Friday, June 2, 2017

Obama, Musk, Other World and Industry Leaders Call Paris Climate Deal Withdrawal a Mistake - NBC News

POLITICS JUN 2 2017, 2:32 AM ET
Obama, Musk, Other World and Industry Leaders Call Paris Climate Deal Withdrawal a Mistake
by PHIL HELSEL  and LEIGH ANN CALDWELL
Former President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the cities and businesses of the United States should step up to reduce greenhouse gases after President Donald Trump announced that America would withdraw from the Paris climate change accord.
The mayor of Pittsburgh, pushing back on Trump's statement that he was elected to represent the citizens of that former steel-making giant rather than those of Paris, condemned the withdrawal.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk immediately announced he will quit presidential advisory councils. Disney CEO Bob Iger said he was out, too. General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said "Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government."

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Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.
"The United States joins Syria, Nicaragua & Russia in deciding not to participate with world's Paris Agreement. It's now up to cities to lead," Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, said on Twitter.
Trump said at an announcement at the Rose Garden on Thursday that the United States would withdraw from the international agreement negotiated under Obama, citing a desire to protect American jobs and fuel what he has claimed would be three percent economic growth.
Because Obama didn't ask the Senate for approval of the Paris accord, Trump can act unilaterally without the consent of Congress. Democrats, however, could slow down any action on the floor in retaliation of the decision and tie any pending nominations to the issue, actions that won't change the outcome but frustrate Republicans and the White House.
Obama said in a statement that a withdrawal means an abdication of American leadership. 
"The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack," Obama said in the statement. 
"But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I'm confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we've got," Obama said. 
Reaction on Capitol Hill was mostly partisan, with Republicans standing by the president's decision, praising the U.S.'s withdrawal as good for the economy. "President Trump has once again put families and jobs ahead of left-wing ideology and should be commended for his action," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
But some Republicans in Congress opposed Trump's move. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said on Twitter: "Climate change requires a global approach. I'm disappointed in the President's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement."
Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, who is expected to have a tough re-election in his swing district in south Florida, lobbed a series of tweets in opposition.

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Something's not right when @POTUS is putting our country on a list with bad hombres Bashar al Assad of Syria & Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua
Trump had pledged on the campaign trail to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, which is a non-binding agreement that asks that all signing countries — rich and poor — take concrete steps to reduce their carbon emissions in the face of climate change.
The Obama administration pledged a 26 to 28 percent cut in U.S. emissions, which Republicans have criticized for potentially having a negative impact on the American economy and its energy sector.
Former Sectary of State John Kerry said on MSNBC that the move to withdraw from the Paris deal was "an extraordinary abdication of American leadership."
He noted that the program was voluntary, and the United States was not forced to do anything under the accord.
"It was a voluntary program. We designed the program," Kerry said. "The president was not truthful with the American people today, and the president who talked about putting 'America first' has now put America last."
Withdrawing from the climate deal could take three years, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said this week.
And French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni said in a joint statement Thursday that they take note "with regret" the U.S. decision to pull out of the 2015 agreement.
The three leaders say they regard the accord as "a cornerstone in the cooperation between our countries, for effectively and timely tackling climate change."
They added that the course charted by the accord is "irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated."
Macron, Merkel and Gentiloni say they remain committed to the deal and will "step up efforts" to support the poorest and most threatened nations.

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Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreeement was wrong for our planet. Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric called Trump's decision a "major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday "We are deeply disappointed that the United States federal government has decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement" and said Canada is committed to fighting climate change.
Trump on Thursday left open the possibility of renegotiating what he called a better deal that would put American taxpayers first, and suggested the climate deal was a ruse that put the United States at a competitive disadvantage.
"The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries," Trump said.
Former President Bill Clinton said on Twitter: "Walking away from Paris treaty is a mistake. Climate change is real. We owe our children more. Protecting our future also creates more jobs."
And Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in his first tweet from a verified account that "Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership position in the world," adding the hashtag #ParisAgreement.

