Forbes' Richest List Drops 82 Billionaires

Now Takes At Least $1.3B To Be In Top 400; Gates, Buffet Still Head The List

(CBS/AP)  A billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to.

What's different about this year's Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, reports CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv (audio), is that, for the first time, $1 billion isn't enough. You need $1.3 billion.

"For the first time in history, we're leaving billionaires behind," magazine associated editor Matthew Miller said. "There are 82 American billionaires who do not make the Forbes 400 this year."

Collectively, the people who made the rankings released Thursday are worth $1.54 trillion, compared with $1.25 trillion last year.

The very top of the list was unchanged: Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates led the list for the 14th straight year, this time with a net worth estimated at $59 billion. He was followed by Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in second place with an estimated $52 billion and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, No. 3 with an estimated worth of $28 billion.

Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. maintained his ranking at No. 4, with an estimated net worth of $26 billion.

But the list showed some notable changes.

"Howard Schultz of Starbucks ... fell off the list this year," Miller told CBS News. "He's actually richer than he was last year, but couldn't keep up."

Joining the top 10 of the country's richest for the first time were Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who tied for fifth place. The 34-year-old moguls' wealth has quadrupled since 2004 to an estimated $18.5 billion this year, while their company's stock value has surged 500 percent.

And, lower down, almost half of the 45 newcomers made their millions in hedge funds and private equity investments. The youngest member of this year's list was 33-year-old hedge fund manager John Arnold, who joined the ranks at No. 317 and a net worth of $1.5 billion.

"Wall Street really led the charge this year," said Miller, the list's editor. "God only knows if they'll be on it next year. It really just depends on what the market does."

Surging oil prices also helped some members of the list. Oil baron brothers Charles and David Koch also broke into the top 10, sharing the No. 9 spot with estimated wealth of $17 billion. Their ascension bumped the Walton family, heirs to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fortune, from the top 10 for the first time since 1989.

The discount retailer, struggling with a slowing economy and higher gasoline prices as well as merchandising mishaps, has seen its sales lag behind rivals like Target Corp.

Climbing 19 rungs to No. 7 was casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian, who doubled his net worth to an estimated $18 billion. The 90-year-old investor is a majority shareholder in MGM Mirage - operator of the MGM Grand, Bellagio and other casinos - which saw record profits at several of its Las Vegas hotel-casinos.

Rounding out the top 10 was Michael Dell of computer maker Dell Inc., who was No. 8 with an estimated $17.2 billion.

The magazine confirmed the worth of an individual's holdings in public companies by using the Aug. 31 closing stock price, and estimated the value of private companies by evaluating comparable public firms in the industry. The list also takes into account philanthropic donations.

Here are the top 25. Where more than one name is listed under a number, there is a tie:

1. William Gates III, 51, $59 billion, Medina, Wash., Microsoft
2. Warren Buffett, 77, $52 billion, Omaha, Neb., Berkshire Hathaway
3. Sheldon Adelson, 74, $28 billion, Las Vegas, casinos, hotels
4. Lawrence Ellison, 63, $26 billion, Redwood City, Calif., Oracle
5. Sergey Brin, 34, $18.5 billion, Palo Alto, Calif., Google
5. Larry Page, 34, $18.5 billion, San Francisco, Google
7. Kirk Kerkorian, 90, $18 billion, Los Angeles, investments, casinos
8. Michael Dell, 42, $17.2 billion, Austin, Texas, Dell
9. Charles Koch, 71, $17 billion, Wichita, Kan., oil, commodities
9. David Koch, 67, $17 billion, New York, oil, commodities
11. Paul Allen, 54, $16.8 billion, Mercer Island, Wash., Microsoft, investments
12. Christy Walton and family, 52, $16.3 billion, Jackson, Wyo., Wal-Mart inheritance
12. Jim Walton, 59, $16.3 billion, Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart
12. S. Robson Walton, 63, $16.3 billion, Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart
15. Alice Walton, 58, $16.1 billion, Fort Worth, Texas, Wal-Mart
16. Steven Ballmer, 51, $15.2 billion, Hunts Point, Wash., Microsoft
17. Abigail Johnson, 45, $15 billion, Boston, Fidelity
18. Carl Icahn, 71, $14.5 billion, New York, leveraged buyouts
19. Forrest Mars Jr., 76, $14 billion, McLean, Va., candy, pet food
19. Jacqueline Mars, 67, $14 billion, Bedminster, N.J., candy, pet food
19. John Mars, 71, $14 billion, Arlington, Va., candy, pet food
19. Jack Taylor and family, 85, $14 billion, St. Louis, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
23. Donald Bren, 75, $13 billion, Newport Beach, Calif., real estate
24. Anne Cox Chambers, 87, $12.6 billion, Atlanta, Cox Enterprises
25. Michael Bloomberg, 65, $11.5 billion, New York, Bloomberg

[sharncedar]

Notice that all of these people get their money from investments, for example from stocks in the companies they own. That is opposed to a truly capitalistic system, where men are rich because of profits.

