Who has lost the most money in human history?

Billion-dollar losers

Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of FTX, saw his wealth plummet from $16 bn to zero when the company collapsed. Other big fortunes lost:

– Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, lost paper wealth of around $70 bn (in today’s money) during the dotcom crash of 2000-2. The company later floated and now he is reckoned by Forbes to be worth $22.8 bn.

– Yasumitsu Shigeta, founder of mobile phone company Hikari Tsushin, lost a paper fortune of $42 bn in the dotcom crash, but thanks to a partial recovery in shares he is now worth $3.4 bn, says Forbes.

– John Rockefeller, the oil magnate and America’s richest man at the time of the Wall Street Crash, is reckoned to have lost the equivalent of $10 bn.

When the wind blows

Has the percentage of electricity generated in the UK by wind and solar increased since the net-zero target was set in June 2019?

Wind / Solar

Q2 2019 15.9 / 6.1

Q3 2019 18.9 / 6.1

Q4 2019 22.3 / 1.6

Q1 2020 30.3 / 2.2

Q2 2020 20.0 / 8.1

Q3 2020 20.0 / 5.7

Q4 2020 25.0 / 1.6

Q1 2021 25.2 / 2.0

Q2 2021 15.7 / 6.8

Q3 2021 14.9 / 5.9

Q4 2021 26.2 / 1.7

Q1 2022 29.0 / 2.5

Q2 2022 20.7 / 6.4

Source: BEIS

Grub’s down

The UN’s food price index rose by just 2 per cent last month and is expected to fall soon – a sign global inflation has peaked. Some items are already coming down. Global falls in food prices since their recent peaks:

Sugar 9%

Butter 13%

Lamb 19%

Chickpeas 20%

Palm oil 42%

Eye on the ball

How many people watched coverage of the last World Cup, in Russia in 2018?

3.572 bn watched at least a minute of the tournament. 1.12 bn watched the final.

Hours watched by continent:

Asia 10.66 bn

Europe 9.67 bn

South America 5.52 bn

Africa and Middle East 5.17 bn

North America and Caribbean 3.56 bn

Oceania 0.07 bn

Source: FIFA