"There are about 1100 billionaires in the world," David Rothkopf CC'77 said, "and their wealth is equal to that of the bottom 2.5 billion people." He was the focal point of "Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making," a panel discussion packed with high powered folks, including PrezBo himself, who delivered some perfunctory introductory remarks.

Most of the world's wealth is in the hands of the few--we all know this. But Rothkopf, the president and CEO of his own international advisory firm, has written a new book called Superclass (whence the title of the panel) that strives to answer whether the wealthy are unjustly wealthy (he seems to think yes), and, if so, what can the planet do about it? The newly globalized world is creating a tiny group of very powerful people--both super-rich Carlos Slims and super-influential Bonos (and Jeffrey Sachses?)--whose power transcends national boundaries, and who seem to identify more with each other than with the middle (or lower) classes in their countries of origin.