Bosses who never need to work any more, but go to the office anyway

While many billionaires do enjoy a blessedly unhurried existence, some embrace a very different approach: They hit the office every day. The most prominent working rich? The world’s wealthiest chief executives. These are people who don’t have to work another day in their lives. And yet they choose to devote untold amounts of time and energy to the arduous task of running a company and answering to shareholders.

Who are they? By perusing the ranks of the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans from September and our annual billionaires’ list from last March, Forbes found the 10 richest CEOs around, some of whom founded their own companies, others who benefited from large inheritances and still others who built their fortunes through other means.

1. Warren Buffett Net worth: $52 billion

   Chairman and chief executive, Berkshire Hathaway

2. Lakshmi Mittal Net worth: $32 billion

   Chairman and chief executive, ArcelorMittal

3. Sheldon Adelson Net worth: $28 billion

   Chairman and chief executive, Las Vegas Sands

4. Bernard Arnault Net worth: $26 billion

   Chairman and chief executive of LVMH Group

5. Lawrence Ellison Net worth: $26 billion

   Chief executive of Oracle

6. Mukesh Ambani Net worth: $20.1 billion

   Chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries

7. Anil Ambani Net worth: $18.2 billion

   Chairman of Reliance ADA

8. Michael Dell Net worth: $17.2 billion

   Chairman and chief executive, Dell

9. Azim Premji Net worth: $17.1 billion

   Chairman, Wipro

10. Charles Koch Net worth: $17 billion

    Chairman and chief executive, Koch Industries

Britain Bows To China 

Beijing Olympic organisers said Monday they backed a ban on political protests by athletes attending this year’s Games, amid uproar over an effort to silence British athletes. China is believed to be concerned that some of the 10,000 athletes expected here for the Games could be used by human rights activists and other groups to stage protests designed to draw attention to their causes.

The controversy erupted in Britain after a Sunday newspaper reported that the British Olympic Association (BOA) had threatened that any athlete who refused to sign the gag order would not be allowed to travel to China. Basically, any British participant who signed the order and then spoke out during the Games would be sent home, according to the initial plan.

Prince Charles has already let it be known that he will not be going to China, even if he is invited by Games organisers.  His views on the Communist dictatorship are well known, after this newspaper revealed how he described China’s leaders as “appalling old waxworks” in a journal written after he attended the handover of Hong Kong. The Prince is also a long-time supporter of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader.

The controversial clause in the contract stated that athletes “are not to comment on any politically sensitive issues.” It then refers to Section 51 of the Olympic Charter, which says, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Issues considered politically sensitive in communist-ruled China range from human rights, religious freedom, Tibet, Taiwan to Beijing’s role in Sudan.

The BOA took the decision even though other countries – including the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia – have pledged that their athletes would be free to speak about any issue concerning China. To date, only New Zealand and Belgium have banned their athletes from giving political opinions while competing at the Games.

 A Power Shift Is Underway

The US looks poised to lose its mantle as the world’s dominant financial market because of a rapid rise in the depth and maturity of markets in Europe, a study suggests. The change may have occurred already, not least because US markets are beset by credit woes, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute. “We think the differential growth rates are so significant that it is quite likely Europe has overtaken the US,” said Diana Farrell, author of the report. The credit crisis has dented confidence in the health of America’s financial institutions and its model of finance.

A power shift is also under way in Asia as the Chinese market continues to boom while markets such as Japan stagnate. McKinsey suggests China’s booming trade surplus has put it into the position of being the world’s largest net exporter of capital, topping Japan, Germany and the oil exporters for the first time. The findings are likely to attract attention from bankers and policymakers since they come amid an intensifying debate about the changing pattern of financial power.  

Meanwhile, since the launch of the single currency in 1999, European markets have been steadily growing in liquidity and size. And other parts of the world, such as Asia and the Gulf, are enjoying rapidly growing financial clout due to their large surpluses - a shift exemplified by the recent decision of Asian and Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds to take large stakes in big US banks.

In 2006, McKinsey calculates that America’s markets had some $56,100bn ofassets. Europe, including the UK, had $53,200bn of assets, a sharp increase on recent years. On recent trajectories, this implies that Europe overtook the US in 2007.

Grudgingly, Japan is starting to respect its neighbors in terms of education methods.

Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education. Many Japanese are feeling a sense of insecurity about the nation’s schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. That is no longer true, which is why many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the world’s ascendant education superpower.

Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan. Viewing another Asian country as a model in education, or almost anything else, would have been unheard-of just a few years ago, say education experts and historians. Much of Japan has long looked down on the rest of Asia, priding itself on being the region’s most advanced nation.

Last month, a national cry of alarm greeted the announcement by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that in a survey of math skills, Japan had fallen from first place in 2000 to 10th place, behind Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.  Most annoying for many Japanese is that the aspects of Indian education they now praise: learning more at an earlier age, an emphasis on memorization and cramming, and a focus on the basics, particularly in math and science.

Japanese parents have expressed very, very high interest in Indian schools. Eager parents try to send their children to Japan’s roughly half dozen Indian schools. The boom has had the side effect of making many Japanese a little more tolerant toward other Asians.

Everyone plays up the notion that we are in huge amounts of debt. This is simply not true.

With Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in China this week to discuss a range of issues related to U.S.-Sino commerce, we thought it would be an opportune time to separate fact from fiction and highlight some key issues that presently define the economic ties between the United States and China:

1. U.S. Foreign Investment in China — Not As Much as You Think     Rarely does a day pass without the media reporting yet another American firm de-camping the United States for China. Reality is quite different. U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) to China has climbed over the past decade, but a little perspective is in order. The $15.5 billion the U.S. has sunk in China this decade equates to only 1.6% of the global total. U.S. FDI in Ireland and Germany was roughly triple the level of investment in China over the same period.

2. The U.S. Enjoys a Huge Lead over China in FDI     It is no secret that Chinese investors are quite interested in increasing their direct investment position in corporate America. Equally, it’s no secret that any planned purchase of a U.S. company by Chinese investors is subject to a great deal of scrutiny in Washington. Next to America’s massive trade deficit with the mainland, China’s foreign investment in the U.S. has emerged as a key tension point between the two parties. That said, it’s interesting to note that when it comes to foreign direct investment — or the corporate presence of the U.S. in China versus China’s presence in the U.S. — the U.S. enjoys an overwhelming advantage over the mainland. In 2006, for instance, U.S. foreign investment in China on a historic cost basis totaled $22.2 billion, a figure well in excess of China’s investment stakes in the U.S. In other words, U.S. firms have far better access to the Chinese market than their Chinese counterparts in the United States. This investment gap represents a strategic competitive advantage to corporate America.

3. What really attracts U.S. firms to China? Consumers     Contrary to popular opinion, access to the Chinese consumer remains the key motivation of U.S. firms entering China. Keep in mind that China is not a unified market of 1.2 billion people but a collection of markets with different dialects, varying levels of development, and disparate per capita incomes. These variables, along with many others (the brand-sensitivity of Chinese consumers coupled with intense foreign and local competition) dictate that American firms adapt to local tastes and operate on the ground. Customer proximity, in other words, is key in China.

4. “Made in China” — What It Really Means     The mainland has emerged as an exporting powerhouse, with “Made in China” the most ubiquitous signature in the world. Yet lost on many folks is this: A great deal of what China exports to the United States and the world are goods from so-called foreign-invested enterprises, or foreign subsidiaries of various global multinationals. “Made in China” is not what most people think. Thousands of low-cost Chinese firms are not flooding the U.S. market with goods, displacing U.S. workers in the process. Rather, foreign firms are increasingly leveraging low-cost China to their competitive advantage.

5. The U.S. Trade Deficit with China: A Dangerous Scorecard     Much has been made of China’s merchandise trade surplus with the United States, which topped $230 billion in 2006. That’s a large figure, to be sure, although the figure does not accurately reflect the true nature of bilateral commerce between the United States and China. Missing from this equation are local sales of goods and services of U.S. foreign affiliates operating in China. The latter totaled some $86.5 billion in 2005 (the latest available data. Missing from the trade debate is the following: The primary means by which U.S. firms deliver goods and services to China is via foreign affiliate sales, not exports. At the end of the day, China does sell more to the United States, but not by the lopsided margin some might suppose.

6. Capital — China’s Top export to the U.S.     China’s most important export to the United States is capital — or U.S. dollars to be more exact. Lost on many legislators in Washington that want to punish China for running such a large U.S. trade surplus is this simple yet critical fact: China not only provides U.S. consumers with cheap, high-quality goods, it also provides the capital to purchase such goods by recycling greenbacks earned from trade back into U.S. treasuries and other dollar-denominated assets.

