It Was A Very Good Year For Carlos Slim
02/03/2011
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Whenever  I read about how it's America's moral duty to take in Mexicans, it warms my heart to think that at least one Mexican won't have to be leaving his family and home behind. From the Wall Street Journal:
How to Invest like the World's Richest Man

by Robert Frank No, this isn't an article about Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. It is about Carlos Slim, who has been pulling far ahead of his two closest competitors in the race for world's richest man.

Bloomberg reports that Carlos' publicly disclosed holdings soared 37 % to $70 billion in 2010. Meantime, Warren Buffett's returns were a more modest 22%, while Bill Gates' shares in Microsoft fell.

So how did Slim do it?

Mainly by keeping his money at home in Mexico and selling into the gold rush. Telefonos de Mexico, the state-owned monopoly he acquired, was a dud last year, but his stake in American Movil [his cellular spinoff of his monopoly] soared 15%....

His biggest loser was his stake in the New York Times, down 21%.

You know, every time Carlos Slim picks up the NYT and reads an article or editorial pipelined straight from the SPLC about how only frothing-at-the-mouth racists worry about illegal immigration, I think he feels like he's getting his money's worth out of his bailout of the Times.
... Of course, it helps to have Slim's overwhelming power and market share in Mexico, which is hard to replicate in many other countries.
Slim bought the Mexican telephone monopoly from the corrupt ruling party a couple of decades ago. Mexico has ridiculously high telephone rates, which reduces economic growth, which incentivizes more illegal immigration. But, Slim makes a fortune on expensive long-distance calls between Mexico and America, so it's all good.
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