Forbes Most Powerful List 2012 [Full List] Obama Ranked No. 1
Forbes magazine unveiled its "World's Most Powerful People" list on Thursday ranking U.S. President Barack Obama as the most powerful person in the world this year, among 7.1 billion people taken into consideration.
This year's list included head of governments, businessmen and even the magazine added famous Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, the head of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world.
According to Forbes Obama emerged "unanimously" as the most powerful person for the second year running.
"Obama was the decisive winner of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and now he gets four more years to push his agenda," the magazine said."The President faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East. But Obama remains the unquestioned commander in chief of the world's greatest military, and head of its sole economic and cultural superpower."
The second most powerful person in the world according to Forbes was German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the third is Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Forbes.
"Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, jumps up from #4 last year to take the runner-up spot on the list. Merkel is the backbone of the 27-member European Union and carries the fate of the Euro on her shoulders," Forbes magazine wrote.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates landed in the fourth position and Pope Benedict XVI on the fifth. The top-ten ranking also included Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve on No. 6, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud on No. 7, European Central Bank's President Mario Draghi on No. 8, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping on No. 9 and U.K's Prime Minister David Cameron on No. 10
Mexican magnate Carlos Slim ranked No. 11, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg landed on No. 16, Brazil's President Dilma Rouseff in No. 18 and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on No. 25, dropping from last year's top-ten ranking.
Drug dealer "El Chapo" ranked as No. 63.
SEE THE LIST BELOW:
1. Barack Obama
2. Angela Merkel
3. Vladimir Putin
4. Bill Gates
5. Pope Benedict XVI
6. Ben Bernanke
7. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud
8. Mario Draghi
9. Xi Jinping
10. David Cameron
11. Carlos Slim
12. Sonia Gandhi
13. Li Keqiang
14. Francois Hollande
15. Warren Buffett
16. Michael Bloomberg
17. Michael Duke
18. Dilma Rousseff
19. Manmohan Singh
20. Sergey Brin and Larry Page Google co-Founders
21. Ali Hoseini-Khaumenei
22. Rex Tillerson
23. Benjamin Netanyahu
24. Jeffrey Immellt
25. Mark Zuckerberg
26. Rupert Murdoch
27. Jeff Bezos
28. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
29. Mario Monti
30. Ban Ki-moon
View FORBES' FULL LIST OF MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE HERE
31. Li Ka-shing
32. Ali Al-Naimi
33. Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
34. Jamie Dimon
35. Tim Cook
36. Lloyd Blankfein
37. Mukesh Ambani
38. Christine Lagarde
39. Lou Jiwei
40. Masaaki Shirakawa and Charles Koch
41. David Koch
42. Larry Fink
43. Akio Toyoda
44. Kim Jong-un
45. Jim Yong Kim
46. Steve Ballmer
47. Lakshmi Mittal
48. Hugo Chavez
49. Sebastian Pinera
50. Bill Clinton
51. Bill Gross
52. Zaheer ul-Islam
53. Masayoshi Son
54. Enrique Pena Nieto
55. Terry Gou
56. Bernard Arnault
57. Rostam Ghasemi
58. Margaret Chan
59. John Roberts
60. Yoshihiko Noda
61. Dmitry Medvedev
62. Jiang Zemin
63. Joaquin Guzman Loera
64. Robin Li
65. John Boehner
66. Elon Musk
67. Alisher Usmanov
68. Kathleen Sebelius
69. Joseph Blatter
70. Alexey Miller
71. Reid Hoffman