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Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership position in the world. #ParisAgreement
The governors of New York, California, and Washington state said in a statement that they would form a "United States Climate Alliance" which they called "a coalition that will convene U.S. states committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement and taking aggressive action on climate change."
A speaker at a protest near the White House called the move "treason" and the crowd chanted "lock him up," a play off of Trump supporters' chants targeting Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign.

Trump's announced withdrawal from the climate deal was not unexpected. On Wednesday in a tweet in which Trump said he would announce his decision on Thursday, the president ended with his signature phrase: "Make America great again." 
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Trump's withdrawal from Paris Climate Accord branded worst policy blunder - Independent


Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate deal has been labelled an “international disgrace” by world leaders, US politicians and environmental groups, who all lined-up to decry the President's announcement. 
The President’s decision to pull the US out of the accord aligns the country with Syria and Nicaragua, the only two nations that did not sign up for the 195-nation deal reached in Paris in 2015.
Mr Trump called German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Theresa May after his speech announcing his decision – but that did not stop his allies from voicing their displeasure.
Ms May told Mr Trump that she was disappointed and stressed that the UK remained committed to the agreement.
Italy, France and Germany issued a joint statement saying they regretted Mr Trump's decision to withdraw, and dismissed his suggestion that the global pact could be revised. The US President said he is seeking a “fairer deal” that would protect American workers. 
“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” the leaders of the three countries said.
The unusual French-Italian-German statement, released barely an hour after Mr Trump announced his decision, underscored the disappointment of the Eurozone's three largest economies and their resolve to plough ahead without Washington's support.
Ms Merkel said that she would continue to work to “save the Earth” while Mr Macron said there was “no plan B because there is no planet B”. Aping Mr Trump's 'Make America Great Again' slog, Mr Macron urged nations to “make our planet great again”.
Back in the US, former President Barack Obama – who helped shape the Paris accord – said Mr Trump's administration was joining “a small handful of nations that reject the future”.
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator, called the US’s withdrawal an “abdication of American leadership”.  
“At this moment, when climate change is already causing devastating harm around the world, we do not have the moral right to turn our backs on efforts to preserve this planet for future generations,” Mr Sanders said.
Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse, co-chair of the US Senate’s Climate Action Task Force said, “ignoring reality and leaving the Paris agreement could go down as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our nation's history.”
Democratic congresswoman Norma Torres, a member of the House’s natural resources committee, noted that the agreement was a “landmark achievement that saw unprecedented cooperation between 175 nations and all sectors of the economy.”
“To say this was a diplomatic victory for the United States would be an understatement,” Ms Torres said. “However, once again, we're seeing President Trump cede US global leadership to suit his personal political agenda.” 
Tanya Steele, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said the US’s withdrawal “would make it harder for the world, to reach a safer and more prosperous future.”
“Most people in the UK want the Prime Minister to convince President Trump to stay true to what was agreed in Paris and we urge the next UK Government to press for the USA to urgently re-join the Agreement,” Ms Steele said. 
She added: “The Paris Agreement is more important than just one country and with over 196 signatories it will continue to work towards a low carbon, sustainable future. The Trump administration must not only back the agreement but be a driving force in tackling climate change.”

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris and Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, urged Mr Trump to reconsider his “short-sighted” decision.

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Thursday, June 1, 2017

How will the Paris Climate Accord work without USA ? - New York Times

How will the Paris climate Accord work without USA ?

President Trump is said to be considering withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, a landmark accord reached in 2015 between 195 countries that seeks to avoid some of the worst effects of climate change by curbing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The White House says it has not yet reached a final decision on Paris, and hundreds of corporations and world leaders are lobbying the United States to stay in the pact. Within the administration, some senior officials, including Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, have warned the president that the diplomatic repercussions from leaving could be severe.

An American withdrawal would not scuttle the Paris accord, but it could seriously weaken global efforts to avoid drastic climate change. Here’s a primer on how the Paris agreement works — and what could happen if the United States leaves.

