Updated: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:24:25 GMT | By Neil Faulkner, writing for MSN Money
Entrepreneurs who profited during the downturn

Not everyone has sufferred in the financial downturn...



Entrepreneurs who have thrived in the downturn (© Image © Matt Lloyd - Rex Features)
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  • Entrepreneurs who have thrived in the downturn (© Image © Matt Lloyd - Rex Features)
  • Entrepreneurs who have thrived in the downturn (© Image © Steve Bell - Rex Features)
  • Entrepreneurs who have thrived in the downturn (© Image © Wonga)
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Many people have made fortunes despite or, indeed, because of the credit crunch and the following economic troubles.

Some who were successful even before the hard times have still managed to increase the amount of champagne they can quaff while millions suffer unemployment, budget cutbacks and growing credit card balances.

The following list of entrepreneurs and investors who have grown their wealth over the past five years includes those you might consider villains, geniuses and heroes.

50Comments
15/03/2012 14:24
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Payday loans, Wonga and all other loan sharks should be banned from advertising on television.  The stress they cause with their huge interest rates levied on desperate people is terrible.  Cigarettes were banned from television advertising years ago, yes they are bad for your health but so is stress.  Stop them from advertising and instead give the prime time advert slots free to Credit Unions who try to stamp out disgusting interest rates.
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Just imagine our PM having to choose between shopping at Lidl's or Aldi then on the week you get a couple of hours overtime (assuming you have a job) you can get that better cut of meat from Asda's. Imagine if he had to collect all the tokens from Morrison's just so he can put an extra tenner's worth of petrol in his 'R' registered Ford Focus. Then imagine him having to decide to drive around a couple of weeks after the MOT has expired because it will fail on tyres & front disc pads. The list can go on & on and we all know he wont read this or anybody else's remarks. He will simply continue to blame the economy on the last Government and even train Clegg how to do that (last weeks PMQ) although Clegg still needs fine tuning. DC will simply rub his hands together and say to himself.... The people of Great Britain cant do a damned thing about it ah ah ah. Got to go now co's I'm cooking a joint I bought reduced from Aldi's.
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Well now Mr Cameron, why not take a leaf out of Penny Streeter's book. If SHE can start an agency for hiring out Doctors and Nurses, then why can't a similar agency be set up by the NHS?

It would, in essence, be completely self financing. If the NHS is forced to pay such ridiculously exorbitant fees of £120 per hour for just one nurse, surely a similar agency, run by the NHS itself would be saving the Country millions!!!!!!!

Why should WE be putting up to £80 per hour, per nurse, into Penny Streeter's OWN POCKET???

This situation is absolutely outrageous, and the solution seems to be so simple.

15/03/2012 13:30
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Everbody know the poor always gettin screwed over by the rich. Always have, always will
15/03/2012 12:42
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ohhh money and power.....lets not forget our pm is a multi millionaire and married to aristocracy, the only difference between us and the USA is the accent nowadaysand think we live in a democracy , its just like the US, we get to vote for Suit A and Suit B. whichever one you go for, they don't have to worry about back pocket change for stuff like petrol food and car insurance.  nothing will ever change and will it only get worse, more supermarkets, lower wages and they'll brainwash you more and more that trade unions (for your workers rights) and strikes (for better wages and conditions) are just a bunch of trouble makers... food for thought?
19/03/2012 17:41
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I read about Penny Streeter and her organisation taking advantage of the staff shortage in the NHS and how the tax payer foots the bill for training  nurses at university.

If the Government would stop  staff cutbacks and allow the hospital etc, to employ the staff which are required to run the service ,then the staff who have been trained at great expense to the tax payer could take up the positions, there would then be no need for agencies like the one run by Penny Streeter or anyone else.

The writer who suggested the NHS could set up its own agency has a good point. Previously temporary staff were recruited from a local list of bank workers

 The real question we should be asking, is why is the government cutting back on staff in the first place when they are clearly needed?.

Oh and by the way I don't want comments on my spelling or grammar.  

15/03/2012 09:11
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Whilst some are entrepreneurs, others like the founder of Wonga.com are just legalised loan sharks feeding off misery and desperation in hard times.  Should we really be celebrating this?
15/03/2012 02:36
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I unfortunately suffered a double subarachnoid brain anuerysm in June 2010 and as a result was made redundant even although I had made a full recovery and my GP had given me a date to return.

