private jet

The gap between America's super-wealthy and the rest of us has grown so vast it's hard to even comprehend the sums they spend on their luxuries. But if you measure, say, a $200 million luxury yacht in terms of the average U.S. family's household income, the picture comes back into focus.

NetJets, a private aviation company selling fractional ownership in its planes, announced Thursday that it would buy Marquis Jet, a private jet cards company that sells the use of NetJets's planes in 25-hour blocks. Marquis Jet becomes a subsidiary of NetJets, itself owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

The Republican National Committee spent about $30,000 on limos, private hotels and jets in February alone. The revelations are either baffling or predictable after the public outrage over the perceived excesses of Wall Street executives.

Last week, I dug out the phone numbers for some old contacts at Cessna, the large Wichita-based private airplane and jet manufacturer. Since Private Air, the magazine I edited, folded six months ago, I hadn't had much occasion to call out to Wichita. I was curious to hear how the people I knew at...

The graduating class of Duke University this year had the privilege of Oprah giving their commencement speech. Her advice to the class of 2009: seriously, being rich is really cool because you can own a ton of mansions and fly around on a private jet. Well at least she's honest. But is...