Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. Here are the 10 who matter.
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10. Bill Gates
Age: 55
Title: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Net Worth: $56 billion
Microsoft mogul, futurist and America’s richest person has, with help from billionaire buddy Warren Buffett, convinced nearly 60 of the world’s wealthiest to sign his “Giving Pledge,” promising to donate the majority of their wealth to charity either during their lifetime or after death. He is no longer the planet’s richest person, but that’s because he’s given away $30 billion to his foundation. The Gates Foundation, the world’s most influential charity, tackles tuberculosis and polio and funds famine-resistant crops to fight hunger. He is calling for “a higher sense of urgency” in AIDS vaccine development and also pushing for better tools to rate teacher performance. Gates holds 70% of his wealth in investment fund Cascade, dabbling in everything from autos to hedge funds to Mexican Coke bottler Femsa; the rest of his wealth is held in Microsoft stock.
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9. Sonia Gandhi
Age: 64
Title: President, Indian National Congress
Net Worth: $18.66 billion
Despite Italian birth, foreign religion (Roman Catholic) and political reluctance, Gandhi wields unequaled influence over 1.2 billion Indians. Recently elected to record fourth term as head of India’s ruling Congress Party, cementing status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. Handpicked brainy Sikh economist Manmohan Singh (also a listee) as prime minister. Inspired choice: Singh universally praised as India’s best prime minister since Nehru, ideally trained to lead the world’s fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power into next decade. But Gandhi remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne. Grooming 40-year-old son Rahul for prime minister role.
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8. Ben Bernanke
Age: 57
Title: Chairman, Federal Reserve
Salary: $199,700
Some argue Fed’s influence is at all-time high, given size of its burgeoning balance sheet ($2.3 trillion) relative to the underlying economy ($14.3 trillion). But Bernanke’s options have waned since peak of the financial crisis. He now has essentially only one arrow left in his financial quiver: quantitative easing–in layman’s terms, “printing money.” He last employed the technique in 2008 and is widely expected to repeat the move this month. At least he’s honest: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
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7. David Cameron
Age: 44
Title: Prime Minister, United Kingdom
Net Worth: £30 million
Salary: £225,000
Youngest British prime minister in 198 years is product of privilege: Eton, Brasenose College, Oxford; is descended (illegitimately) from King William IV. Hailed by some as the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, Cameron shares the Iron Lady’s determination to slash government expenditures (defense, higher education), but as the leader of a coalition government he can ill-afford to repeat her brash divisiveness.
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6. Angela Merkel
Age: 57
Title: Chancellor, Germany
Net Worth: $11.5 Million
Salary: $303,800
Most powerful woman on the planet. Chancellor of Germany oversees Europe’s largest economy. Renowned free-market champion and favorite of big business, boasts nine public companies with annual sales in excess of $70 billion. In all, there are 57 German companies on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world’s largest public companies, with aggregate sales of $1.7 trillion.
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5. Pope Benedict XVI
Age: 84
Title: Pope, Roman Catholic Church
Net Worth: The Pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, which has billions of dollars if not more . Vatican holds priceless treasures.
Highest earthly authority for 1.1 billion souls, or one-sixth of world’s population. Staunch traditionalist deplores secularism, consumerism and moral relativism, unbending on birth control, gay marriage and ordination of female priests. Despite major gaffes (including lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying Bishop and quoting a 14th-century source that declared the only new things the prophet Mohammed brought were “evil and inhuman”), appears genuinely interested in healing old wounds. In September, not only became the first Pope to visit Westminster Abbey since the Protestant Reformation, but also shook hands with a clergywoman (another first). Widening sexual abuse scandal could undermine moral authority, but increasingly willing to tackle issue head on: “Forgiveness does not substitute for justice.” Stylish: Has brought back traditional red, custom-made “pope shoes” and old-school Ecclesiastical headgear.
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4. Vladimir Putin
Age: 58
Title: Prime Minister, Russia
Net Worth: $40 billion
Salary: $126,000
Prime Minister still more powerful than his handpicked head-of-state, President Dmitry Medvedev. Former KGB officer will likely replace protégé in 2012. In the meantime, has final say over one-ninth of Earth’s land area, vast energy and mineral resources. Declared nuclear power has veto on U.N.’s Security Council. Russian government agency reported to have already registered web address Putin-2012.rf. On running again: “The president of the United States, Roosevelt, was elected four times in a row because it did not contradict the American Constitution” (September 2010).
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3. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud
Age: 86
Title: King Of Saudi Arabia
Net Worth: Literally owns the whole Saudi Arabia. The GDP of Saudi Arabia $443.691 billion.
Absolute ruler of desert kingdom that contains the world’s largest crude oil reserves, two holiest sites in Islam. State-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco has reserves of 266 billion barrels, or one-fifth of planet’s known supply (worth $22 trillion at today’s oil prices). Pushing for gradual social and legal reforms, while maintaining good relations with deeply conservative religious establishment. Ultimate succession unclear: 86-year-old king’s official heir is 82-year-old Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. Established committee of senior princes to ensure smooth transition in the event both become incapacitated.
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2. Barack Obama
Age: 49
Title: President, United States of America
Net Worth: $10.1 million
Salary: $400,000
Obama’s Democrats suffered a mighty blow in U.S. midterm elections, with the president decisively losing support of the House of Representatives, and barely holding onto the Senate. It’s quite a come-down for last year’s most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two. He can take comfort in the fact that he remains commander-in-chief of world’s largest, deadliest military, leader of world’s largest (in spending) and most dynamic economy and holds the unofficial title of “Leader of the Free World.”
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1. Hu Jintao
Age: 68
Title: President, People’s Republic of China
Salary: $400,000
Paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet; exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world’s population. Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts. Recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy both in absolute and purchasing power terms. Credible estimates have China poised to overtake U.S. as world’s largest economy in 25 years–although, crucially, not on a per-capita basis. Creditor nation oversees world’s largest reserves at $2.65 trillion–$1.5 trillion of which is in U.S. dollar holdings. Refuses to kowtow to U.S. pressure to change its exchange-rate regime. Heads world’s largest army (in size). His handpicked successor, Xi Jinping, set to assume the presidency in 2012.
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