According to the latest Forbes China Rich List (2007), China had 66 billionaires, the second largest number after the United States, which had 415.

In the latest 2007 Hurun Report, it lists 106 billionaires in China.

This agenda might seem selfish, though understandable from the point of view of an oil billionaire.

Vijay Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman and politician.

In another joke making the rounds in Moscow, a billionaire borrows 300 rubles (just over 10) from another to buy Forbes to check his place in the latest rankings of Russia s richest people.

A billionaire telecommunications tycoon, Thaksin presided over the trebling of his family s assets in the stock market.

In Thailand, the self made ethnic Chinese media billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra was especially admired by the rural poor.

This means that if each billionaire would contribute 0.7 of their net worth, the total sum would be 25 billion per year.

Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov ( born 3 May 1965) is a Russian billionaire, politician, and owner of the American basketball team the Brooklyn Nets.

As a Russian friend of mine told me recently, Putin wants to live like Roman Abramovich and to rule like Stalin. He is the man in charge.

According to the most recent Forbes list, there are 1,011 billionaires in the world, with a combined net worth of 3.5 trillion dollars.

But will society see the software billionaire as having acquired her wealth unfairly, or will it see that wealth as a fair reward for cleverness?

In Egypt, Gamal Mubarak will have to counter the widespread perception that his interests are aligned with close allies among the business elite, notably steel tycoon Ahmed el Ezz.

Such CSR builds the firm s image as a good corporation, just as giving by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet builds their image as good billionaires.

Similarly, the party s endorsement of the pragmatic National Development Plan and the election of popular labor leader turned billionaire Cyril Ramaphosa as Deputy President are unlikely to stem the risks that it now faces.

Originally funded by yet another billionaire, George Soros, Project Syndicate operates independently to provide hard to monetize informed opinion and analysis with nary an advertorial or product review in sight.

One minute, President Vladimir Putin s regime is on a charm offensive, desiring a settlement to its six decade old territorial dispute with Japan over the Kurile Islands and reassuring investors following the conviction of oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

This is where the first miracle is needed a benevolent but ultimately profit driven billionaire or hedge fund, or a philanthropy that sees a way to do good while earning money for future goodness.

Property rights are ultimately sanctioned by society, and, to the extent that they seem to be unfair, society has an incentive to change them. But will society see the software billionaire as having acquired her wealth unfairly, or will it see that wealth as a fair reward for cleverness?

And, finally, there is Project Syndicate itself (which publishes this column). Originally funded by yet another billionaire, George Soros, Project Syndicate operates independently to provide hard to monetize informed opinion and analysis with nary an advertorial or product review in sight.