As a Completely useless aside... :)
Bill Gates was worth 90 billion in 1999 when the debt was what, 6 trillion?
The debt is 6 times that but the richest guy on the planet is worth only 3 times what the richest guy on the planet was worth in 1999.
Like I said, useless aside :)
If you add in inflation, gates probably wasn’t far behind.
Sorry to rebut you but... Gates was #1 in 1997 and 1998 as well... when his number was only $35bn and 51bn... using either of those as the starting figure, the richest and most powerful (govt and the individual title) have both grown at about the same astronomical rate... about 6x in just 25-27 yrs.