TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Not Everyone Is Struggling: CNBC Looks Into Growing Class Of Super-Rich Americans

ADVERTISEMENT

By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

Watching "Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich" is like pouring salt in the wounds of those of us who have to worry about paying more than $4 for a gallon of gasoline.

According to the special, debuting at 10 tonight on CNBC, the number of billionaires in the country has swelled from 13 in 1985 to more than 1,000.

And there are hundreds of thousands of multimillionaires as well as an emerging group of "middle-class millionaires."

These folks aren't feeling the pinch of the recession that's crushing the rest of us, and the gap between the haves and have-nots keeps growing.

CNBC's David Faber explores this parallel universe of multiple luxury homes, personal staffs and countless exotic possessions.

According to the Federal Reserve, 49,000 U.S. households have between $50 million and $500 million in net worth, and another 125,000 have between $25 million and $50 million.

Should we hate them or envy them because they are rich?

It's hard not to feel resentment when CNBC interviews rich guys such as Tim Durham, a financier from Indiana whose net worth is more than $75 million.

He made his fortune from leveraged buyouts of companies (a practice that often leads to layoffs of middle-class nonmillionaires).

CNBC accompanies Durham to London, where he eyes a special Rolls Royce at an auction. But when the bidding tops $7 million, he leaves empty-handed. Poor thing. He'll have to settle for the 70 cars he already owns, including a Rolls, a Lamborghini, a Duesenberg and a $1.8 million Bugatti that sit in his two-story garage.

It brings to mind those Lexus commercials from a few years ago with the bumper-sticker philosophy: "Whoever said money can't buy happiness isn't spending it right." Or, as Groucho Marx used to say, "While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery."

HAPPY EX-CAMPERS: Tim Wilkins and Michelle Phillips, former co-hosts of the locally produced "Studio 10," have checked in with updates on their whereabouts.

The two exited the WTSP, Channel 10, morning show at the end of May to pursue other career offers. "Timing was right for both of us to leave," says Wilkins, a professional comic who was working out of Sarasota.

"Studio 10" was a freelance day job for Wilkins, who has relocated to San Diego because his comedy career is taking off.

"I kept getting offers in California and Las Vegas, and people kept telling me it would be easier if I lived closer," he says, adding he is in talks with HBO for a gig.

Phillips, a makeup artist for 10 years and former Stein Mart representative, says she also was getting a lot of offers, including TV appearances for the gourmet fruit company Harry & David.

"I am so grateful for the chance to host 'Studio 10' because it opened doors for me," she says. "It was like a two-year course in television. I had reached a point where I was ready to leave and the station was ready to go in a new direction, so it was a mutual decision."

Phillips, a great-niece of John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, also has been making appearances on behalf of Oil of Olay. She was a makeup artist at Channel 10 before "Studio 10."

She says she hopes to find a way to continue her "courage and grace" stories about people who have "found the courage to rise above great odds and the grace to use their strength and accomplishments to help others in our society."

The new "Studio 10" hosts are Holley Sinn, who had been with "Studio 10" as a local pop culture and entertainment reporter and movie reviewer, and Jerome Ritchey, a former Chicago radio personality and TV meteorologist.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Hopkins, 10 p.m., ABC

The first segment in a six-part documentary about life inside Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Fear Itself, 10 p.m., NBC

John Landis directed this horror yarn about a bride who receives a mysterious note on her wedding day accusing the groom of being a serial killer.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT