All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--Their Fortunes

430 Pages·2007·6.23 MB·English

by  Peter W. Bernstein

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All the Money
in the World
Contributors
Paul Berger
Anna Isgro
Gwen Kinkead
Alex Ulam
All the Money
in the World
400
How the Forbes
Make–and Spend–
Their Fortunes
E D I T E D B Y
Peter W. Bernstein
A N D
Annalyn Swan
Alfred A.Knopf New York 2007
this is a borzoi book
published by alfred a. knopf
Copyright © 2007 by ASAP Media,LLC
All rights reserved.Published in the United States by Alfred A.Knopf,
a division ofRandom House,Inc.,New York,and in Canada by
Random House ofCanada Limited,Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf,Borzoi Books,and the colophon are registered trademarks
ofRandom House,Inc.
Forbes 400 is a trademark ofForbes LLC.
Image ofSam Walton (p.17):AP Photo/Danny Johnston;
image ofWarren Buffett (p.17):AP Photo/Seth Wenig,File.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All the money in the world :how the Forbes 400 make—and spend—
their fortunes / edited by Peter W.Bernstein and Annalyn Swan.
p. cm.—(A Borzoi book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-26770-2
1. Rich people—United States. 2. Millionaires—United States.
3. Wealth—United States. I. Bernstein,Peter W.
II. Swan,Annalyn. III. Forbes Inc.
HC110.W4A436 2007
305.5′2340973—dc22 2007015676
v1.0
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
Part One: What It Takes
1. Education,Intelligence,Drive 23
2. Risk 46
3. Luck—and Timing 68
4. Winning Is Everything 87
Part Two: Making It
5. Blue-collar Billionaires 109
6. West Coast Money 131
7. Entertainment and Media 156
8. Beyond Wall Street 176
Part Three: Spending It
9. Conspicuous Consumption 205
10. Heirs 230
11. Family Feuds 252
12. Giving It Away 276
13. Power and Politics 306
Afterword:Money and Happiness 327
Appendix: The Forbes 400,1982–2006 331
Notes 361
Index 397

Acknowledgments
For the past twenty-five years, Forbes magazine has compiled its now leg-
endary list ofthe four hundred wealthiest Americans and considered the state
of the nation’s vast fortunes.Its issues on the subject have been rich in facts
and figures,on who’s up and who’s down,on whether Bill Gates (or Donald
Trump) has a billion more or less.But the list is perforce numbers-driven;the
issues focus less on the character of the people and the peculiar world they
inhabit.What makes the Forbes 400 members tick? Who gets to the top—and
why? How different are they from more average Americans? Are they happy?
What lessons about money and life can we glean from them?
In All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make—and Spend—
Their Fortunes,we set out to answer these questions and to create a collective
profile of America’s superrich over twenty-five years. While this book was
created in collaboration with Forbes, much of the information comes from
our own interviews,original research,and never-before-compiled data.
When we first approached Tim Forbes, the company’s chief operating
officer,with the idea for the book,he enthusiastically endorsed it.Through-
out the research and writing, many at the magazine eased our way, sharing
insights, opening archives and files, providing phone numbers and e-mail
addresses, and helping in every way possible. Pete Newcomb, the longtime
editor of the Forbes 400 list, was an inexhaustible source of information
about members of the 400, as was his successor, Matthew Miller. James
Michaels,the first editor ofthe Forbes 400,shared with us information,anec-
dotes, and insights from the early years.Additionally, Mitchell Rand, direc-
tor of information technology, provided original and insightful analysis of
Forbes 400 data over the last twenty-five years,while Barbara Strauch,direc-
tor ofForbes’s book division,reviewed the data and manuscript and compiled
the definitive list of all Forbes 400 members. Their efforts are immediately
evident in the many charts,graphs,and tables throughout the book,to which
designer Nigel Holmes has brought his distinctive flair.
At the heart ofAll the Money in the Worldare the voices ofthe Forbes 400
members themselves,as well as those oftheir families.Many gave us extensive
viii Acknowledgments
interviews. (A few requested anonymity; we honored their wishes.) Others
responded—sometimes at length—to a questionnaire we sent. Still others
maintained an e-mail correspondence with us.We are most grateful to them
for their time and insights into every aspect of Forbes 400 careers, philan-
thropic causes, and much more: Sheldon Adelson, John E. Anderson, Leon
Black,Timothy Blixseth,Michael Bloomberg,Eli Broad,Peter Buffett,Susie
Buffett,S.Truett Cathy,Jim Clark,Mark Cuban,David Duffield,Red Emmer-
son,Ken Fisher,Ted Forstmann,Daniel Gilbert,David Gold,Stanley S.Hub-
bard, J. B. Hunt, Jon Huntsman Jr., Michael Huffington, Wayne Huizenga,
David Kaplan,Vinod Khosla, Charles Koch, David Koch, Jerome Kohlberg,
Herbert Kohler Jr.,Bruce Kovner,Ronald Lauder,John Malone,Ross Perot,
Ross Perot Jr.,T.Boone Pickens,Marc Rich,Julian Robertson,Arthur Rock,
Wilbur L. Ross, Richard Mellon Scaife, Charles Schwab, Steve Schwarzman,
Charles Simonyi,Ram Shriram,Robert F.X.Sillerman,John Sobrato,James
Tisch,Donald Trump,Ivanka Trump,Mortimer Zuckerman.
This book has also benefited greatly from the wisdom of many writers,
professors,and analysts who have thought and written about wealth.Each is
credited in the Notes section, at the top of the chapters in which they are
quoted. We owe a number of them special thanks: the writers Nelson W.
Aldrich Jr., Ken Auletta of The New Yorker, Dr. Paul Babiak (industrial psy-
chologist and author),Ron Chernow,Richard Conniff,Edward Jay Epstein,
David A. Kaplan of Newsweek, Dr. Michael Maccoby (psychoanalyst and
author), Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein, Matthew
Symonds of The Economist,and Thayer Cheatham Willis.A number of pro-
fessors gave generously of their time and insights: Raphael Amit (Wharton
School,University of Pennsylvania),Joseph Astrachan (Kennesaw State Uni-
versity),John C.Coffee (Columbia University Law School),Pablo Eisenberg
(Public Policy Institute,Georgetown University),K.Anders Ericsson (Florida
State University), Charles Geisst (Manhattan College), Alexander Horni-
man (Darden School ofBusiness,University ofVirginia),Christopher Jencks
(HarvardUniversity),StevenKaplan(UniversityofChicagoBusinessSchool),
Andrew Keyt (Chicago Family Business Center, Loyola University), Josh
Lerner(HarvardBusinessSchool),AnthonyMayo(director,LeadershipInsti-
tute, Harvard Business School), Eli Noam (Columbia University Business
School),Peter Singer (Princeton University),David A.Skeel Jr.(University of
Pennsylvania), George Smith (Stern School of Business, New York Univer-
sity),James Allen Smith (Georgetown University),Roy C.Smith (New York
University), Robert J. Sternberg (dean of the School of Arts and Sciences,