To illustrate, imagine Bill Gates was rich because of actual earned profits, actual money that Microsoft earned by producing a product and selling it. Based on microsoft''s current business ledger, that might be a few million, certainly not much more, and he is entitled to it. But that isn''t where his billions come from. They come from the "value" of his "stock". That is not earned money, that is money that when you trace it through all its fraudulent loops, comes actually from the Fed and from money creation through bank loans. In other words its our money taken directly from us without giving us anything in return. Of course this money is laundered through many complex loops of apparently legitmate investment firms and investment products and loans until much of it comes right back to the bankers who create it.

What''s the difference? The difference is that capitalism works as a system where performance is rewarded. we don''t have that, we have a system where fraud and investor salesmanship is rewarded.

Thus Brin and Page, creators of a rather small, trivial web site with little or no profit (Google) are among the richest men in the world. That is nothing like capitalism, which should reward actual profitable performance. Whatever it is, it is not capitalism.

[soldat44]

Who cares?

[sharncedar]

We can''''t fault them for making the money they do.

Posted by chiefsatw at 12:59 PM : Sep 21, 2007

It tkes a thief to admire a thief. Of course we can fault them for unbalancing our economy - when they issue themselves these unholy amounts of currency, they make all of the other currency already in trade worth less. They devalue every other citizen. And this isn''t earned money, its bank-issued noew money, money from "investors" which if you trace the loops of fraud deeply enough are just the money creators themselves.

Its a big scam by big thieves, and sure its been going on a long time, but never before have the amounts accelerated to these ridiculous numbers. you understand if you are a bank you can create money under certain circumstamces, and the amount of this money created lately is not even thievery, its insanity, its like some bizarre drug addicts in charge of our monetary system. You''d think stealing &500 million would be enough, these crazy addicts keep accelerating the rate of money creation fraud.

[sharncedar]

It''s another sign of gross monetary inflation. Soon trillions of dollars wont get you a loaf of bread. We are soon to be in post-war America, as in the 1970''s there will be bad inflation.

[tnt1954]

the real world''s richest man would never be known.
he would have rare stamps and coins, objects d''art
absolutely beyond price. and have his holdings
so stashed behind mirrors of holding companies,
and probably live a very thrifty personal life
himself. and the real world''s richest man is
probably a woman. put that in your pipe and smoke it.
female gangs, like the black widows, jezebels, bathshebas, and goldringers are most successful. remembering hattie green. and by the way the stock
market is due to plummet 90% in one hour on october 17th to commemorate the bolshevik revolution.
oddly enuff it is also going to shoot back up
110% by closing time on that day, for a real
teeter totter ride. u.s.s.s. is taking steps
to prevent it? or take us all for a ride?

[hypnotoad72]

(oh, my 3rd paragraph was more a general comment than being aimed at Microsoft.)

[hypnotoad72]

My faith in Microsoft was rather restored when I heard how they bus their employees in America to their offices. That''s cool.

I hope the people they contract will get similar treatment. But as it''s in its initial period right now, that makes sense to keep things limited.

And hire some more Americans too. I don''t mind globalization helping people in other countries, but why are Americans being fired in the process? Isn''t America part of the globe as well?

[jackhighland]

We have at most 9 more years of wealth; learn a basic skill.

[mh4cbs1]

chiefstaw:

Of course you can''t fault them for making the Billions. I would if I could. But that doesn''t mean we should let the upper crust rig the system.

Buffet is the only really decent one among them. He decries the tax system where he pays a lower rate of income taxes than his secretary (and that is without his using loopholes and tax havens - he doesn''t).

We are all on this planet together. We all make up the society. If you learned anything four founding fathers, it was that we the people have the right to form the society that we want to live in. There is no reason why we, as a society should tolerate billionaire wealth while millions live in real poverty.

As Buffet says ''I am vastly overcompensated for my particular skill of managing capital''. At least he is honest.

[mh4cbs1]

Not a word about why these people are paying LOWER rate of taxes than average working families!!

Not a word about why our middleclass kids are dying in Iraq, while Bush gave these people MASSIVE TAX CUTS! (their sacrifce in a "time of war")

Not a word about the skyrocketing wealth of the upper crust, while our good jobs are being outsourced overseas.

Thanks CBS for your usual one-sided "News". Just keep them all distracted, entertained, dumbed-down, complicit... Then they will blindly follow a fascist leader into a needless War based on Lies. Then they will all march in lockstep to abolish the "death tax". Then they won''t complain when their good jobs are exported overseas.

Thanks CBS for presiding over the last throes of American Democracy.