Money begets money.

There are 2089 dollar billionaires ( one billion equals 100 crores ) in the world today, with 341 added in 2014. India has jumped to third position with 97 billionaires, an increase of 27, behind the US in first and China in second position. A survey in Britain looked at rich people with unusual surnames and found that wealth runs in families for at least 300 years, which should be reassuring for our bunch. The rich have many advantages. Children get better diet, the best education that money can buy, ability to build a lucrative career without the worry of having to earn a living and a network of friends who are similarly placed in high positions in industry or government. This networking is called an ' old school tie ' in Britain but is present in every country in the world, as an angry article from a woman in Australia shows. Although these advantages of rich children seem unfair one cannot blame parents for providing the best possible start in life for their children. It is their duty, after all. An altogether insidious way in which the rich protect their wealth is by influencing politicians so that policies are always in their favor. This is crony capitalism, in which rich people in poor countries take control of resources, such as land, minerals and spectrum for mobile phones, and in rich countries they employ a team of advisers to help them avoid paying taxes. A whistle-blower has exposed how HSBC Bank helped clients to hide their wealth and avoid paying taxes in their countries of residence. In this year's budget President Obama has proposed a one time tax at 14% on foreign earnings of multinational companies and 19% every year thereafter. Immediately one politician has labeled the proposal " envy economics " and has proposed lower rates of taxes instead. The massive rise in the number of billionaires has been helped by record low interest rates which has allowed the rich to borrow cheaply to increase their assets while the poor are denied loans because of they are deemed risky by banks. The European Central Bank has been trying to increase lending to small businesses by allowing banks to borrow at almost no interest but banks have shown little interest. In desperation the ECB has started buying bonds of $70 billion per month, known as quantitative easing, to release more money into the system but banks might take the cash and balance their books rather than lending it to customers. While savers lose out low interest rates help those with properties to buy more real estate so that the poor are priced out of the market and have to waste their earnings on rent. The world is in for enormous turbulence. Seems unstoppable.