What does the Paris climate deal actually do?

Under the Paris agreement, every country submitted an individual plan to tackle its greenhouse gas emissions and then agreed to meet regularly to review their progress and prod one another to ratchet up their efforts as the years went by.

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Unlike its predecessor treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris deal was intended to be nonbinding, so that countries could tailor their climate plans to their domestic situations and alter them as circumstances changed. There are no penalties for falling short of declared targets. The hope was that, through peer pressure and diplomacy, these policies would be strengthened over time.

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Under the deal, the Obama administration pledged to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 as well as to commit up to $3 billion in aid for poorer countries by 2020. (The United States has delivered $1 billion to date.) China vowed that its emissions would peak around 2030 and that it would get about 20 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by then. India would continue to reduce its carbon intensity, or CO2 output per unit of economic activity, in line with historical levels.

While the current pledges would not prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the threshold deemed unacceptably risky, there is some evidence that the Paris deal’s “soft diplomacy” is nudging countries toward greater action. A recent study from the Grantham Research Institute found that the mere existence of the accord had prodded dozens of countries to enact new clean-energy laws.

How would the United States withdraw from Paris?

Because the deal is nonbinding, there are no penalties if the United States pulls out.

The Trump administration can invoke the accord’s formal withdrawal mechanism, which takes four years — though American officials could stop participating in any future climate talks immediately. A future administration could, if it chose, rejoin.

More radically, the Trump administration could withdraw from the underlying United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signaling a withdrawal from all United Nations-sponsored climate discussions. It is not yet clear which option the Trump administration would choose, if it decides to leave.

If the United States does leave, it will join Syria and Nicaragua as the only two countries not participating in the accord.

The United States could also face serious diplomatic repercussions for leaving. Europe, China and other countries may threaten to withhold cooperation on issues the Trump administration cares about. In a more extreme case, other countries could decide to impose carbon tariffs on the United States.

What would withdrawal mean for American climate efforts?

Whether or not the United States leaves Paris, the Trump administration will keep trying to dismantle the Obama administration’s domestic climate policies, including the Clean Power Plan to curtail emissions from power plants, and various regulations on methane leaks from oil and gas operations. Those rollbacks are still far from assured, however, and environmentalists plan to challenge them in court.

Pulling out of Paris would not mean the end of all domestic efforts to reduce emissions. States like California and New York plan to keep pursuing their own programs to clean up power plants and vehicles. And the private sector is already shifting toward cleaner energy: Cheap natural gas and renewables will continue to drive the retirement of coal plants.

But the United States would be doing far less about global warming than it otherwise might have done. A recent analysis by the Rhodium Group estimated that, under Mr. Trump’s policies, United States emissions will now most likely fall 15 to 19 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, rather than the 26 to 28 percent that the Obama administration pledged.

How would other nations react?

Withdrawal by the United States could seriously undermine global efforts to tackle global warming — but much will depend on how other countries react.

Leaders in Europe, China and India have insisted that they would carry on tackling global warming without the United States. But the precise shape of future climate talks remains an open question.

One possibility is that, with the world’s second-largest emitter pulling out, other countries might feel inclined to relax their own plans to curb greenhouse gases. “Even in places like Europe, you have industry groups worried about competitiveness,” said David G. Victor, a professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego. An American withdrawal, he notes, “makes the politics in other countries that much harder.”

Developing countries like India, Indonesia and the Philippines might be more reluctant to tackle their emissions if the United States pulled back on promised aid to help them adjust to the worst effects of climate change.

Not everyone is so pessimistic, however. Luke Kemp, a climate policy expert at Australian National University, suggests that other countries might choose to redouble their pursuit of cleaner energy in the face of recalcitrance from the Trump administration. “In the short term you could see a galvanizing effect,” he said.

China, the world’s largest emitter, is poised to assume a dominant role in future talks. The country is investing heavily in wind, solar and nuclear power in an attempt to level off its once-insatiable coal consumption. But it is unclear how far China’s leaders will go in pressuring other countries to raise their ambitions. In the past, China has argued against rigorous transparency standards to review nations’ progress.