7. The Mainland — An unlikely Source of U.S. Profits     The lopsided nature of U.S.-China trade gives the impression that all the benefits go to the Chinese. That is simply not true. One of the best kept secrets on Wall Street is this: U.S. firms are making tidy sums of money in the Middle Kingdom.

Data on foreign affiliate income from the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis corroborate these findings, with U.S. foreign affiliate income in China rising from $1.2 billion in 2000 to $4.7 billion last year. The bottom line: At a time when the U.S. is threatening to impose greater trade sanctions against China, U.S. firms with operations in China are posting record profits.

Here’s the rest of the list.

Consider Bermuda As An Alternative? 

Bermuda’s main commercial district is home to thousands of the world’s top hedge funds. But the British colony has been struggling to catch up to its Caribbean cousins, the Caymans and British Virgin Islands, in the race for the $2 trillion hedge fund industry’s fast-growing offshore business. That could soon change.

In the next 12 months, the 22-square-mile land of pink beaches and rolling golf courses expects to raise the number of registered funds by 50% to 3,000. While Bermuda dominates the offshore insurance industry, the Cayman Islands is the epicenter for hedge funds, with about 9,000 of these loosely regulated investments registered in the British territory. But Bermuda is competing hard, having recently made registration quicker, easier and cheaper. It also touts its proximity to the United States. It is only a two-hour flight from New York, while a trip to Caymans is much longer and often involves a stopover in Florida.  

Managers who invest for foreigners or tax-exempt U.S. clients, such as pension funds and colleges, are attracted to offshore centers because costs are lower and regulatory requirements less stringent than in the United States. In return, hedge funds bring lucrative business to the offshore centers at a time when many islands are trying to diversify revenue away from tourism. To reach the ambitious goal of registering roughly 1,000 new hedge funds in the next year, Bermudans are jetting to international conferences. The primary targets are in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For years, U.S. lawyers have urged hedge funds to set up in the Caymans. The Caymans occasionally suffer from a reputation of relaxed oversight, thanks to several recent hedge fund collapses. And the 1993 Hollywood movie “The Firm” is about a law firm whose nefarious activities include money-laundering in the Caymans.

Watch out for a growing number of trust fund babies in Asia

The opportunities for private banks in Asia Pacific are big, and still growing. The region is home to more than a quarter of the world’s high net worth individuals (HNWIs) - the industry jargon for people with $1m of investable assets. Their wealth is growing by 8.5% a year. By 2011, their combined riches will total $12,700bn.

The difference between North America and Europe? The wealth management business in Asia is a lot more diverse than in Europe or north America - in terms of providers, legal jurisdictions and customers. Potential clients might be a Japanese aristocrat whose family has been rich for generations, or a Malaysian entrepreneur who grew up in a kampong (village) and now wants to invest the proceeds of an IPO according to Islamic shariah principles.

China continues to boom - there are estimated to be at least 300,000 Chinese HNWIs. Foreign private banks are setting up branches as quickly as they can. They are starting to move inland from the wealthy cities along the coast to service the growing number of entrepreneurs in China’s West. India is also showing enormous promise too. Asian HNWIs tend to be more mobile than their counterparts in Europe or north America. That diversity may mean opportunities in providing specialist tax services, for example.

Asian clients may have very different ideas about what private bankers should do for them. A western approach based solely on analysing risk tolerance in accordance with modern portfolio theory, and recommending appropriate products, may not sit well with a customer who is just looking for share tips. It takes time to build trust with such clients, and help them to understand that wealth preservation and growth is more complicated than betting on shares on China’s overheated stock market.

The need for private banking is likely to intensify as a big wave of wealth starts to flow down the generations. “In Asia people may not be as open with me as western clients about all of their investments, so I can’t always make appropriate recommendations,” says one private banker.  The “rags-to-riches” ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs of south-east Asia are beginning to die off. Many left home to seek their fortunes as manual workers in the tin mines of Malaya, or fled China when the communists took over, to start small businesses that grew into family conglomerates. Such patriarchs learned about business the hard way. Many may not have been educated past primary school. But their grandsons - and granddaughters - may well have been to top international business schools, and have very different ideas about how the family business should be run. They may even consider whether the business should be sold off, and the cash invested instead. Watch out for a growing number of trust fund babies in Asia.

