Who is the best-paid person in the world?
Is it overpaid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo? Hollywood heartthrob Zac Efron? Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein? Wrong, wrong, wrong! Meet 53-year-old hedge fund manager David Tepper, of Appaloosa Management. In 2009, David Tepper earnt $4bn, according to the BBC. I’m not sure whether it’s awe-inspiring or sickening, but it’s a HUGE amount of cash to earn in one year. Four billion dollars a year works out as $11m per day, or $1.2m per hour (based on a 9-hour working day). (Of course, most of this is in his bonus, not salary.) The BBC piece is eye-opening – £4bn could buy you Montenegro (whose entire economic output is the same as David Tepper’s earnings in 2009); or all of Marvel Comics (including the Spiderman, Iron Man and X-Men franchises, which Disney bought for $4bn in 2009); or the World Cup (Qatar is spending $4bn on building nine new stadiums for the 2022 World Cup); or much, much more (obviously).Hedge fund rich list 2009 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hedge fund manager | Hedge fund group | Earnings |
| Source: AR Magazine | ||
| David Tepper | Appaloosa Management | $4bn (£2.5bn) |
| George Soros |  | $3.3bn |
| James Simons | Renaissance Technologies | $2.5bn |
| John Paulson | Paulson & Co | $2.3bn |
| Steve Cohen | SAC Capital Advisers | $1.4bn |
| Carl Icahn | Icahn Capital | |
| Edward Lampert | ESL Investments | $1.3bn |
| Ken Griffin | Citadel Investment Group | $900m |
| John Arnold | Centaurus Advisors | $900m |
| Philip Falcone | Harbinger Capital Partners | $825m |
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