Who is the most Powerful man on earth?

It depends on who you ask. People from different religons for example believe in different gods.

I give you the president of the United States.That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

George Soros. He can take down countries.

I also meant Most Influential man
please people stay serious.

I doubt it would boil down to one person. I think it’s more likely to be three, or a very small group, of people. US President (military/influence), Chinese President (world labor force/influence) for example.

The most influential man? I suppose it is a tie between Osama Bin Laden pbuh and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pbuh.
Both have the west run around like headless chicken.

@worriedguy you’re right that guy is pretty bad ass, he could destroy Greece right now if he felt like it. But too easy for him so I don’t think hes interested lol. Anyways besides him, I think the president of the united states certainly has the most power. The president has the resources of an entire nation behind him.

I would be surprised if any but a few would know the name of the most powerful man on earth.

The most powerful man on earth is the man who understands that we’re all in this together, who realizes that love is the most powerful force in the universe, and who has the humility to forgive.

Assuming “world leaders” that we the people/sheep are familiar with are not puppets, then it would be President Obama and Hu Jinato.

Number 1 and Number 2 on Forbes most powerful man in the world list.

It depends exactly in what category, you can check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_troops
if you want to consider just the military. Or Coco when it comes to comedy.

Some other names that come to mind might be Bill Gates, Oprah, ex presidents. And since we live in a world controlled by technology I’ll even go as far as saying Kevin Rose and Mark Zuckerberg. Information is power!

Certain people might have a lot of power over a certain group of people or issues. But there are always individuals that have influence over those people.

Money talk, money is power so you can look into corporations like Monsanto and oil companies.

Also the Associated Press! And those who control the flow of information.

Gotta go with Obama here. His influence in other countries is greater than it is in the USA.

Based on the last year and a half, I would vote for Lloyd Blankfein (sp?), CEO of Goldman Sachs. Yeah, he may get called to testify in front of Congress from time to time, but the man can seemingly do no wrong while managing to completely f**k over the rest of the planet.

This post is missing an apple fanboy, so I’ll through in Steve Jobs.

@Melonking: For the record, I love macs but I’m too scared to steer off course with this new “General Section”

Well I say it with reason, the tech industry is just about the most important today, and apple is just about that the top of it. So in world economics he is a powerful person, and economics and politics go hand in hand.

I would say for an individual with power, it is the person who is the most wealthiest. Chances are, he/she is also the most well-connected and most influential.

Money is power unfortunately

@TogoldorMandar Stay serious??? This would be considered a serious question?

Obama according to the Forbes list

It would have to be Obama. Vladimir Putin has more dictatorial power than our President, but he hasn’t anyehere near the economic or military force at his disposal to actualize that power. The USA spends more on defense than all the other nations of the Earth combined, and President Obama is the Commander in Chief of that awesome military force. He is also the cheif executive officer of the natin with the largest gross domestic product on Earth.

Forbes is a far cry from infallible, although any US president would be one of the most powerful men on earth…for a time

@Jeruba I’d have to agree with you. Most of us have no idea where the real power comes from.

From who we know, I’d have to say Obama, Hu Jintao, and Putin. If any two of these 3 agree to do cooperate on something, I can hardly see it failing.

Between the 3 of them, I’d normally say Obama is the most powerful since the US has the most influence on the world stage, but given the fact that the source of his power is tied to the American people who can change their minds at any moment for any reason, good or bad, his hands are tied much more than Putin’s or Hu’s.

With respect to answers about the big rich guys, they are certainly very powerful, but I’d say the lack of military backing makes them less powerful than some politicians.

There are no names here because there are quite a few of them but I would say the executives and CEO of the world banks. These people have complete control of many nations with very powerful militaries, the banking ceos don’t need their own armed forces. The way the world runs today is the reason the banks are the most powerful force today.

You have to understand how the world runs today to be able to fully comprehend my answer.

Interesting that none of the New World Order conspiracy theorists have talked up the leader of the Bilderbergers or the Illuminati. To my friends on the far right, the honors were split between George Soros and the head of ACORN, who still manipulates things through thought projection even though ACORN is now dead.

@ETpro ACORN has changed its name to COI (Community Organization International) and is still active

@YARNLADY I wasn’t aware of that. No wonder they control the Universe.

Everyman

@Jabe73 Enlighten us please. (Real request, not sarcasm).

prophet mohammed (pbuh)

I wasn’t being sarcastic but gave an honest answer. You are only going to get other peoples opinions you know.

It would require an entire page to explain why I feel the ceos of the most largest banks are the most powerful people on earth today.

The U.S president may be the most influential single person however.

@Jabe73 Sorry, I put that statement in parens to indicate that I, too, wasn’t being sarcastic. Looks like I should have been more clear.

But now I have a follow up. Are you saying that the as a group the execs/CEOs of the banks are more powerful than anyone else? Also you said “world banks.” What do you mean by that? You mean all the big international ones?

Who says it’s a man?

@NRO One would suspect that the most powerful man on earth is a man ;)

Joking aside, do you think the answers above would have been very different had the question been phrased with person instead of man? (Serious question).

@roundsquare I was objecting to the phraseology of the question since it was about power, not gender.

@NRO I understand. The first part was just a (poor) joke.

But my question is about why you are objecting to the phraseology. Generally speaking, I’d say it was understood that women were to be considered. So the best reason to object that I can think of is that you think that by phrasing the question like this it biases people towards thinking men are (or always will be) more powerful. My question is: does this actually happen?

If your objecting for a different reason, please let me know.

[removed by CIA]

the richest people are the most influential: The Rockefeller family, the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) and his brother William Rockefeller (1841–1922), is an American industrial, banking, and political family of British/German origin that made one of the world’s largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th century, primarily through the Standard Oil Company.

Ill consider 3 Influential political guys, Obama, Hu Jintao, and Putin. And I expect that Turkey President Erdogan and the Indian one will play a bigger role in the near future

oprah.

The wealthiest families on Earth would be the Rothschilds in Europe and The Saudi Royal Family. Both are worth something in the range of $1 trillion.

The Director General of the BBC he heads an organisation that put a tax on the British people without resorting to government.