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Ignoring all technical issues, who could ever in the foreseeable future afford it to the point that it would be beneficial to build and operate?

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$10 billion and a decade?

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From article: Given the far stronger-than-steel ribbon of carbon nanotubes, a space elevator could be up within a decade. "There's no real serious stumbling block to this," Edwards explained.

Yeah, okay. Boston has spent more money and taken longer on the Big Dig construction project, but these guys think they will have the money, technology, and political/commercial backing to build a 35000km elevator in a decade. Meanwhile we enter the third decade of the F-22 fighter project, which still hasn't produced a single jet on operational status.