Trash Talk Between Indian Billionaires?

Posted: 01 Jun 2011 09:29 AM PDT

There seems to be an unwritten rule among billionaires: don't criticize each other's lifestyle.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, for instance, spend a lot of time pressing other billionaires to give away more money and do more for society. But they have never ridiculed Paul Allen's megayachts and private jets, or Larry Ellison's real-estate sprees.

: Bloomberg News

Perhaps that is why Indian billionaire Ratan Tata (left) has sparked controversy by weighing in on the vertical palace owned by fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

In an interview in The Sunday Times of London, Tata was quoted as saying that the 27-story home, reportedly costing up to $1 billion, may have been ill-considered in a country of such widespread poverty.

“It makes me wonder why someone would do that…” the Times quoted him as saying in this article (subscription required). “The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and [asking] can he make a difference. If he is not, then it’s sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have.”

A Tata representative issued a statement that "Tata's comments on wealth are in the larger context of the growing disparity in the society."

That didn't stop the Indian press from blasting the comments on the front pages and on TV news, creating a "billionaire vs. billionaire" controversy.

The fact that these fairly tame comments would touch off controversy shows just how sensitive lifestyle criticism has become for the rich. Rata Tata is famous for living modestly. But in the world of billionaires, it is one thing to signal disapproval with another billionaire's toys: it is quite another to voice it.

What do you think of Tata's comments?

Millionaires Control 39% of the World’s Wealth

Posted: 31 May 2011 11:04 AM PDT

Last year was another good year for millionaires – though their pace of growth is slowing.

According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group out today, the number of millionaire households in the world grew by 12.2% in 2010, to 12.5 million. (BCG defines millionaires as those with $1 million or more in investible assets, excluding homes, luxury goods and ownership in one's own company).

The U.S. continues to lead the world in millionaires, with 5.2 million millionaire households, followed by Japan with 1.5 million millionaire households, China with 1.1 million and the U.K. with 570,000. Singapore leads the world in "millionaire density," or the percentage of millionaires, with 15.5% of its population now millionaire households.

The most important trend, however, is the global wealth distribution. According to the report, the world's millionaires represent 0.9% of the world's population but control 39% of the world's wealth, up from 37% in 2009. Their wealth now totals $47.4 trillion in investible wealth, up from $41.8 trillion in 2009.

Those higher up the wealth ladder also gained. Those with $5 million or more, who represent 0.1% of the population, controlled 22% of the world's wealth, up from 20 percent in 2009.

As you can see from the accompanying chart, millionaires control 29% of North America's wealth, while millionaires control about 38% of the wealth in the Middle East and Africa. While the chart makes it look like millionaire-wealth in America is more concentrated, we also have far more millionaires, so their wealth is more spread out among the millionaire population.

Still, the data supports a trend we have been seeing for years: the rise of the global, winner-take-all (or most) economy.