It's a hard and complex question to answer - depending as it does on what you mean by "greatest". Buffet is probably the greatest investor of the 20th Century, but in terms of flat out "who made the most money", you have to award the honors to John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest man who ever lived.

In 1916, Rockefeller became a billionaire. Now, these days, a billion dollars doesn't seem like a lot, especially since today Mr Buffet is woth over 60 billion, but in 1916 it was real money: the entire US federal budget came to around $700 miilion that year. (It was 2,900 billion last year.)
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
http://usgovernmentspending.blogspot.com/2009/03/world-war-i-us-defense-spe...

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