What Are the Odds?

[Joanne98]

Steve Jobs, Simon Cowell, Martha Stewart and the Donald have a better than one in five shot of landing on a list where none would want their name to appear—the group of rich people whose Swiss bank accounts are supposedly going to hit WikiLeaks any day now.

That’s according to numbers crunched by the elves at bookmaker expert Mickey Richardson’s shop, Bookmaker.com, exclusively for Portfolio.com.

OK, first of all, Portfolio.com doesn’t condone betting. Nor are we saying that the oddsmakers are correct.

But we did wonder about the chances that certain celebrities, politicians and business luminaries might have of showing up in the big WikiLeaks data dump of Swiss bank account holders. And of the 24 people we asked about, there’s a 70 percent chance that two or more will show up on the list.

Jobs, Cowell and Donald Trump came in with the highest percentages, at 22 percent each, followed by former presidential candidate John Edwards at 20 percent. He beat out another ex-presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, who has an 18 percent chance of showing up in the WikiLeaks hall of shame, according to the oddsmakers. President Barack Obama has a 10 percent chance. As for some other prominent politicians, House Speaker John Boehner has a 13 percent chance, the same as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has a 12 percent chance of being listed



Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2011/01/21/trump-jobs-stewart-top-odds-list-for-wikileaks-list#ixzz1BiF0uMHQ

It will probably be people we never heard of before.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. I'll consider the list when Wikileaks actually releases it.

I mean, they've been sitting on the information from the banks that may or may not implicate Bank of America for two years.

[Joanne98]

2. I know the waiting is killing me.

[RKP5637]

3. Well, I sure know I won't be on the list!!! n/t

[customerserviceguy]

4. I'd bet that there will be at least one surprise

Someone who, up until that revalation, has had solid progressive credentials.

Call me cynical, but after John Edwards, nothing would truly surprise me anymore.