The Success Test

"But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today" (Deut. 8:18).

Muhammad Ali is considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He won 56 of his 61 professional fights and knocked out 37 opponents. His most famous catchphrase was, "I am the greatest!"

One day, Ali was seated in an airplane when the flight attendant came up the aisle to make sure that all the passengers had their seatbelts fastened. Reaching Ali's seat, she asked him to buckle up.

"Hmph!" the champ sneered. "Superman don't need no seatbelt!"

Slim Beats Gates in First Daily Billionaire Ranking

By Matthew G. Miller and Peter Newcomb | Bloomberg 

Carlos Slim, the telecommunications tycoon who controls Mexico's America Movil SAB (AMXL), is the richest person on Earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 20 wealthiest individuals.

The 72-year-old's net worth fell $478.4 million in a day to $68.5 billion as of the close of markets on March 2, as U.S. moguls Bill Gates and Warren Buffett placed second and third on the list compiled by Bloomberg News. Brazil's Eike Batista, who ranks 10th, still covets the top spot after vowing a year ago that he'd become the world's wealthiest man by 2015.

"I'm competitive," Batista, who trails Slim by almost $39 billion, said in a March 2 telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro. "It's Brazil's time to be No. 1. Brazilians have always admired the American dream. What's happening in Brazil is the Brazilian dream and I happen to be the example."

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world's wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York. The valuations are listed in U.S. dollars.

Today's ranking was published with the release of new billionaires profile pages in the Bloomberg Professional service. The profiles feature a transparent analysis of how each billionaire's fortune was calculated.

Slim's fortune has increased 11 percent this year, according to the index. A spokesman for Slim didn't immediately return a telephone request for comment.

Gates, Buffett

Gates, 56, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in Redmond, Washington, is worth $62.4 billion, down $102.1 million on March 2 and up 11 percent year to date.

The fortune of Buffett, 81, chairman of Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/B), declined $336.9 million to $43.8 billion on March 2 and is up 2.4 percent in 2012. Almost all of Buffett's wealth is held in Berkshire Hathaway, the publicly traded holding company he has run since 1965.

The combined net worth of the 20 richest people is $676.8 billion. Nine are Americans, including three from the family of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)

Number seven is Larry Ellison, 67, chief executive officer of Redwood City, California-based Oracle Corp. (ORCL), the world's third-largest software maker after Microsoft and SAP AG. (SAP) His $38 billion fortune puts him $4 billion ahead of brothers Charles and David Koch, who each own 42 percent of Koch Industries Inc., one of the biggest closely held companies in the world by revenue. Charles, 76, and David, 71, control the Wichita, Kansas, refiner and chemical maker.

Batista, 55, whose investments range from iron ore to coal, is worth $29.8 billion, up $133.9 million on March 2. His fortune has grown 32 percent this year, the most on the list.

The House Wins

Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who owns 47 percent of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), which operates resorts in Macau and Las Vegas, is number 13 with $25.7 billion. Adelson, 78, and his family have pledged at least $10 million to a super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, a Republican presidential candidate.

Liliane Bettencourt, 89, who with her family owns 31 percent of Paris-based cosmetics companyL'Oreal SA (OR), is last on the ranking. Bettencourt was the subject of an international scandal in 2007 when her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, filed a lawsuit accusing a family friend, photographer Francois- Marie Banier, of exploiting her mother's frail state. Evidence later revealed Bettencourt had granted more than $1 billion in cash and gifts to Banier. In October, Meyers and two grandsons became guardians of the clan's $22.4 billion fortune.

Diluting Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), the world's largest social-networking company, didn't make the cut. Based on a roughly $100 billion valuation the Menlo Park, California-based company has been trading at in the private market, Zuckerberg's stake may be worth $21 billion, or about 25 percent less than previous estimates, once Facebook holds its initial public offering.

The reason: Facebook will issue more than 500 million shares of its Class B stock at the offering, diluting Zuckerberg's ownership to 21 percent after he exercises 120 million options and sells about 42 million shares to cover the tax bill associated with the gain from those options.

