the free-box world; old and new, big and small, native and foreign (with their flat smooth surfaces), even those fancy little boxes who brought the greatest gizmos known to mankind, Ipods and Laptops, with their countless silky-smooth flaps, never belonged with us brown ones, but show up anyway in the spirit of ‘Boxity’ (just like humanity for you, O my human friend).

He said - ‘How can we solve this ages-old problem of the complete destruction of our environment by these vicious humans? They love us when they bring us in but then leave us in this dark, damp god-forsaken place to rot with all these moths and silver fish crawling in us… and when we finally accept out fate, they move us out of here! How cruel can they be?’

“Not anymore!” said the leader box, “we shall retaliate; we shall get together and make them suffer! I say let’s make them remember each time they put their hands on any one of us, for the years and years to come…. You can take a Box out of storage space… but you can never take storage space out of a box! We’ll store so much that they’ll have tears when picking us up. I say let’s get heavy….fill yourselves up to the top ... and then some!! I say lets get sharp… you, Flatpan, my dear kitchen box friend, put those knives out, so that you get at least one of them…. I say LET’S GIVE THEM HELL! Now, I understand that some of us may not survive this ordeal, but it’s the sacrifice I am willing to make. And to prove that, I am going to weigh so much that if any human comes near me, they’ll bleed through their fingers!!! O the sweet victory, I can taste it now!!

So excited was the world that the boxes started ripping apart the tapes that held them together, some of them made holes in them and let more bugs come in and eat away the precious old clothes (to be donated to salvation army) and little newspaper clippings they were holding… the kitchen boxes pushed the knives right through them to support the cause….. Even the boxes with carrying the linens got right next to the wall to collect dirt and the rain water that seeped through.

It was beautiful.

I, in all this excitement, got my flaps on some old chemical engineering and Forbes magazines that were lying around in one corner. I put all of them inside me, but still had some more room left, so I started picking up the small boxes and tossed them right inside me. I was bulging from all the places. I was the biggest of them all… and the heaviest! And that was the moment when I felt it. I knew how the leader box got all his wisdom. I was dreaming. I was dreaming finance. I was dreaming chemistry. I suddenly started understanding the world around me, the human world.. It was amazing. I started forgetting where I was, I just wanted to do some experiments and make a lot of money! I wanted to be the Einstein of the Wallstreet!

A gentle yet firm flap on my back from the Leader-box brought me back to the box-world, and he said to me, “It’s a boon to know all these things, yet it’s a curse to carry them. Knowledge is power and with power comes responsibility, whether you want it or not”.

Nevertheless, the day dreaded by all of us finally came … I never saw such pain, such misery, and such sacrifice in my life. It was a massacre. Never saw so many boxes dying, their flaps just flapping away like the wood chips back in the factory. I wouldn’t know where to begin and where to end the events that took place that day. So I’ll just leave them for now as a memory within me. I still cry for that day, so much that I started growing mold. Our Leader sacrificed himself. For us. We shall never forget him. Never.

Now, I am the leader of whatever world is left of us… and I feel him in me, literally, since you put his flaps inside me, to make me even stronger..  Even after his death he lives on! O my great leader box. I salute you!

Epilogue-

Every now and then I visit the storage room to dump more stuff in it to help rebuild his new box-world. The new leader is still strong, waiting patiently for the time when he would start a revolution. If it had eyes they'd have been RED. One of these visits, I asked him if he was something else, anything, what would he want to be? He said, “A Collapsible Plastic bin”.

Cependant, selon Forbes, le nombre de milliardaires est en hausse passant de 946 à 1125 pour cette année. Par conséquent, l' industrie du luxe n' a pas à se faire de mauvais sang et ne doit pas avoir peur de la crise.

Il devient même important que les entreprises séduisent cette clientèle haut de gamme en lui proposant des services de qualité adaptés à leur exigences.

Les compagnies aériennes doivent repenser leur offre "First" pour pouvoir répondre parfaitement à ces passagers.

Notre compagnie nationale, Air France, qui s' était longtemps reposé avec le Concorde pour séduire ces workaolics ou amateurs de voyages luxueux, a décidé de revoir son produit Première.

Nouveaux services avec de nouveaux salons (plus grands), des stewarts et hôtesses dédiés, voiture de maître du salon à l' avion, porteurs, ...

Que sera le luxe à la française?

BETC a travaillé sur une campagne très fétichiste, où l' on apercoît simplement l' avion au travers du profil du talon.

Un peu de mal à concevoir le message qui est fait au travers de ce visuel : voyager comme si vous alliez à une soirée de charité, à la remise des Oscars ou au dernier défilé Chanel? Escort girls à bord?

Disruptif... c'est le moins que nous puissions dire. Mais est-ce que cela va servir le discours? Je ne sais pas trop...