82 billionaires didn't make Forbes list
A billion dollars just isn't what it used to be.
Forbes magazine released late Thursday its annual list of the wealthiest people in the United States, and 82 billionaires did not make the cut. The banished billionaires included Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson, AOL co-founder Steve Case, former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Teresa Heinz Kerry, ketchup heiress and wife of Sen. John Kerry.
The Forbes list, celebrating its 25th anniversary, reflects the times:
- Hedge fund manager John Paulson, not on the list last year, vaulted to No. 165 by making more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit over the summer. Paulson, 51, made a big bet that home buyers would not be able to pay their mortgages. He won.
- For the first time since 1989 no member of Wal-Mart's Sam Walton heirs appears in the top 10, while Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both 34, cracked the top 10 for the first time.
The latest list also underscores how much the ultrarich landscape has changed in a quarter century.
Twenty-five years ago, Forbes' first wealthiest man was shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig, who diversified into oil, banking, cattle, insurance and real estate. He was worth $2 billion in 1982.
He died in 1992 far less famous than today's ultrarich and inspired the biography "The Invisible Billionaire."
Today, $2 billion wouldn't put him in the top 225. Adjusted for inflation, his 1982 wealth would be $4.3 billion in today's dollars. That still would rank Ludwig about 77th, barely above the $3.8 billion average of the top 400 and about $55 billion shy of first place.
Last year, for the first time, it took an even $1 billion to crack the list. This year, it took $1.3 billion. Thirty-two have been on the list all 25 years, notably Nike's Phil Knight, cable TV's Ted Turner, and Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett, 77, is worth $54 billion and remains second to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 51, who leads the list for the 14th consecutive year, worth $59 billion.
Gates and Buffett both saw their wealth increase by $6 billion over the past year, but the fastest climber was 90-year-old Kirk Kerkorian, CEO of Tracinda. He made headlines by purchasing large stakes in General Motors and DaimlerChrysler but made billions off his 55 percent stake in casino company MGM Mirage.
MGM stock has gone from $35 a share last September to about $85 now, making Kerkorian richer by $1 million an hour, doubling his net worth to $18 billion and pushing him to No. 7 from No. 26 last year.
The Google billionaires are among the 270 on the Forbes 400 who are entirely self-made. So are Gates; Buffett; No. 4 Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle, who was born out of wedlock and raised by his mother's aunt and uncle; and No. 3 Sheldon Adelson, who was the child of poor Boston immigrants and had to accept charity to go to summer camp.
Adelson ranks No. 3 for the second year in a row. Like Kerkorian, Adelson is in the casino business. He was worth $3 billion three years ago. His wealth exploded to $20.5 billion last year and is now $28 billion.
While there are 482 billionaires in the U.S., Forbes notes in an essay that 1 billion people worldwide live on no more than $1 a day. The essay praises the many philanthropists on the list, while challenging other billionaires to take an "anti-poverty challenge." Forbes lists six who gave away so much wealth that it has caused them to fall from among the 400.
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