Research suggests that many rich families in Asia are ill-prepared for generational change. Only half of the 33 families surveyed in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Taiwan said they involved the next generation in managing the business. Many young graduates even felt that inheriting the family company would be a burden, as it constrained their career choices.

Asia, outside of Japan, and the Middle East would need 10,000 new private bankers by 2010. Private bankers need more than quantitative skills. They must watch the markets, in case the client asks their opinion. It also helps to speak a few languages, especially Chinese dialects. Such people are rare and no bank seems happy with the recruitment situation. Publicly, managers talk about providing staff with friendly environments and great career opportunities to win the battle for talent.  93% of customer relationship managers in private banks in Asia said they had been approached by rivals in the past year.  One in seven private banks risked losing a third of its staff or more. It is not unusual for entire teams to follow a talented manager and take their clients with them. 

The boom in private banking is sharpening traditional rivalries between the north and south-east Asian hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore. Both have trustworthy reputations as financial centres. Wealth managers have traditionally clustered in Hong Kong. But Singapore, which has the world’s fastest growing population of dollar millionaires, has been catching up.

How Could You NOT Judge This Guy? 10 Popular Myths About Wealth and Luxury

1. The Wealthy made their money easily and spend their money easily. Most wealthy individuals spend far more hours working, embrace far more risk, and create far more value for society than their mainstream counterparts. Even today, for most, it still takes years of immense sacrifice to achieve wealth. Wealthy consumers are therefore very value conscious and discerning when they buy luxury goods and services.

2. The Wealthy are conspicuous consumption machines living in another reality. The minority of wealthy individuals who live ostentatious, opulent lifestyles are often portrayed as stereotypical wealthy consumers. In reality, most wealthy consumers are value creators, who seek quality and value, including authentic prestige, in luxury goods and services. Like many of us, some of their biggest concerns include taking care of aging parents and raising well-educated, generous children. When marketing to them, acknowledge their basic human values and show you understand them as the well rounded and balanced individuals they really are.

3. The Wealthy can’t really define luxury. Put a list of brands in front of the typical wealthy consumer and she, or he, will not only be able to articulate the attributes that constitute a luxury brand, but will also discern differences between brands better than any luxury marketer. The ability of wealthy consumers to define true luxury, individually, and as a group, is laser-accurate.

4. Luxury goods are a far larger industry than luxury services. Luxury goods such as couture fashion, watches and jewelry, get all the attention, yet, are dwarfed by the size of luxury services such as wealth management, travel and leisure, security, etc. Innovative services, including those as basic as nanny services, concierge services, and medical services, aimed at the wealthy, will grow faster and more profitably in the future. Many luxury goods firms are busy transforming themselves into services, or adding services to add value.

5. The Wealthy don’t participate in consumer satisfaction surveys. Wealthy consumers provide feedback and respond to surveys, sometimes more that the general population. Most wealthy consumers are highly educated businesspeople. They recognize the value of feedback and will provide theirs candidly to brands they trust. No metric is more highly correlated with financial success than customer satisfaction. Brands that fail to solicit and measure their customers’ feedback and continuously seek to improve customer satisfaction will become extinct.

6. The Wealthy don’t go online. A recent survey by the Luxury Institute found that the vast majority of wealthy consumers are regularly online. The wealthy work long hours, are more time-starved than the general population, and use the internet more heavily for researching luxury goods and services, and conducting transactions.

7. The Wealthy don’t use ratings and reviews to make purchasing decisions. A recent survey by the Luxury Institute found that over 80% of wealthy consumers use ratings and reviews sites to facilitate purchasing decisions. While the wealthiest may rely on a few trusted experts, many have middle class values and lead regular lives that include seeking information from ratings and reviews sites and publications. The difference is that these savvy consumers steer clear of biased websites and publications and “Best of” lists that pretend to provide non-conflicted advice.

8. Luxury marketers should be targeting only the wealthiest clients. Luxury brands that seek to serve only the $100 million plus net-worth consumer are usually small and often have fairly low profit margins. The truly under-served wealthy, in luxury goods, and, especially in luxury services, are households with a net worth from $ 1 million to $50 million. Their lives are busy, and often complex, and require many types of trusted advice. There are far more of these individuals globally, and growing in numbers.