But the rest of the world will have a lot of heavy lifting ahead of it: Current pledges, when added up, put the planet on pace to warm 3 degrees Celsius or more above preindustrial levels, an outcome with a far greater risk of destabilizing ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, higher levels of sea-level rise, more destructive heat waves and droughts, and the loss of vital ecosystems like coral reefs.

One final variable: A future American administration could always change course on climate policy — and even try to rejoin the agreement once Mr. Trump is out of office.

“Other countries are constantly judging each other’s positions in the world,” Mr. Victor said. “If it looks like this administration is only going to last for four years, you might see other countries continue to push along on climate and not give up on the U.S. just yet.”
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Theresa May accused of messing the election as Labour catches up - Independent

Theresa May accused of messing the election as Labour catches up
Conservative candidates are reportedly furious with Theresa May for running a faltering election campaign which they say has “shattered” confidence in her ability as Prime Minister.
One candidate seeking re-election told the Huffington Post that if Jeremy Corbyn was not Labour leader the party would likely lose the election “and we would deserve to”.
Another candidate for reelection agreed: “It’s a completely different experience to what it was four weeks ago. It’s made my job a hell of a lot harder. It’s a completely different experience. I’m pretty f****d off.
UK could be heading towards hung parliament after general election
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Theresa May relaunches a very rebranded Conservative campaign
“People on the doorstep are telling me: ‘She’s going after pensioners, she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she doesn’t answer questions on the TV.’ I’ve switched from saying ‘vote for her’ to ‘vote for me’.
“It’s hard to understand how people in London who get paid a lot of money made such a clusterf***.
“People voted for her because of what they thought she was like rather than what she is like. It’s totally shattered the confidence of the parliamentary party.
“She said she wasn’t going to call a general election, and they’ve totally f***** it up.”
However, polls show the Tories are on track to win a majority in the election on 8 June.
When Ms May first announced the early election, despite previous saying she would not, the Tories were 20 points ahead in the polls, but this lead has gradually narrowed over the course of the campaign.
One recent poll even predicted a hung parliament.
Why I don’t believe the YouGov model predicting a hung parliament
Ms May was forced into an embarrassing U-turn just days after the release of the Conservative manifesto when critics attacked her social care plans as a “dementia tax”.
Under the proposal, elderly people would be able to delay paying for their care until after their death so they could remain living in their own home.
But critics said this penalised people who had the misfortune to suffer a slow decline from illness, such as dementia, rather than dying suddenly and being able to pass on everything to their heirs.
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The Richest People in the World - TIME Business

Posted: 25 May 2017 01:40 PM PDT

The richest people in the world have a staggering amount of wealth — comparable to the GDP of small countries for some. Many of the world’s richest, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates or Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg are self-made and took an idea that they turned into a billion-dollar fortune. For others, like the Koch brothers of Koch Industries, their businesses were inherited, but their control of the company led to overwhelming amounts of wealth.
Many billionaires donate a large percentage of their money to charity. In fact, several of the world’s richest have made “The Giving Pledge,” which means they have vowed to give away at least half of their wealth to charity.

There are more than 2,000 billionaires in the world, Forbes reported, and that number is only expected to grow. Based on recent estimates from Forbes, the world’s richest people range from tech CEOs to heiresses to expert investors. Read on to find out how and why these people got so rich.

Who is the richest man in 2017?

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates is not only the richest man, he’s also the richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $86.6 billion in 2017, according to Forbes. In 1975, Gates co-founded Microsoft at just 20 years old. (He dropped out of school to pursue it.) He was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000, and was the company’s chairman and largest shareholder until 2014. Gates is still a member of the board and serves as a technology adviser for the company.
Gates and his wife, Melinda, co-chair the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the world’s largest private charity. The foundation, launched in 1999, focuses on ending infectious diseases around the world, including HIV and malaria.
Gates is also one of the most giving billionaires. He and his wife have vowed to donate 95% of their wealth to charity.

