Crazy Rich Mexicans

A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound (or a peso)

Back in the heady days of the early 2000s, the number of billionaires produced by Mexico was second only to the United States. Unless you never wander out of the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, or off of the glitzy resorts in Cancun or Los Cabos, that billionaire fact may seem somewhat surprising (pardon the alliteration). If, instead, you spend your sleepless nights reading the 2,000 page North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), you may be less surprised.

And if you consider that in 2006, the United States had about 360 billionaires and Mexico had 10, you might be less surprised still. Those are highly disproportionate numbers, and the rest of the world just hadn’t gone into billionaire production mode yet.

Back to that NAFTA agreement. As you may recall, NAFTA was an agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It was designed to eliminate trade barriers between the 3 countries and further their economic cooperation. Implemented in 1994, NAFTA represented North American trade until then U.S. president Donald Trump pushed to replace it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020.

One of the objectives of NAFTA was to level the competitive playing field between the three countries, but it left out several key markets in its text: telecommunications, television, and transportation. In doing so, it allowed several ambitious Mexican businessmen to place a stranglehold on these lucrative industries and build virtual monopolies that enabled them to grow ridiculously wealthy.

But even with those wealth-building loopholes, Mexico’s position as the second-best billionaire producer would fade quickly. The massive populations and economic growth occurring in China and India would ensure that those countries’ billionaire counts would eventually eclipse Mexico’s. And the advent of the internet and high-tech would spread the billionaire count across the globe, further diminishing Mexico’s standing. Today, Mexico is in the 24th position in the list of countries with the most billionaires - it has about 22¹. The U.S., China, and India have 813, 406, and 200, respectively.

But as we shed a tear for Mexico (please take a moment to dry your eyes), let’s talk a bit about that most wealthy of wealthy Mexicans: Carlos Slim Helú (typically referred to as simply “Carlos Slim”). Carlos Slim is not only the wealthiest person in Mexico, he is the on-again, off-again wealthiest person in the world (as I write this, he is off again; don’t feel sorry for him). Carlos Slim built his wealth empire primarily on one of those NAFTA exclusions: telecommunications. He owns América Móvil, the conglomerate that owns Telcel, Mexico’s largest cellular phone service provider, and Telmex, Mexico’s largest landline and internet service provider. Slim also has a controlling interest in Grupo Carso SAB, the global conglomerate that he built and whose holdings include construction and cement companies in Mexico, along with such diverse interests as Reynolds Aluminum, Sears, Saks Fifth Avenue, The New York Times, and General Tire.

Carlos Slim was born to Lebanese immigrant parents in Mexico City in 1940. At the age of 11, he bought a government savings bond. At the age of 12, he began investing in the stock market. I was playing with plastic army men at those ages, which helps explain why I ride a bike to the grocery store. Slim stock market ventures are what eventually led him to the acquisition of companies, which as we all know is the best way to become crazy rich. I, meanwhile, bought a tricked-out Dodge Challenger. But this isn’t about me.

It isn’t even about Carlos Slim, per se - if you want an actually well-written perspective on him, check out this article by the Mexico Political Economist:

What Carlos Slim gets about Mexican politics

If, instead, you want to read a poorly written one, scroll back to the top.

Which brings us to the actual point of this article: if you’re going to be a billionaire, you would be hard-pressed to find a cooler name than Carlos Slim.

1. Some claim that the billionaire count in Mexico is higher than the “official” count. Due to security issues, wealthy people in Mexico often keep a low profile and play their cards - er, pesos - close to the chest.