Sweden's Ingvar Kamprad is the richest European, according to the index, ranking fourth globally with a $42.5 billion net worth. Kamprad, 85, controls Ikea Group, the world's largest furniture retailer, through a series of trusts and foundations he asserts he doesn't own.

Luxury Goods

Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC) , places fifth. The majority of Arnault's $42.3 billion comes from his stake in Paris-based LVMH, the world's largest maker of luxury goods. Arnault, 63, controls about 46 percent of LVMH's outstanding stock through his family group, according to the company's latest annual report.

Amancio Ortega, whose publicly traded Inditex SA (ITX) owns the Zara clothing chain, is Spain's wealthiest individual and sixth in the world with a $38.8 billion fortune. Ortega, 75, has invested dividends from Arteixo-based Inditex into a real estate portfolio that owns office and retail properties in the U.S. and Europe.

No Russians appear in the index as falling metals prices hurt the fortunes of many of the richest oligarchs. Alisher Usmanov, 58, the Muscovite who controls the Metalloinvest metals and mining company and Digital Sky Technologies, which currently owns 5.5 percent of Facebook, is Russia's wealthiest person thanks to a $20.1 billion fortune.

Asia's Wealthiest

Mukesh Ambani, 54, leads Asians with a net worth of $26.8 billion, down $185.4 million in a day. His fortune is up 25 percent this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as his shares in India's top company by market value, Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), have risen 17 percent.

Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing, nicknamed "Superman" by the local media for his investing prowess, ranks second in the region, with $25.8 billion. Li, 83, owns large stakes in Hong Kong-based property developer Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (1), Hong Kong shipping and ports operator Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (13) and Husky Energy Inc. (HSE), the Calgary-based energy company.

Lakshmi Mittal, the India-born chairman of ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's biggest steelmaker, is the third-richest Asian, with holdings valued at $23.6 billion. In addition to his ArcelorMittal stake, the 61-year-old London resident owns hundreds of millions of dollars in U.K. real estate.

On the rise: Gina Rinehart, the Australian mining heiress who is worth $20.4 billion. Rinehart, 58, the daughter of the man who discovered the mines that made Australia the world's biggest iron ore exporter, inherited perpetual royalty rights to some of Rio Tinto Ltd. (RIO)'s Hamersley mines in addition to other thermal and iron-ore deposits throughout the country.

Soaring demand for coal and iron ore from China have made Rinehart's assets attractive to acquisitive industrial companies. In separate deals in the past year, steelmakers Posco and GVK Power & Infrasture Ltd. (GVKP) agreed to pay a combined $2.9 billion for pieces of Rinehart's empire.

To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew G. Miller in New York atmmiller144@bloomberg.net; Peter Newcomb in New York at pnewcomb2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/slim-beats-gates-first-daily-000000725.html