Who is the richest woman in 2017?

French heiress Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in the world and ranks among the world’s top 20 richest overall, with a $39.5 billion net worth, Forbes reported. Her father, Eugene Schueller, founded the iconic cosmetics company L’Oréal in 1907, and Bettencourt owns a third of the makeup brand with her children. The 94-year-old is her father’s only child and inherited his fortune when he died in 1957. She also is one of the principal shareholders at L’Oréal.
In 1987, Bettencourt, with her husband and daughter, founded the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which supports scientific research, the arts and social change in France. The foundation awards grants and prizes each year for projects addressing these categories.
Bettencourt’s children have managed her money since 2012.

List of the 10 Richest People in the World

1. Bill Gates

Born in Seattle, Gates used his first computer in 1967 while a kid in school. And about a decade later, he and his childhood friend Paul Allen, who also developed an interest in computers at their school, co-founded Microsoft together in 1975.
Outside of Microsoft, Gates is a public figure who, along with Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, founded “The Giving Pledge” to encourage other billionaires to donate a hefty amount of their wealth to charity. His charitable foundation focuses on health and development issues across the world.
An influential figure, the 61-year-old also releases a list of his favorite books each year.

Industry: Technology

Net worth: $87.8 billion

2. Amancio Ortega

Amancio Ortega is a Spanish self-made billionaire best known for founding Inditex fashion group, which includes Zara clothing stores. The richest man in Europe, Ortega co-founded Inditex in 1975 with his ex-wife Rosalia Mera, who passed away in 2013.
Ortega, 81, is also the wealthiest retailer in the world and owns 59% of Inditex, which operates 7,000 stores worldwide. He stepped down as chairman of the company in 2011.
His approach to his company’s success can be attributed to two factors: speed and customers. Oretga’s “fast fashion” philosophy included refreshing the stock at Zara stores twice a week, CNBC reported. And instead of focusing on what’s in at fashion shows, the company follows bloggers and customers for what they’re wearing to inform what is sold, Fortune reported.
Unlike other billionaires, Ortega has stayed out of the public eye. In fact, no photograph of him was ever published until 1999.

Industry: Retail

Net worth: $85.8 billion

3. Jeff Bezos

Responsible for the growth of online shopping and e-commerce, Jeff Bezos made his fortune by founding Amazon.com. The 53-year-old CEO of Amazon, launched the retail giant in 1994 after leaving his New York hedge fund job. Initially an online book retailer operated out of Bezos’s garage in Seattle, Amazon.com grew to become the world’s largest online shopping retailer, now worth over $430 billion, according to CNBC.
Bezos also owns a private space company Blue Origin and purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million.
Bezos’s parents, Jackie and Mike Bezos, operate the Bezos Family Foundation, which supports youth education.

Industry: Technology

Net worth: $82.8 billion

4. Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is an iconic figure and investment genius who bought his first stock when he was just 11 years old and filed his first taxes at age 13. Nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett owns more than 60 companies.
One of the world’s best investors, Warren is also known for his cheap spending habits. In the recently released HBO documentary Becoming Warren Buffett, the 86-year-old billionaire said he typically pays under $4 for breakfast from McDonald’s each morning.
Like his peers, Buffett is a philanthropist and has vowed to give away 99% of his wealth.

Industry: Finance and investments

Net worth: $74.2 billion

5. Carlos Slim Helu

Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the richest person in Mexico, and owns more than 200 companies in industries ranging from banking to retail to telecommunications. The 81-year-old owns America Movil, the largest mobile phone company in Latin America, as well as the Grupo Carso conglomerate company, which includes a host of retailers and restaurants, among other companies.
Slim’s father immigrated to Mexico from Lebanon with his family before Slim was born and had several successful retail and real estate businesses, Business Insider reported. Slim inherited the businesses after his father’s death in 1953, and founded his his first company, insurance company Inversora Bursatil, after he graduated from college in the early 1960s.
His influence extends outside of Mexico as well. He now owns 17% of the New York Times — the largest individual shareholder of The Grey Lady.
Slim is a philanthropist, but has criticized other billionaires for giving their money to charity. Instead, Slim has said company leaders need to “create companies” rather than “give away companies.”

