April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

The CLEWI shows that in 2010 HNWIs had to cough up 5 per cent more for
VIP (very important person) care in the Washington Hospital Center. One
day with concierge, security, gourmet meals, supplies and specialised
nursing care a day set them back $2,421.
But if the high cost of living extremely well and all the stress and mental
anguish of being super-rich causes a need for psychiatric care, in 2010
HNWIs could still get a psychiatrist on New York’s Upper East Side for the
same rate they could in 2009: $325 per 45-minute session.
For some of the world’s wealthiest, even the standard luxury items in the
CLEWI basket may be far beneath them. Last year, Indian billionaire
Mukesh Ambani moved into a 27-storey home in Mumbai, the first
residence valued at a billion dollars.[15] And soon the truly filthy rich will
be able to purchase the world’s first billion-dollar yacht.[16] The 500-foot
monstrosity is to be called ‘Streets of Monaco’, a floating theme park
modelled after Monaco itself – a favourite tax haven for billionaires.
The world’s HNWIs, after a short period of relative hardship and belttightening
during the worst of the financial crisis, have also been returning
now to their ‘passion investments’.[17] Passion investments include
expensive self-indulgences (jewellery, gems, watches) and ‘luxury
collectibles’ such as extravagant boats, automobiles and jets, art and
‘collectible’ wines.[18]
OF WEALTH CARE AND PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT
HNWIs are in high demand from ‘private wealth managers’. These are
people who make lots of money by making lots and lots of money for the
super-rich. Private wealth managers are often HNWIs themselves. They
offer ‘wealth care’ services, which may be as much a priority for HNWIs as
is health care for ordinary mortals.
The Goldman Sachs Group is big in the wealth care business. A financial
behemoth with its tentacles spread around the world in countless
subsidiaries, Goldman Sachs is a ‘a leading banking organization’[19]
incorporated, no surprise, into the onshore–offshore tax haven of
Delaware.[20] It caters especially to high and ultra high net worth
individuals, offering them ‘private wealth management’ (PWM) with a
whole range of ‘private wealth products and services’.[21] Most are
offshore, safe from taxes.
Goldman Sachs has many friends in very high places, and has even been a
useful stepping stone to get them there. Current World Bank president
Robert Zoellick is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs where he was vice chair,
after his stint as US deputy secretary of state under President George W.
Bush.[22] Goldman Sachs has been home to a remarkable number of
luminaries that have been given key government positions in the Obama
White House.[23] The author Dambisa Moyo also emerged from the ranks
at Goldman Sachs. Not surprisingly, she argues in her best-selling book
‘Dead Aid’ that wild west-and-east capitalism is the solution for Africa, a
thesis that free-wheeling capitalists just love. The billionaire publisher
Steve Forbes liked Moyo’s message so much that he threw her a party at
the Four Seasons in New York.[24] The current governor of the Bank of
Canada, Mark Carney, is also a member of the Goldman Sachs economic
club.
Goldman Sachs, by virtue of those who have swelled its ranks over the
years and the UHNWIs who use its private wealth management services,
exerts enormous influence on governments. It is certain that this influence