The following 8 are the trends that will propel this growth

1. Next billion consumers – emerging economies will contribute $10 trillion to global GDP and will add millions of middle class consumers with lots more interesting business opportunities

2. Old infrastructure,, new investments – estimated contribution to global GDP by 2020 – $1 trillion

3. Growing output of primary inputs- investments in conservation measures, alternative resources and technologies will increase; new fossil fuel sources will decrease economic incentives to invest in renewable energy. Total contribution to GDP – $3 trillion

4. Keeeping the wealthy healthy – ageing populations in wealthy economies will need better treatments, contribution – $4 trillion

5. Everything the same but nicer – soft innovations will give consumers niche and premium products. Contribution? – $ 5 trillion

6. Developing human capital – better social infrastructures, especially for education to prepare the masses for the new world – $2 trillion

7. Prepping for the next big thing – five potential platforms – nanotech, genomics, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous connectivity and robotics show significant promise for growth – $ 1 trillion contribution

8. Militarisation following industrialisation – more investments in military/defense to counter insurgency, terrorism and cyber warfare. $ 1 trillion contribution

Interesting…surprised to see that they are predicting decreased investments in green and renewable, outside of it, not surprised about the rest. Excellent and thought provoking list

Source: Bain & Co

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In the other is William A. Ackman, 45, one of Mr. Icahn’s figurative heirs and a leading practitioner of the bruising, Icahnesque craft politely known as activist investing.

These ultrarich men battled for seven years in multiple courts, over a relatively paltry $4.5 million. That might be real money to mere mortals, but to these two, it’s barely a rounding error.

So why bother? This battle, it turns out, was more about big egos than big money.

Well, it will be difficult to find billionaires without big egos, but it might be more difficult to find billionaires wasting their time for small pieces of money to satisfy their egos.

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Should your dream come true, you might also need to be prepared for some tough times.

Tough times, did I say? Yes, I did. Read about the trauma of JK Rowling just so that you are prepared

JK Rowling has revealed that she felt ‘under siege’ in her own home and had to ‘cover her children in blankets’ to hide them from photographers and journalists, who constantly hounded her after the success of ‘Harry Potter’ books.

The 46-year-old author told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that she had to fight a fierce battle to protect her children from the consequences of her fame.

Rowling also said that the paparazzi unceasingly targeted her family and one incident that left her really infuriated was when one of the journalists slipped a letter into her five-year-old daughter’s schoolbag.

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Unlike Google, Baidu, China’s largest search engine, cooperates with the government’s policy of censorship. The western press commonly asks the company’s CEO, Robin Li, how he justifies such a decision. Naturally, Li’s responses are generally quite deferential to the government. An unfavorable onlooker might even consider some of his rhetoric to veer precariously close to pandering. Take, for instance, Li’s dictum on big tech in China: “…walking the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the well-spring of strength that will allow the Chinese Internet to continue its healthy and rapid development.”

So it came as quite a surprise when CCTV, one of the government’s many state-run media organizations, aired a damning 26-minute documentary on Li’s company last month. Millions of Chinese viewers watched footage of a Baidu (BIDU) employee helping a man posing as the owner of what he admitted to be a sham healthcare company buy a fraudulent advertisement for a phony weight-loss pill. For weeks, the media speculated on the rationale behind the attack, which struck many as particularly harsh. Was the government getting uncomfortable with Baidu’s monopoly on the search market? (It controls about 80% of the market.) Or was CCTV acting out of commercial opportunism, since the broadcaster is also developing a search engine of its own? Did someone at CCTV have a personal vendetta against a higher-up at Baidu?

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China’s transformation from an impoverished backwater to the world’s second-largest economy has created a growing army of super wealthy, with the number of billionaires nearly doubling to 115, according to the Forbes annual list of the world’s richest people.

Some have gained more than others. A maxim widely attributed to former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said that “to get rich is glorious”, but that wealth has gone to a narrow segment of the populace.

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British singer and composer Sting will perform at the Christmas party of the PPF financial group that belongs to Petr Kellner, the richest Czech, on December 16.

Sting has had six concerts in the Czech Republic, most recently in Prague in the summer 2010.

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Working as Carl Icahn’s top health-care investing executive for the past five years, Denner has targeted at least six drugmakers from ImClone Systems Inc. to Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB), prompting sales of three. He’s generated about $2 billion in profit for Icahn, said a person familiar with his record who declined to be identified because the matter is private.

Now the 42-year-old Denner, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, is splitting with Icahn to start his own hedge fund. As some investors avoid health care, partly because of regulatory hurdles, Denner’s knowledge of science and business gives him an advantage as one of the industry’s few activists

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The Gates Notes

“The gold medalist passenger,” Ellison said mockingly of himself as he sat for an interview.

A self-made billionaire who co-founded Oracle Corp. and is one of the world’s wealthiest men, he remains a conspicuous consumer in a nasty economy: A collector of trophy properties and, after quite a chase on the water and in the New York courts, the America’s Cup trophy, too.

Ellison, an accomplished sailor, hopes to take a more active role when the real America’s Cup is raced in a 72-foot version of these catamarans in 2013 on San Francisco Bay.

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