Talk about bouncing back. Since the financial crisis, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled. According to OxFam, it would take Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, 220 years to spend his fortune. (Unless he really liked Sushi, in which case it would take about fourteen months.)

+ Harper’s Alice Gregory with an interesting look at televised auctions and the Great Recession: “Despite the repugnant personalities and dismal quality of the goods in question, the found-money shows, with their blustering titles and cheap production values, can tell us something about the American economy … What was once an occasion for pragmatic decision-making is now a lottery played by hopeful.”

+ The Economist charts national money and happiness.

+ According a recent study, just thinking about money “turns people into antisocial, unethical pragmatists who are unwilling to help strangers.” (I don’t think my xenophobia, misanthropy and germ neurosis are being properly weighted in this study.)