Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote that Dad had advised not to shop in shops where I didn't know the owner? I have a confession to make. I've been shopping at IKEA lately. It was time to find out who the lucky owner really is. The Economist magazine made it easy for me this week with a scathing article about the world's 4th richest man (Ingvar Kamprad) and his Foundation, also the world's richest:

from The Economist, May 15, 2006

"FEW tasks are more exasperating than trying to assemble flat-pack furniture from IKEA. But even that is simple compared with piecing together the accounts of the world's largest home-furnishing retailer. Much has been written about IKEA's remarkably effective retail formula. The Economist has investigated the group's no less astonishing finances.

What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. And if that seems too good to be true, it is: these arrangements are extremely hard to undo. The benefits from all this ingenuity come at the price of a huge constraint on the successors to Ingvar Kamprad, the store's founder (pictured above), to do with IKEA as they see fit."

Another rich man also made news this week:

From CNN.com:

REDMOND, Wash. (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday he wished he were not the world's richest man.

"I wish I wasn't. There is nothing good that comes out of that," said Gates, whose personal fortune sank by billions since last week when the software giant disappointed investors by saying new investments would crimp earnings.

The corporate leader who made Microsoft into the world's largest software maker - and who is also one of the biggest philanthropists - is seen as a man who does not like publicity. He explained that he did not like the attention of being the world's richest person.