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INTRODUCTION

These are external links and will open in a new window. The new Forbes list of the world's richest people shows that there are more than 1, billionaires across the globe. With Russian and China boasting more than billionaires each, a level previously only reached by the United States, is the western obsession with ranking wealth spreading?

Americans seem to have become fascinated by wealth first; US newspapers produced rich lists from public filings at least 90 years ago, maybe much longer. But the rich list obsession got a great push from the American magazine Forbes , in Forbes was very much a family concern, started by the once impoverished Scottish immigrant BC Forbes in Forbes was obsessed with success in business. Success was charted by net worth, somebody's personal assets minus their borrowings. BC Forbes' son, the flamboyant Malcolm, decided that other people wanted to know how rich other people were.

Fascinating fortunes: Our rich list obsession

Maybe even the rich wanted to know. Forbes sleuths pieced the evidence together and came out with a figure. Then they drew up a score card, the Forbes It was an obvious counter play to the rival magazine Fortune's list of the top US companies, the Fortune , started 27 years earlier in Correct or not, the Forbes rich list tended to stick. Different publications came up with completely different results, suggesting rich list compiling was very much an art not a science a bit like auditing and accounting, really.

But the huge variations did not appear to undermine the attractions of reading lists of rich people, and speculating about them in a league table of wealth in which participants moved up or down year after year, as events, mistakes and the passing scene impacted on their incomes, outgoings and perceived wealth. When they died, their fortunes were divided up. Many of the American participants in the Forbes Rich List owe their position solely to inheritance: In some cases a fortune is big enough to create several family members in the List, like the Walton inheritors of the Walmart billions.


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Inherited wealth has not yet had time to happen in China. But the Forbes Rich List idea has grown internationally over the years, and it does not seem to lose its potency. Most countries now seem to have at least one list of the richest, the most powerful, the smartest, and circulations rise whenever the lists are published. Readers love thinking about wealth, matching the money to the personal histories of people they do not know and will never meet. The obvious unspoken questions are "Are they beautiful?

The writing is very readable, a fine style that makes this book a quick read and that lacks typographical or editing errors. He was not simply born a monstrous killer; he grew up as people do, and had challenges to face, obstacles to overcome, again just like people generally do.

Booth was physically gifted, quite fit, strong and athletic, good at riding horses and using guns and swords, which came in handy in his chosen career. Many people considered him a gentleman. He was also well-liked by many fellow actors and was willing to offer advice to younger thespians once he had started to establish himself as a star.

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One flaw he did possess was explained in a line from page He was born with great physical gifts and was not a person naturally inclined to study, but he loved his profession and as he matured, he did work harder at his craft, though he never quite arrived at the point where he strived to be the very best technician. Real life, of course, could not avoid interfering even with the make-believe life of the world of acting. His love of the union as one whole nation was a surprising revelation of this book. As much as this book reveals the normal challenges Booth faced, it also describes his evolution into the bitter, angry man who committed the assassination.

Booth favored the South, supported slavery, and felt the North was badly mistreating his beloved region.

Fortune telling addiction: Unfortunately a serious topic. About a case report

He usually tried to avoid having political discussions and hearing news about the war, but that was impossible in such times and his anger grew and became more well-known. A bitterly heated argument with his brother Edwin was one example of his political beliefs affecting his life. Booth began drinking more frequently as life and the war continued, though alcohol apparently energized him more than it made him drunk. It almost was like his version of Red Bull. His behavior became more erratic, as he sometimes surprisingly ignored or rudely treated old friends.

His planning of the plot to kidnap Lincoln and recruitment of the associates whose assistance he wanted shows that he was not completely mad, and that he still maintained the capacity of logical thinking, at least in planning the kidnapping plot, even if focusing on such a deed was not logical to most people. This changed, however, when the kidnapping plan failed and Northern victory in the war became a reality.

Booth then became significantly more angry and bitter, almost a Mr.


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Hyde-type monster in terms of his red-hot hatred towards Lincoln. While the early parts of this book showed a gentlemen and a likeable person, perhaps a Dr.

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