A Note About the Unnamable
In Mexico, he's rarely referred to in public (at least not negatively) because if you mention "Carlos Slim" at a gathering or in the press, influential people listen way too closely.
Mr. Slim is linked to just about everything Mexican: banks, railroads, retail, parking, highways, real estate and of course telecommunications.
His company, Telmex, is the owner of 92% of Mexican phone lines nearly 20 years after privatization. Its sister company, América Móvil, is Latin America's top mobile carrier and owns nearly 3/4 of the Mexican cell phone market.
Later this year, Mr. Slim plans to merge both companies into a single corporate unit. He and his advisors anticipate no opposition from Mexican lawmakers.
The Other Carlos
The "Unnamable" also refers to Mr. Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the ex-president of Mexico and NAFTA co-signer who cut "THE DEAL" with Mr. Slim.
Although American and European critics often question the ethics of this arrangment, few understand its political and social dynamic.
For starters, the accusation that Mr. Slim was a prestanombres (name lender) amounts to a non-issue, as "borrowing" someone else's name has always been a common and widely accepted business practice in Mexico.
If the deal was indeed "murky", it was no different than any other Mexican presidential accord. Besides, Mexican politicians have rarely been required or expected to make their finances public.
In a word, privacy in Mexico (as it is in many places) is worth more than transparency.
In the end, Messrs. Salinas and Slim pulled off one of the great politico-business deals of the late 20th century, rivaling even the Russian government petro firesale of the 1990's.
Which is to say that Mr. Slim is not only a shrewd businessman but also a highly astute politico.
Model Citizen
At closer look, Mr. Slim's thrift, family values and unvarnished patriotism also make him an ideal Mexican role model.
The fact that his company continues to operate as a monopoly and he owns a disproportionate share of his nation's economy (at one point, nearly 40% of Mexican stocks) is not a critique of the man per se but rather the politics and culture in which he lives.
When in Rome, do as the Romans.
Many of his supporters cite the trickle down effect, emphasizing the benefits of capital concentration to infrastructure and industrial development. But this doesn't seem to have happened, at least not to an extent tangible to most Mexicans.
Besides, economists have argued that certain social, cultural and economic conditions must be present (e.g., a middle class, access to capital, social mobility) for the benefits from capital concentration to accrue.
In Mexico, wealth has been amassed in relatively few hands throughout its history, so the returns have already diminished.
This fact has not been lost on Mexican leaders. The majority of federal legislators are aware that Telmex's rates are among the highest in the world. They understand that legislation enacted 20 years ago was supposed to break up a monopoly, not extend it.
Yet nothing meaningful to curb Mr. Slim's grip on Mexican telecommunications has been achieved.
That's the real story of the Slim fortune: omissions of the Mexican political elite who in practice continue to condone (many would even say protect) Mr. Slim's oligopolic industrial might.
The Daily Toll
Out of public earshot, Mr. Slim is called many things, most reflecting how people instinctively feel about the idea of a single man owning so much. (At last official count, he owned over 6% of Mexican GDP - surely an underestimate).
"Do you know what Slim means in Arabic?" asks one Mexican to another. (Mr. Slim's forebears are from Lebanon).
"No, what?" asks the other.
"Salinas!"
These names invariably mirror the inequity of vast resources concentrated in the hands of so few.
A report issued last year by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that Mexico had the worst level of income inequality and poverty among the group’s 30 member states.
But this critique is not about Mr. Slim; it's about how he got there and how his monopolies continue to operate.
Every day, Mexicans invest a considerable share of their daily allowance to Mr. Slim's holdings: bank fees, tolls, parking, coffee, pastries, clothing, hotels, electronics, Internet access and of course every phone call made via land or cell through Telmex, Telcel, ATT and any other Mexico-based carrier.
Mr. Slim (and Mr. Salinas, no doubt) get a piece of it all.
Shadow Wealth
Although Mr. Salinas has never made the Fortune list, he continues to be one of Latin America's richest men. In Mexico, where he also remains at the epicenter of politics, few know (or openly question) where his wealth comes from.
Before the Telmex deal was struck in 1990, Mr. Slim was already a major contributor to Mr. Salinas' campaigns.
In his book Bordering on Chaos, journalist Andrés Oppenheimer describes a dinner organized by Mr. Slim at which Mr. Salinas solicited contributions from 30 prominent Mexican businessmen.
Although Mr. Slim reportedly "wished the funds had been collected privately, rather than at a dinner, because publicity over the banquet could 'turn into a political scandal'", the tycoons at the gathering contributed an average of $25 million apiece.
Favors like this don't take place every day: one dinner, 750 million dollars.
"He made his billions because of an extremely close and advantageous relationship with the Salinas government," says professor George W. Grayson, a Mexican policy expert at the College of William & Mary.
Nobody will ever know the details of "THE DEAL", but that's how things work in Mexico (and much of the world). Recently Slim has been investing in all major political parties, ideology aside, a common practice among Mexico's super rich.
The Slim Legacy
At a recent dinner in New York City, Mr. Slim was presented with an award from the World Education and Development Fund for his work on infrastructure in the developing world. At the event, Mr. Slim told the audience: "Many people want to leave a better world for their children. I'm trying to leave better children for my world."
At first, people weren't sure they heard the word "my", but in retrospect, what a fitting way to describe it.
Mr. Slim has indeed created his own world, a $150 billion business empire whose shadowy government dealings and spectacular growth has turned him into the world's richest man.
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