As if it never happened

That GFC thing? Forget about it. It was just a bad dream, an aberration. We’re back on track now and the wealth bubble has reinflated very nicely.

That’s the first message I’ve taken out of the new Forbes list of the world’s billionaires, which was published this morning.

While there will be plenty of focus on the fact Mexico’s Carlos Slim has narrowly grabbed top spot from Bill Gates (there was “just” $US500 million in it in the end), what’s really amazing here is how the wealth of the world’s richest has bounced back so quickly to 2008 boom levels.

For example, the top 10 on the list (which also includes Warren Buffett and Indian entrepreneurs Mukesh Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal) have total wealth of $US342 billion on this year’s list, a sharp increase from the GFC-hit figure of $US254 billion.

But what’s even more impressive is that the top 10’s wealth is now just under the record figure posted in 2008 of $US364 billion.

In other words, despite the worst financial crisis in 70 years – and the fact that the economies of the US and Europe are still very messy, to say the least – the rich have pretty much clawed back all of their losses.

There are two ways to look at this.

On the positive side, we can see that the recovery is now well and truly underway.

On the other hand, you could argue that the same asset price bubble that got us into all that GFC mess has been reinflated in record time.

I’ll be poring over the Forbes list in the coming days and will highlight some of the big trends in my Rich Secrets column on Monday, but in the meantime I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether we are seeing another bubble or another boom.

Jump on and comment below.