Bill Gates is once again the top ranking billionaire of Forbes
magazine's list of the world's richest people, but the recession took a
heavy toll on the world's richest people and the list itself shrunk by
30 percent.
Not that we care much, after all it's the billionaires that created
this mess in the first place, and they'll probably do just fine with a
few hundred million less. The list now features 793 billionaires, down
from last year's 1125. It gets worse when you look at the net worth of
the list, which dropped to $2.4 trillion from $4.4 trillion last year.
Trailing Gates in second and third place are investor Warren Buffet and
Mexican telco magnate Carlos Slim Helu. The three of them combined lost
a total of $68 billion last year.
The only billionaire among the top 20 to gain wealth is New York mayor
Michael Bloomberg, whose net worth jumped from $11.5 billion to $16
billion.
More
here.