Thailand’s King Bhumibol remains the world’s richest royal for the third year in a row, despite his country’s riots and turmoil. Royal assets are held under Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau, which benefited from stock market and real estate gains in 2009. As a result, his fortune remains stable at $30 billion, at least for now. The rioting that broke out in March, led by protesters demanding new elections, may irreparably damage the country’s tourism and investment markets.

– Extracted from Tatiana Serafin, “The world’s richest royals”, Forbes, 7 July 2010.

New Mandala coverage of this same topic is available from 2008 and 2009. The comments following those archival posts are also quite interesting. It is helpful, I expect, that we all remind ourselves, from time-to-time, about how debates and ideas have shifted over the years.

What are your 2010 views on King Bhumibol’s billions?