Latest news with #superrich
Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Superyachts and apocalypse insurance: the secret lives of the ultra-rich
If you enjoyed the mucho-money gaudiness and 'let them eat wedding cake' drama that was Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's wedding in Venice, this is the book for you. It is a field guide to the super-rich. You already knew they were different from you and me — but you had no idea quite how different. Evan Osnos, a writer for The New Yorker, gained access to the world of the 0.00001 per cent and reports on their thinking and behaviour, their manners and delusions. Sure, it's not the toughest beat but a hoot to chronicle — and even more fun to read. The most extreme behaviour of the inhabitants of Richistan happens on superyachts, such as Bezos's $500 million Koru, because, as one owner tells Osnos, 'the boat is the last vestige of what real wealth can do'. What he means is: 'You have a chef and I have a chef. You have a driver and I have a driver. You can fly privately and I fly privately. So the one place where I can make clear to the world that I am in a different f***ing category than you is the boat.' Yachts symbolise waste and unbridled excess, which makes them the ultimate status symbol. 'Need' a bar stool upholstered in whale foreskin? No problem. Fresh hookers every day? One yacht owner paid a 'madam' more than half a million pounds a year. Separate on-board wardrobes for the wife and for the mistress — and a code word to reveal which will be visiting so the captain and crew know which dresses should be hung in the closets? All in a day's work at sea. Osnos exposes the private vocabulary the super-rich use. WROL stands for 'without rule of law'. This is mainly used when expressing fear that ordinary mortals will rise up against them, forcing them to flee to their luxury apartment complex in a converted missile silo in New Zealand. Half of the Silicon Valley elite has 'apocalypse insurance', Osnos reports. Capital — your fortune — is 'the corpus' and 'wealth defence managers' will exploit tax loopholes to ensure it does not suffer 'attrition'. Climate change is 'an externality', as is social and economic inequality, and 'you cannot think about the externalities. You have to think about the profit.' Oh, and if you are a Getty, your private jet is nicknamed 'the Jetty'. Osnos also reveals the subtle social codes of the super-rich and their — awks! — less wealthy friends. Those who do not have yachts but are invited on board 'are wise to remember your part of the bargain. If you work with movie stars, bring fresh gossip. If you're on Wall Street, bring an insight or two. Don't make the transaction obvious, but don't forget why you're there.' There is plenty of serious analysis amid the tales of the rich behaving badly. Osnos 'started reporting in earnest about wealth and class in 2016' when he sensed that to grasp the change that Donald Trump's election represented — 'to understand why a voter could revile 'the elite' and revere the billionaire scion of a New York real-estate fortune — we had to look beyond politics.' Osnos points out how the business and finance leaders, notably Elon Musk, have become almost as powerful and revered as presidents and often more popular. Many Americans now see no distinction or conflict between money and political power. To them — and to Trump more than anyone — they are two sides of the same coin. Who surrounded Trump at his inauguration? All the Silicon Valley tech bros. Musk, who did more than most to get him elected — he spent more than $200 million — was rewarded with a job in the White House. (Readers will note, however, that Musk's government gig did not end well and sent Tesla's sales and share price into a tailspin.) • The most expensive yachts that cost €3 million a week The writing is better than the usual field guide. Osnos describes the hedge fund-dominated enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, as 'one of the wealthiest places in America, where the forces of capital and politics jockey amiably, like retirees in line at an omelette station'. It's often funny. He reports how the collapse of the Soviet Union minted a generation of new billionaires, whose approach to money inspired a popular joke. 'One oligarch brags to another, 'Look at this new tie. It cost me two hundred bucks!' To which the other replies, 'You moron. You could've bought the same one for a thousand!'' The only irritation is the number of stories and interviews that are anonymous — but that goes with the gilded territory. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Osnos begins the book by quoting his frugal grandmother: 'All you need are a few fine things.' But after a few weeks in Richistan even he admits it is amazing what you can get used to. When he arrives in Monaco he is put up in a members-only club for visiting yachties. Inside his aromatic, whisper-quiet cabin, designed by Norman Foster to offer sweeping views over the Mediterranean to evoke the indulgence of the Queen Mary, 'I quickly came to understand I would never be fully satisfied anywhere else again,' he notes. The next morning he stares down at a man on a 'mid-tier' yacht in the marina, and feels a new sensation — 'the unmistakable pang of superiority'. The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnos (Simon & Schuster £22 pp304). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Wall Street Journal
19-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
The Secret to Building a $100 Million Megamansion
As the merely wealthy take stock amid a correction in the public markets, a tariff war and concerns about an impending recession, the super rich continue to spend. Look no further than the ultra high-end real-estate market for evidence of this alternate financial reality. Billionaires are still paying tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for well-located sites in markets like Los Angeles, Miami, Palm Beach and Aspen, Colo.
Bloomberg
18-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Two Increasingly Important Groups Are Flocking to Private Credit
Welcome to Going Private, Bloomberg's twice-weekly newsletter about private markets and the forces moving capital away from the public eye. Today, we look at the motley crew that's flocking to private credit and a 'creative' new Ebitda adjustment. Plus the cash burn at a prominent AI firm. If you're not already on our list, sign up here. Have feedback? Email us at goingprivate@ — Silas Brown Private credit's fan base is growing. This week, Bloomberg wrote about two increasingly important groups — insurers and the super-rich.
Times
13-06-2025
- Times
The saviour of Cap Ferret wages war with the sea — and developers
A dmirers view Benoît Bartherotte as a hero who has fought against the vicissitudes of nature and the avarice of humanity to preserve one of the finest beauty spots in France. Detractors see him as a self-serving landowner who has helped to turn Cap Ferret, a headland on the Atlantic coast, into an enclave for the super-rich. In the mid-1980s, Bartherotte, then a celebrated Parisian fashion designer, decided to change career. He got rid of his Rolls-Royce, moved out of his mansion and took his wife and seven children to live in a wooden hut by the sea in the southwest of the country. Bartherotte's new home was on Cap Ferret, where he had spent his childhood holidays. Over the past 40 years he has fought to ensure the area remains as he remembered it as a boy.
Bloomberg
30-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
India's Super-Rich Spur a Wealth Management Frenzy
India's growing list of super-rich investors are reshaping the country's wealth management industry like never before. (Source: Bloomberg)