9. Wealthy clients do not give referrals. Research with wealthy and ultra-wealthy consumers indicates that the vast majority are willing to refer trusted brands to friends and family. Yet, ask luxury goods and services CEOs what their client referral rates are, and the answer is usually well below 50%. This disconnect is due to the fact that most luxury goods and services firms rely on individual salespeople for referrals rather than creating a company-wide referral program. It is one of the greatest revenue opportunities in luxury today.

10. Wealthy consumers are not very loyal since they can go anywhere. The majority of wealthy consumers are among the most loyal customers. Their loyalty must be earned with great service. Ratings show that most luxury goods and services firms have yet to internalize what brands such as Ritz-Carlton, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Bessemer Trust inherently know: That the entire customer experience, from A to Z, must be at a level that makes customers happy to do business with the brand. This is the greatest, and easiest to implement, opportunity for luxury goods and services brands globally today.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” ~From the movie Fight Club

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. They also found that as self esteem increases, materialism decreases. The study primarily focused on how this relationship affects children and adolescents. Researchers found that even a simple gesture to raise self-esteem dramatically decreased materialism, which provides a way to cope with insecurity.  By the time children reach early adolescence, and experience a decline in self-esteem, the stage is set for the use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth.

Most of us want more income so we can consume more. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe and Japan. Statistically people have more things than they did 50 years ago, but they are actually less happy in several key areas. There is also the considerable cost of what materialism does to the environment. We don’t yet know what final toll that could take in terms of quality of life and overall happiness. What many people don’t understand is that if we want to save the environment then at some level we have to buy and consume less.

The reason people want whatever is currently “hot” is because they believe it will contribute towards their satisfaction and happiness in life. The word “believe” is the key here. People believe that buying more and more things will make them happy, when in fact research has shown time and time again that this simply isn’t the case.

7 Countries Saying Bye Bye To The US Dollars

1. Saudi Arabia:  Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve. This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent.
2. South Korea:  In 2005, Korea announced its intention to shift its investments to currencies of countries other than the US. There are whispers that the Bank of Korea is planning on selling $1 billion US bonds in the near future, after a $100 million sale this past August.
3.  China:  China is threatening a “nuclear option” of huge dollar liquidation in response to possible trade sanctions intended to force a yuan revaluation.
4. Venezuela:  In September, Chavez instructed Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to change its dollar investments to euros and other currencies in order to mitigate risk.
5. Sudan:   Sudan is, once again, planning to convert its dollar holdings to the euro and other currencies. Additionally, they’ve recommended to commercial banks, government departments, and private businesses to do the same.
6. Iran:  Iran is perhaps the most likely candidate for an imminent abandonment of the dollar. Recently, Iran requested that its shipments to Japan be traded for yen instead of dollars.
7. Russia:  They’ve discussed pricing oil in euros, a move that could provide a large shift away from the dollar and towards the euro, as Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter.

Why The Weak Dollar?  First, there’s the difference between the interest rate in the United States (the one the Federal Reserve just dropped) and the interest rates of other central banks around the world. When the United States dropped its rate, other banks did not follow. Now the spread between the interest rate at the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve is smaller than it has traditionally been, and that has weakened the value of the dollar against the euro.

Second, central banks around the world have been diversifying their holdings away from dollars to euros, British pounds and so on. That means there are more dollars out there in currency markets available to purchase. More dollars floating around means diminished value.

What’s This All Mean?   Many of them want to protect their financial interests, and a number of them want to end the US oversight that comes with using the dollar. Although it’s not clear how many of these countries will actually follow through on an abandonment of the dollar, it is clear that its status as a world currency is in trouble. The dollar’s status as a cheaply-produced US export is a vital part of our economy. Losing this status could rock the financial lives of both Americans and the worldwide economy.

Nearly 9 out of 10 Chinese who own cellphones send text messages. Only 49% of U.S. cellphone users send text messages

E-mail has become the new snail mail for many Chinese as they turn to the immediacy of text messages on cellphones and instant messages on personal computers. The most affluent and educated use e-mail, but by and large people here rely much more heavily on the shorter, faster and more conversational methods of electronic communication. China’s mania for messaging — particularly mobile messaging — is largely a product of how technology developed here. Like other emerging global markets, rural regions of China lacked phones or even a television as recently as two decades ago. The country modernized just as mobile technology was broadly accessible throughout the world. China is now the world’s largest mobile phone market.

