Bouquets and brickbats

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim may be cursing Fortune magazine's name this week.

Fortune recently reported that Slim, Latin America's leading business mogul, had leapfrogged Bill Gates to become the world's richest man. Slim will see the accolade as an albatross because of the spotlight it will put on his wealth and business practices. Other wealth-monitoring organisations will do the maths and agree with Fortune's verdict, meaning that Slim will eventually need to respond to growing criticism over his monopolistic telecom business, and unwillingness to redistribute more of his wealth.

Slim, who will continue to acquire telecommunication assets and banking and retail businesses throughout Latin America and beyond, can expect the criticism to continue. There are mores even amongst the superrich: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have both created philanthropic foundations to spread their wealth during and after their lives.  Slim apparently wants to leave his byzantine business empire to his children -- his three sons currently head several of its parts. In a country where poverty is still extensive and wealth distribution extremely unequal, this may fuel resentment.