At a time when Spain’s economy just gets worse and worse, the last thing you’d expect is more Spaniards to end up on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people. But, surprisingly, in 2012 there are now 16 Spaniards on the Forbes list. Two more than last year.
Glencore’s Daniel Badenes and the Melia hotel chain’s Gabriel Escarrer are the newest members of the world’s richest club.
They join 75-year-old Amancio Ortega, the fifth richest man in the world and the owner of Spanish clothing chain Zara, and Isak Andic also part of Spain’s massive clothing industry — he’s the owner of the Mango chain of boutiques.
Amancio Ortega, of course, is Spain’s richest man and Europe’s second richest. As the son of a railway worker, he’s entirely self-made, and to be able to not only keep that wealth but grow it isn’t bad coming from a country that is having so many economic problems of late.
Good for them, we say.