Billionaires: 10 Intriguing New Facts About Who’s Getting Rich Now
A new Chinese billionaire was created almost every week in the first quarter of 2015, according to a just-released report by UBS and PwC.
"Asia's billionaires make up 36 percent of self-made billionaire wealth, overtaking Europe for the first time and second only to the U.S.," said Antoinette Hoon, private banking advisory services partner for PwC in Hong Kong. “Looking forward, we expect the region to be the center of new billionaire wealth creation.”
Related: 6 Traits of an Emerging Millionaire: Are You One?
The report, which looked at data for 1,300 billionaires over 19 years, found – unsurprisingly -- that entrepreneurship is a powerful force for wealth creation. “Billionaires: Master architects of great wealth and lasting legacies" also noted that many billionaires are embracing philanthropy to build a legacy.
Here are 10 other findings of the report:
- 917 self-made billionaires generated more than $3.6 trillion of global wealth between 1995 and 2014.
- Of them, 23 percent launched their first business before age 30; 68 percent before turning 40.
- The second-highest number of self-made American billionaires (27.3 percent) in the last two decades came out of the tech sector.
- Finance produced 30 percent of U.S. billionaires, but they aren’t as rich as their counterparts in tech; their average net worth is $4.5 billion, compared with $7.8 billion for tech moneybags.
- In Europe and Asia, self-made billionaires mostly made their money in the consumer industry. Their wealth averages $5.7 billion. Tech entrepreneurs in Europe and Asia were the second-richest group with an average worth of $3.8 billion.
- More than two-thirds of global billionaires are over 60 years old and have more than one child.
- The average age of Asia billionaires is 57, 10 years younger than in the U.S. and Europe.
- About one fourth of Asian billionaires had impoverished childhoods, compared with 8 percent in the U.S. and 6 percent in Europe.
- 60 percent of self-made billionaires in the U.S. and Europe retain their businesses, 30 percent dispose of part of their business via an IPO or trade sale, with 10 percent selling outright.
- In Europe and Asia, billionaires are most likely to create a business dynasty, with 57 percent of European and 56 percent of Asian billionaire families, respectively, taking over the family business when the founder retires. In the U.S., just 36 percent of businesses remain family-run once the founder retires.
GOP Tax Cuts Getting Less Popular, Poll Finds
Friday marked the six-month anniversary of President Trump’s signing the Republican tax overhaul into law, and public opinion of the law is moving in the wrong direction for the GOP. A Monmouth University survey conducted earlier this month found that 34 percent of the public approves of the tax reform passed by Republicans late last year, while 41 percent disapprove. Approval has fallen by 6 points since late April and disapproval has slipped 3 points. The percentage of people who aren’t sure how they feel about the plan has risen from 16 percent in April to 24 percent this month.
Other findings from the poll of 806 U.S. adults:
- 19 percent approve of the job Congress is doing; 67 percent disapprove
- 40 percent say the country is heading in the right direction, up from 33 percent in April
- Democrats hold a 7-point edge in a generic House ballot
Special Tax Break Zones Defined for All 50 States
The U.S. Treasury has approved the final group of opportunity zones, which offer tax incentives for investments made in low-income areas. The zones were created by the tax law signed in December.
Bill Lucia of Route Fifty has some details: “Treasury says that nearly 35 million people live in the designated zones and that census tracts in the zones have an average poverty rate of about 32 percent based on figures from 2011 to 2015, compared to a rate of 17 percent for the average U.S. census tract.”
Click here to explore the dynamic map of the zones on the U.S. Treasury website.
Map of the Day: Affordable Care Act Premiums Since 2014
Axios breaks down how monthly premiums on benchmark Affordable Care Act policies have risen state by state since 2014. The average increase: $481.
Obamacare Repeal Would Lead to 17.1 Million More Uninsured in 2019: Study
A new analysis by the Urban Institute finds that if the Affordable Care Act were eliminated entirely, the number of uninsured would rise by 17.1 million — or 50 percent — in 2019. The study also found that federal spending would be reduced by almost $147 billion next year if the ACA were fully repealed.
Your Tax Dollars at Work
Mick Mulvaney has been running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since last November, and by all accounts the South Carolina conservative is none too happy with the agency charged with protecting citizens from fraud in the financial industry. The Hill recently wrote up “five ways Mulvaney is cracking down on his own agency,” and they include dropping cases against payday lenders, dismissing three advisory boards and an effort to rebrand the operation as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection — a move critics say is intended to deemphasize the consumer part of the agency’s mission.
Mulvaney recently scored a small victory on the last point, changing the sign in the agency’s building to the new initials. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does not exist,” Mulvaney told Congress in April, and now he’s proven the point, at least when it comes to the sign in his lobby (h/t to Vox and thanks to Alan Zibel of Public Citizen for the photo, via Twitter).
