The Spectator

Who has lost the most money in human history? 

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issue 19 November 2022

Billion-dollar losers

Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of FTX, saw his wealth plummet from $16 bn to zero when the company collapsed. Other big fortunes lost:

– Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, lost paper wealth of around $70 bn (in today’s money) during the dotcom crash of 2000-2. The company later floated and now he is reckoned by Forbes to be worth $22.8 bn.

– Yasumitsu Shigeta, founder of mobile phone company Hikari Tsushin, lost a paper fortune of $42 bn in the dotcom crash, but thanks to a partial recovery in shares he is now worth $3.4 bn, says Forbes.

– John Rockefeller, the oil magnate and America’s richest man at the time of the Wall Street Crash, is reckoned to have lost the equivalent of $10 bn.


When the wind blows

Has the percentage of electricity generated in the UK by wind and solar increased since the net-zero target was set in June 2019?

                                  Wind                  Solar

Q2 2019                    15.9                    

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