Hu Jintao, leader of China, comes in second in Forbes top most powerful people

by Alex Laval

Forbes just released its top sixty seven most power people ranking and America’s own Barack Obama is number one. In only ten months in office, Obama has won a Nobel Peace Prize as well as many other honors and now being the most powerful person on earth can be added to the list.

Coming in at a close second is China’s leader, Hu Jintao, who controls the single largest population on the planet. He therefore controls the largest low-wage workforce on the face of the earth as well, but his reputation is anything but spotless with the ruthless suppression of Tibet, refusal to recognize Taiwan as an independent people, and several other injustices.

Third is Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who controls a whole one ninth of earth’s population alone. The once KGB officer has no hang-ups about using his power to get what he wants and has the natural resources and drive to do so.

Fourth is America’s Chairman of Federal Reserve Ben S. Bernanke who is guiding the United States through its recession and can affectively change the course of the economy with the stroke of a pen. His work not only affects the lives of everyone living in the U.S., but had a trickle affect on the entire planet.
Rounding out the top five are Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page who have successfully altered the nature of the internet as well the transfer of information and publishing in general. They have been praised as well as hated for the invention of the Google search engine and there combined total net worth is over 30 billion dollars. Loved or hated, it was obviously successful.

Sixth and seventh are Carlos Slim Helu and Rupert Murdoch respectively. Helu is the founder of the Mexican telecommunications giant, Telemex and owns about 90 percent of Mexico’s telephone lines as well as large holdings in projects to improve Mexico as a country. Murdoch has massive News media influence in America and owns companies in printed journalism, television, and book publishing. He uses his power over news media to express his own political views on a level and still firmly believes in printed news as an industry.

Eighth is Michael T. Duke who is the President and CEO of Wal-Mart industries and is the single largest retailer in the United States. His company is worth over $400 million and has some eight million employees. It is likely he could wage a small war with a competing retailer and win.

Ninth comes the longest single name on the list, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, who is the leader of the world’s largest oil producing country, Saudi Arabia, supplying 25 percent of the world’s total. He rakes in over 2 billion dollars a year off of oil trade doesn’t have to worry about lack of income flow for the rest of his life, which may not be that long considering he is 85.

Finishing it up is Mr. William “Bill” Gates, who has changed the computer industry dramatically with his introduction of the Microsoft computer operating system and other Microsoft products. He is also considered to be the richest man on earth and spends his days not napping on a beach In Monte Carlo, but working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity that he started which has become the single largest charity on the face of the earth.

There are top ten, but to see all 67 and find out where favorites like Bill Clinton and Pope Benedict XVI are ranked, visit www.Forbes.com.