Packer's pain over lost billions

Packer's pain over lost billions

www.smh.com.au

JAMES PACKER'S retreat from public life this year is a sign of the deep emotional impact of losing part of the great wealth he inherited from his late father, Kerry, says a new book on one of Australia's most powerful businessmen.

The author, Paul Barry, portrays Mr Packer as more attached to the trappings of wealth than his father and as a man who measures his self-worth in dollars.

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Barry's Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? The James Packer Story also contrasts his subject with other business leaders affected by the global financial crisis such as the retailing pioneer Gerry Harvey.

''As his share price headed south, Harvey admitted cheerfully he was down to his last billion but didn't care a bit, because he never thought he'd have a billion to lose,'' the book says. ''But James was suffering because he took money so seriously.''

Poor widdle diddums. His father and himself made a fortune ripping off average people and taking control of media corporations - thereby controlling the flow of information. I could care bloody less that he has taken up smoking and is depressed because he lost his fortune - TOO BLOODY BAD.

This is a classic example of what money does to people, not only do they succumb to it's call and lose their humanity in doing so - but then they expect people to feel sorry for them when they lose the lot because of idiotic choices.

I hope he loses the rest and has to discover what life is like for the other 5.9 billion of us.

Barry says the value of Mr Packer's assets dropped by $4 billion at the depth of the global financial crisis, prompting him to withdraw from public view, take up smoking again, put on weight, and become depressed.

Money ''was what drove him, what he lived for, what had always served as the scorecard of his success,'' Barry writes in the book, an extract of which will be published in tomorrow's Good Weekend magazine.

"James falls in love with people and takes them into his inner circle because he thinks they can make him rich," says the former PBL executive.

Bloody disgraceful.

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