China’s 455 million cellphone users chat, cajole, joke and flirt via short messages about 33 billion times a month, according to government statistics and IResearch Consulting Group, a market research firm that focuses on Chinese Internet and wireless industries. More people in China get news or weather via the Web on their cellphones than from personal computers. Most Chinese people can’t afford a PC for their home because it’s a pretty big investment. Mobile phones have achieved iconic status in China, where technology is viewed as an important part of the country’s rapid modernization.

  $25,000 Dessert Anyone? … Anyone?

Stephen Bruce, owner of Serendipity 3, partnered with luxury jeweler Euphoria New York to create the “Frrozen Haute Chocolate,” a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe. The dessert, spelled with two Rs, is infused with 5 grams (0.2 ounces) of edible 23-karat gold and served in a goblet lined with edible gold. At the base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds.

Four years ago, Bruce unveiled a $1,000 ice cream sundae called Golden Opulence, a staple on his menu and a favorite with rock stars, socialites and other celebrities. Both desserts are sold only with advance orders. Bruce said he has received inquiries about his latest creation, mostly from Europeans planning to visit New York.

For Only $320 Million, An Airbus Can Be Yours (Customized Furnishing Not Included)

 Singapore Airlines new Airbus 380 “Superjumbo” has just completed its maiden commercial flight and there are already plans to transform the world’s largest passenger plane into the pinnacle of private luxury — an executive jet.  Two European companies — Germany’s Lufthansa Technik and Switzerland’s Jet Aviation — have announced their intention to convert the enormous airliner into a flying mansion replete with private bedrooms, a movie theater, and a gym fitted with saunas and jacuzzis.

Rumors swept the European media in September that Lufthansa Technik, a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, had received an order for a VIP-configured A380 from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Experts say only national governments and very few of the super wealthy can afford massive price tags that come with the higher category, such as a Boeing 767 that is three times the size of an average executive jet.

Lufthansa Technik already has drawn up a general design for a customized luxury A380 interior. A rendering of the layout provides the owner with two spacious private bedrooms on the upper deck, separated from a reception area with plush sofas and a wood and brass bar next to the central stairway. The private quarters allow for maximum comfort and convenience. A master bedroom includes an office, private dining room, dressing room, a fully fitted bathroom and a gym featuring both a steam bath and exercise machines. You can practically disappear for years living on that thing.

Cashing in on Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is a $40 billion business globally, and the people packing their bags most frequently are Americans. Numerous nations–notably India, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia–are making a lot of money off the American healthcare system’s problems, but it isn’t all bad news for the U.S. Medical tourism companies are cropping up across the country–approximately 50 so far–and there’s no end in sight. It’s not just a case of Americans traveling abroad for surgery. Europeans and Arabs are going to other countries as well.

How do the doctors feel about this? Some physicians will say that it’s a great way to offload treatments that don’t pay well, anyway, because the insurance companies will only pay $19,000 for that $100,000 operation, and $19,000, by the time they take care of overhead, isn’t that much.

Americans could contact an accredited hospital in Malaysia directly to find out if one of its surgeons can do a kidney transplant, but because it’s complicated to determine which hospital is right for each person and operation the medical tourism agencies have caught on. A few American health insurance agencies already have pilot programs looking into the feasibility of paying lower costs for people to travel abroad and have expensive surgery, which means that businesses may soon be offering medical tourism packages to their employees. Even more telling, some American hospitals now have branch hospitals overseas to capitalize on medical tourism. Yes! Who can beat having plastic surgery for $5,000 versus $16,000 to $20,000 in the U.S.

And we thought the French were the worst. The tourism slump is blamed on the shabby welcome many foreigners feel from Americans.

The number of foreign visitors to the United States has plummeted since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington because foreigners don’t feel welcome. Since September 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17% decline in overseas travel, costing America 94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue.

It’s clear what’s keeping people away in the post-9/11 environment: it is the perception around the world that travelers aren’t welcome. Travelers around the world feel the US entry experience is among the world’s worst. Do yourself a favor and be cordial to visitors. You’ll need the karma when you’re abroad.