Jubilee Prosperity

Beware loud Bulls and Born Again Calves

Carlos Slim Helu, Lebanese trader and Mexican Telecom Tycoon, became recognized as the world’s richest man in August 2007 and March 2010.

He was the first richest person from an emerging economy, unless we count Abraham, Solomon and Alexander.

It seems the Lebanese were some of the world’s great traders from Biblical times, with Hiram of Tyre and King Solomon.

Sr Slim and his holding companies own 49.1% of TMX: TelMex.

Telefonos de Mexico was long a Sir John Templeton and family holding, along with Mexico Fund, from split-adjusted prices around a dollar a share.

TMX had 90% of the market and charged among the highest telephone rates in the world. Sr Slim, the gold patron of the American Academy of Achievement and Commander in the Belgian Order of Leopold II commented:

When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.

Sr Slim was the youngest son of a poor Lebanese father who as a 14 year-old fled Ottoman Empire conscription.  His father arrived in Mexico City in 1902 without speaking Spanish, and began a publishing and real estate empire.

At 26 in 1966, Sr Slim, an engineering school graduate, was worth $40 million.

Around his 70^th Aquarian birthday, Sr Slim, a friend of futurist Alvin Tofler, was worth $53.5 Billion.

He observed: The stock market goes up … and down.

Right up there with JP Morgan’s: The market will continue to fluctuate.

The richest man in the world just humbly noted his fortune could quickly drop.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Market Psychology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.