Industry: Telecommunications, banking, retail

Net worth: $63.3 billion

6. Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg was only a sophomore at Harvard University when he created the first version of Facebook in 2004. The social media powerhouse, which first began on college campuses, now has more than 1.2 billion users and dozens of offices located around the world. The company is now worth $400 billion.
Zuckerberg, the youngest of the world’s top billionaires at 33, is the chairman and CEO of Facebook in addition to being its co-founder. The 2011 award-winning film The Social Network was based off of Zuckerberg’s founding of Facebook while in school, and the subsequent drama that came as a result.
Like other billionaires, Zuckerberg is a philanthropist who has donated millions to charitable causes. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to donate 99% of their wealth through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Industry: Technology

Net worth: $61.7 billion

7. Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison, the founder, chairman and former CEO of software company Oracle, came from humble beginnings.
The 72-year-old billionaire founded his company in 1977, having never taken a computer science class in his life, according to the Smithsonian. He moved from Chicago to California after dropping out of college (twice), and worked several jobs where he learned about computer programming, including one where he helped build a database for the CIA.
He and two co-workers left the company to found Oracle, which became the world’s most popular database. He was the highest-paid executive in the United States before he stepped down as CEO in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ellison has already given millions to charity and education, and plans to give away billions.
But he’s also spent his wealth in more luxurious ways as well. He has millions of dollars worth of real estate around the world, including the entire island of Lanai in Hawaii.

Industry: Software

Net worth: $54.9 billion

8. Bernard Arnault

Bernard Arnault is responsible for many of the world’s most fashionable brands, including Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon and Sephora. The French billionaire is the chairman and CEO of LVMH, which is the largest luxury goods company in the world.
The 68-year-old began his career as a civil engineer and gained control of his family parent company, Groupe Arnault. In the 1980s, he bought fashion brand Christian Dior — a move that avoided bankruptcy for the brand.
Though he hasn’t cracked the top 10 in several other rankings, Arnault’s wealth grew by more than $5 billion in late April 2017 when he announced he would take full control of Christian Dior, Forbes reported.
Arnault is an art collector and created the Paris-based Foundation Louis Vuitton, which supports artistic creation in France.

Industry: Retail
Net worth: $53.6 billion

9. Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg wears many hats: CEO, philanthropist and politician.
In 1981, he launched Bloomberg L.P., an information technology and media company that has now grown to be worth $45 billion with more than 100 offices worldwide. He was a partner at Salomon Brothers, a Wall Street investment bank, before he started his own company.
As a philanthropist, Bloomberg has donated $5 billion of his wealth to contribute to certain causes that align with his political interests, including gun control and climate change.
And Bloomberg is an experienced politician. He served three terms as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. During his tenure as mayor, he commuted to work at City Hall from his home on the Upper West Side by taking the New York City subway every day.
He also considered running as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, and has said he does not plan to run for the highest U.S. office in the future.

Industry: Media

Net worth: $48.9 billion

10. Charles and David Koch (tied)

Charles Koch, 81, is the CEO, chairman and co-owner of Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the United States.
Both he and his brother, 77-year-old David —the company’s executive vice president — each own 42% of the conglomerate, which produces brands like Dixie Cup, Quilted Northern paper towels and Stainmaster carpet cleaner. The two brothers inherited the Wichita, Kansas-based company from their father.
The conservative Koch brothers use their deep pockets to influence politics and public policy through an expansive network. Koch-aligned networks like Americans for Prosperity gave rise to the libertarian movement, and the brothers have spent hundreds of millions backing politicians and influencing policy.
In fact, their network planned to spend $889 million just on the 2016 election, the New York Times reported. In 2012, the network spent under $400 million.

Industry: Conglomerate

Net worth: $47.3 billion each

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