The Rich Aren’t as Rich as They Used to Be

Count standards among the victims of the long economic disaster.

Why? Well, you can get onto the Forbes list of the richest 400 Americans with less than $1 billion. In fact, there are eight members of that club whose fortunes are $950 million to $990 million. It’s such a comedown. Last year, it took $1.3 billion to make the list. Now, there really aren’t 400 American billionaires.

For the nation’s richest people, their collective wealth fell for just the fifth time since 1982. And it didn’t fall just a little. It fell a lot, $300 billion in 12 months to $1.27 trillion from $1.57 trillion a year ago.

The capital markets, falling real estate prices, divorce, and fraud left 314 members of the list poorer, and drove 32 off the list altogether. Probably the most interesting of those was R. Allen Stanford, whose assets were frozen when he was accused of running a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Bill Gates, with $50 billion, held onto his place at the top, even though he lost $7 billion in 12 months thanks to stagnating Microsoft stocks.

The second-richest man, Warren Buffett, also took the biggest bath of the year. He lost $10 billion and is now worth $40 billion.

Only Oracle chief Larry Ellison’s net worth remained unchanged in the top 10, at $27 billion.

Four of the top 10 were members of the Walton family, heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Rounding out the top 10 were New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and manufacturing and energy magnates Charles Koch and David Koch.