World's richest man, Carlos Slim, loses $6.7 billion, estimates say

CARLOS Slim, the world's richest man, lost around $US6.7 billion last week.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Slim's stock portfolio has fallen 9.5 per cent since July 29 when measured in US dollars, and is now valued at $64.4 billion.

The Standard & Poor's 500 has fallen 7.2 per cent during that time.

Slim, 71, has taken a hit as Mexico's benchmark IPC index dropped 6.4 per cent and the peso slid 2.3 per cent against the dollar on concerns that the flagging US economy will hurt demand for assets in its southern neighbour. The removal of three of Slim's companies from the IPC index has made matters worse for the billionaire.

Leon Cabrera, a trader at Mexico City-based Vanguardia Casa de Bolsa, told Bloomberg that Slim was "particularly hurt" by the companies that were removed from the IPC.

When Slim's holding are measured in Mexican pesos, the drop in value was somewhere around 7.3 per cent.

Forbes named Slim the world's richest man, and put him at the top of its annual World Billionaires' list, for the second year in a row this year. In March, the magazine put Slim's net worth at $74 billion, and said it had grown by $20.5 billion in the previous year, on the strength of the Mexican stock market, a stronger peso, and "successful mining and real estate spinoffs from conglomerate Grupo Carso."

According to Bloomberg, Slim's fellow billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have fared slightly better during the recent market turmoil. Gates's Microsoft Corp. dropped 6.3 per cent last week, while Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. fell 3.9 per cent.

World markets are expected to open down on Monday, in the wake of Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the US credit rating from AAA to AA+. Wall Street experienced its worst week since September 2008 last week, and Reuters reports that global stocks lost $2.5 trillion in value.

theaustralian.com.au 7 Aug 2011

The so called 'loss' is a paper loss and NOT a real monetary loss.

Another lie perpetuated by the mass media, in order to stupify the masses, and keep the true leaders of the world out of the public eye.

The Rothschild's are never mentioned in any mass media articles, and did not appear in the Forbes rich list.

The banking families are deliberately kept out of the public eye.

In the 1850's it was estimated that they (the Rothschild's) controlled 80% of the world's economy.