The New Establishment

The Vanity Fair 100 aren’t feeling our pain these days. While most of us wince when we pull up to the gas pump, wonder about the sudden decline in the market values of our houses, and worry over the looming eco-catastrophe, these realities don’t seem to be hampering the lifestyles of the 0.00000002 percent who are portrayed in these pages. They’re not scaling back the sizes of their (many) houses or their airplanes: Indian mogul Mukesh Ambani is building a 27-floor residence above the shanties of Mumbai. (He has to do something to compete with brother Anil, who’s negotiating a deal to bankroll Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks.) Meanwhile, Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal is trading up from a Boeing 747 jumbo jet to a new, $310 million Airbus A380 Flying Palace super-jumbo. But the world’s vexing economic challenges are shaking up V.F.’s annual rankings. That’s why Vladimir Putin, who rules Russia’s awesome energy reserves, is No. 1, eclipsing the Russian-American who rules Silicon Valley, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who’s No. 3. (Google is often derided as being too powerful, but at least it hasn’t invaded Georgia.) It’s why we’ve added William McDonough, who’s constructing buildings that produce more energy than they consume, and Jeffrey Sachs, who says that global poverty can be eliminated for a mere $200 billion a year. Maybe the other 98 members of this year’s New Establishment list will listen to Sachs and McDonough—and ante up the funds they need to begin fixing up our world.

By Alan Deutschman, Peter Kafka, Jessica Flint, Daniel Roth, Frank DiGiacomo, and Josh McHugh. Reporting and research by Adrienne Gaffney and Lauren Tumas.

Edited by Heather Halberstadt and Peter Newcomb.