The Legend of Superman

By Jack Kinsella Back in 1938, Action Comics #1 introduced a new superhero to the world when it featured for the first time, the Adventures of Superman. In those days, Superman didn't have all the powers and abilities that are attributed to him today. In 1938, Superman was "faster than speeding bullet" but by the late 1950's he was able to travel faster than the speed of light, making him capable of time travel. In 1938 Superman was "more powerful than a locomotive." By the 1960's Superman was capable of moving a planet off its axis. In 1938, Superman was able to "leap tall buildings at a single bound" but two decades later, he was able to defy gravity and fly at super-speeds across the Milky Way and beyond. In 1939 Superman's body was so dense that it could not be harmed by anything short of an artillery shell. It wasn't long before Superman's writers extended this remarkable ability until Superman could stand in the center of a nuclear explosion or could travel right through the center of the Sun without harm. By the 1960's Superman was routinely flying across the galaxy to deflect incoming meteors from hitting earth, impervious to the cold and vacuum of outer space. By the 1980's Superman became so powerful it was necessary to rewrite his character to put limits on his powers. Throughout all his incarnations, certain "facts" stayed constant: his alter-ego was Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter who worked for the Daily Planet, his boss was Perry White, his foster parents raised him in Illinois, and nobody ever noticed he looked just like Superman wearing glasses. Since Superman is an alien from the Planet Krypton, writers can add or subtract any number of abilities and characteristics. Superman's character and nature has invariably been rewritten to make him evil, kind, generous, heartless, gentle, violent, thoughtful, cruel, whatever the storyline calls for. When you have a character as wild and unrestricted as Superman, you can make him anything you want. In recent editions, Superman has become the poster boy for political correctness. In Action Comics #900, bitter at being seen as a tool of US foreign policy, Superman decides to renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations. So, over the course of the past seventy years, Superman has gone through a number of metamorphoses, from hero to superhero, and from rigidly patriotic to flaming liberal, all without doing any serious damage to the Legend of Superman itself. After all, when the character isn't real, then the legend can become whatever the most people are comfortable with. When the formerly earthbound Superman suddenly discovered the ability to fly, his fans eagerly embraced the idea. Since Superman isn't real, but only a literary creation, one can make him whatever one wants him to be. There is no real Superman to compare him to. "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." (2 Corinthians 11:4) Once again at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, President Obama quoted the Bible to justify punishing success in the name of social engineering, trying to reconcile the teachings of Scripture with the teachings of Karl Marx. According to the President's statements, his policy arguments stem from his interpretation of his Christian faith, which was shaped and molded, according to the President's earlier writings and public statements, by the Black Liberation Theology of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a dedicated Marxist with a well-documented hate for white America. "I wake up each morning and I say a brief prayer, and I spend a little time in scripture and devotion. And from time to time, friends of mine, some of who are here today, friends like Joel Hunter or T.D. Jakes, will come by the Oval Office or they'll call on the phone or they'll send me a email, and we'll pray together, and they'll pray for me and my family, and for our country." "But I don't stop there. I'd be remiss if I stopped there; if my values were limited to personal moments of prayer or private conversations with pastors or friends. So instead, I must try -- imperfectly, but I must try -- to make sure those values motivate me as one leader of this great nation." So Obama is suddenly Joe Christian. He prays every day, and he has secret devotions with black TV preachers. And these TV preachers tell him that what Jesus would do is to; "[make] sure that unscrupulous lenders aren't taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us...far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years, and I believe in God's command to "love thy neighbor as thyself." I know the version of that Golden Rule is found in every major religion and every set of beliefs -- from Hinduism to Islam to Judaism to the writings of Plato." So it isn't just "what would Jesus do?" -- Jesus would do what the Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Platonic philosophers would ALL do. "But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that "for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others." (So Jesus is not only a Marxist, He is a Muslim?) Clearly, there is nothing in the Bible that supports government confiscating wealth from those that earned it in order to redistribute it to those that did not. Jesus said to "render unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's, and unto God, the things that are God's." When Obama is speaking of those to whom "much is given" the operative word here is "given". The government didn't give wealth to the wealthy. The poor didn't give wealth to the wealthy. If so, then it would be legitimate for government - or the poor - to expect something in return. Heck, that is the way capitalism works. If I give you some money, I expect you to give me something in return. That's how I ended up with this computer I'm typing on. I gave money to the store, they gave me a computer. Obama's agenda is to take much from those who worked for it and use it to buy votes from the recipients and label it Christian-inspired charity of the kind endorsed by Jesus. This year the Left is going to run on a "Jesus" platform: Jesus would favor free contraceptives and federally-funded abortions because Jesus fought against poverty. Jesus would favor confiscatory taxes because Jesus had faith in government. Jesus would favor gay rights because He wanted everybody to be happy. Jesus hated the rich. Jesus was a Democrat. Jesus supported social justice. Watch how often Obama and his surrogates invoke Jesus over the next nine months and ask yourself why. But let me give you the answer in advance. They will do it because it works with their base. Obama and his supporters have no problem with reinventing Jesus to fit their political agenda for the same reason that DC comics and their readers had no problem reinventing Superman to make him more interesting. Superman isn't real, and so he can be whatever people want him to be. With Obama and his friends, the same principle applies with Jesus. Their Jesus is another Jesus, their social gospel is another gospel. Their Jesus isn't doctrinal, He is legendary. They are free to reinvent Him as necessary. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) Jesus can be whatever they need Him to be because as far as they are concerned, their Jesus is no more real than Superman. raptureforums.com