 

I have was with this company for 13 loyal years and they treated me like this. I am on the dole heap now with one interview in 11 months.

 

My house is due to be repossesed soon and my car which 'was' needed will be on the market.

 

I know to this day if I hadn't suffered my anuerysm that i'd still be employed.

 

Great luck to all the people that made it in life.. I just wish some of them could help me at this current time.

£67.50 PER WEEK doesn't go very far as you all know but because I have worked for every minute and since 1984 possesion including my house I get no help whatsover. It's wrong.

 

 

15/03/2012 02:55
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I can respect some of the people in this artical for turning a profit.  However people like Penny Streeter and her organisation should be ashamed.  Hospitals are drastically understaffed, people are at risk of dying and they see this as a way to turn a profit?  And at £120 per hour all that's going to do is drive more good honest doctors from the NHS because the stress isn't worth their paycheck when they can work for several times that amount.

Whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath?
15/03/2012 07:59
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Clever people make Money and more Money even in bad times

 

They are not millionaires for nothing.

 

Just wish I had zero point one percent of their cash,

 

But I don't so lets enjoy life without stress.

15/03/2012 08:42
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The Rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer (and pay full rate tax)!
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the last one is a bit worrying, NHS paying £120/hour for agency staff, surely a flexable part time staff on the pay roll has to be a better option, i might train as a nurse, i'll do it for £50..
15/03/2012 11:39
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I am happy for all the rich people, and I also feel so bad for the poor people. The margin between the rich and the poor is extremely massive, while some people are struggling to have just one meal a day! some are throwing millions of pounds away. Some even has so much that they do not know what to do with the money anymore, people don't even have mercy anymore and the only reason why some people wants to have money is to oppress their neighbour.

Going to University used to be away to become a somebody in life but not anymore, is not by what you know anymore is by who you know..

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There will always be rich people and there will always be poor people. The divide between rich and poor grew massively under Labour, of all people, who supposedly champion the poor. If everyone of us put all our assets, liquid and otherwise, into a huge pot by midnight tonight and it was all distributed evenly amongst us all so we all received exactly the same amount, I'd wager there would be millionaires and paupers in six months from now.
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Even if they stop using Penny Streeter's Nursing agency, it won't bother her, she has made her money. Same with many companies closing down, the boss has taken his money, the only ones to suffer are the unlucky poor who did the work and have nothing to show for it.
15/03/2012 14:50
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poor screwed over by the rich - 90% of wealth held by 10% of people and getting worse

what happens to capitalism when they have 100% ?? in the last 20 years governments

have stopped the natural redistribution of wealth like pay and inflation witch only effected the 90% of people

then the 90% they browed and now we are hear and as far as i can see the majority of the 90%

have no spare cash if they don't spend then the top earners of the 90% have no spare cash they don't spend unemployment goes up the government have to tax the 90% more on & on 

just wait till unemployment hits 3 Mil tax & benefits implode

15/03/2012 10:18
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Private - nursing firms are a bigger con than Wonga. At least Wonga customers make their own decisions. My taxes have already paid for the training of nurses (who get paid whilst training and do not pay Uni fees as again mine and your taxes pay) who then have the gall to leave the NHS ,set up "private" nursing companies who's ONLY and massively lucrative client is the most mis-managed health service in the 1st world.....the sainted NHS. 

15/03/2012 10:52
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To Chad Cartright.

 

Unfortunately Chad,  you cannot blame someone like Penny Streeter for shamelessly ripping off the NHS.  There will always be sharks like this looking for a way to gain personally from any situation.  If the government are thick enough to allow it by not employing enough of their own nurses at say £15 per hour then why shouldnt the likes of this woman take advantage ?  The government could stop it any time they want, but they choose to allow parasites like this to continue to latch on to the public purse.  I know it isnt right Chad, but if Dave and his boys want high unemployment, it comes with a price like everything else.

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The Streeter woman is clearly a parasite......OR should we all congratulate her for making the most of a bad situation?
15/03/2012 09:46
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Whilst some are entrepreneurs, others like the founder of Wonga.com are just legalised loan sharks feeding off misery and desperation in hard times.  Should we really be celebrating this?---BTW, get connected with us if you want a tall partner.
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