President Obama has been knocked down a notch on Forbes' most "Powerful People" list by non other than Russian President Vladimir Putin who apparently unlike Obama isn't afraid to use the power he holds.
Obama’s demotion and Putin’s promotion (from 3rd in 2012), underline a fundamental truth about the nature of power. In terms of objective “hard power”, America has long reigned supreme: a defence budget exceeding those of the ten next countries combined, a unique ability to project troops and colossal firepower to every corner of the earth, and (as the current NSA brouhaha only confirms) unsurpassed technology to boot. But matters are not so simple. Power resides in the perception of power or, put another way, of the readiness of an individual or state to use it. Obama’s performance of late, not least over Syria, suggests he is uncomfortable in that role. No such doubts surround Putin.Here is Forbes top 20:
1 Vladimir Putin; Russian President (3)
2 Barack Obama; US President (1)
3 Xi Jinping; General Secretary of China’s Communist Party (9)
4 Pope Francis; Supreme Pontiff (NA)
5 Angela Merkel; German Chancellor (2)
6 Bill Gates; Co-chair Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (4)
7 Ben Bernanke; US Federal Reserve Chairman (6)
8 Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud; King, Saudi Arabia (7)
9 Mario Draghi; European Central Bank President (8)
10 Michael Duke; Wal-Mart CEO (17)
11 David Cameron; British PM (10)
12 Carlos Slim; Chairman, América Móvil (11)
13 Warren Buffett; CEO, Berkshire Hathaway (15)
14 Li Keqiang; Vice Premier, China (13)
15 Jeff Bezos; Amazon CEO (27)
16 Rex Tillerson; Exxon Mobil CEO (22)
17 Sergey Brin; Co-founder, Google and Larry Page, CEO, Google (20)
18 François Hollande; President, France (14)
19 Tim Cook; Apple CEO (35)
20 Dilma Rousseff; Brazilian President (18)
source›› indepent via forbes
