Eat Teh Rich!

From NYT:

Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.

Normally I hate unnamed sources, but in some cases ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
But I digress. Whatever happened to former Sen. Phil "Nation of Whiners" Gramm, last I heard still a VP at UBS, and his lovely wife Wendy, she still reeking of the Enron mess?

Apparently alive and well and still gainfully employed. From some financial guy:

Gramm’s position at UBS is “vice chairman” — dubbed “the greatest job in business” for its combination of high status and low work rate. It is a do nothing patronage role that is reward for all the Wall Street friendly legislation Gramm has sponsored. At least, they used to be considered Wall Street friendly, prior to their leading to the Street imploding.

Meth In Iowa

and other meanderings by Jon Taplin.
My fave:

As was recently pointed out in the New York Review of Books, the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame, is wealthier than the bottom third of the US population put together – about 100m people.

Cowboy Love Story

This is just so American I can hardly breathe.

PIERRE, S.D. — If this were a movie, nobody would believe it: A rancher struggling to eke out a living in one of the poorest corners of America claimed one of the biggest undivided jackpots in U.S. lottery history Friday _ $232 million _ after buying the ticket in a town by the name of Winner.

Rich Is Good

Some ex-newsman (of course) got to wondering who the richest guy in town was. Then he found out and now he's got a book (of course). Why didn't I think of that?

As Wichita multibillionaire Phil Ruffin says: "Retirement? Hell no. You just can't do it. Why would you ever retire when you're living large and having this much fun?" Considering that the 74-year-old real estate developer and good friend of Donald Trump just married a 26-year-old former Miss Ukraine, he may have a point.

Oh, I already had a "rich people" category. Wonder why. Guess I'll have to check the archives.

Some interesting names. I count so far about 3-4 women, including the Bert's Bees person and American Girl doll empire. I like this tidbit best so far:

In 2007, Rubinstein, who has a net worth estimated at $1.4 billion, purchased the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta for $21.3 million, ostensibly as a gift for his daughter's 20th birthday. He then lent it back to the National Archives.

He founded the Carlyle Group. You may have heard of it, conspiracy theories being what they are, associated with Bush 41.
Only artist on the list is Stephen King. Who knew?
Google guys, of course, and Bill Gates, but not Paul Allen. Both live in Seattle metro I guess and you can only have one richest guy.

Oprah, Spielberg, Gates: Where They Live

And more. C'mon. Forbes knows you wanna see them.

No, Bill and Hill didn't make the cut. We're talking Billionaires here.