Political turmoil and economic uncertainty did not stop the rich getting richer in 2014. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 400 wealthiest people in the world added $92 billion (Dh338bn) to their combined net worth last year, bringing their total stash to a whopping $4.1 trillion.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim again topped the list but it’s interesting that five of the top-20 earners – the bosses of fashion houses Zara, Louis Vuitton and H& M, parfumier L’Oreal and furniture giant Ikea – deal in products that are superseded on a regular basis and sell in great numbers to repeat customers.
One of the biggest numbers in common use among mathematicians is the googol – 10 to the power of 100 – which served as an inspiration to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It’s no surprise, then, that they also figure prominently on the list of people with multiple zeroes in their bank accounts.