WASHINGTON, 23 September 2006 — If you want to be listed on the Forbes 400 this year - $999 million will not get you there.
For the first time, all 400 American’s listed on the Forbes tally are billionaires, from Microsoft’s Bill Gates (worth $53 billion), down the bottom Los Angeles semiconductor magnate Sehat Sutardja ($1 billion).
Collectively, America’s 400 richest people as listed in the latest installment of the Forbes 400 issue stands at a record $1.25 trillion.
If the wealth of these 400 people belonged to a country, that country would have had the 11th largest gross domestic product based on 2004 figures, trailing behind Russia.
“It is a really big deal that it’s all billionaires,” Forbes Associate Editor Matthew Miller, who edited the list and led the team that spent a year compiling it. “It shows economic growth and, as this magazine is a fan of capitalism, it shows progress.”
The eye-popping numbers show the speed with which these billionaires acquire their wealth.
In the billionaire-athon, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson pole-vaulted to No. 3 from the 15th slot in last year’s ranking, (with $20.5 billion) has made $1 million per hour over the past two years.
Google Inc. founders Sergey Bril (number 12, at $14.1 billion) and partner Larry Page (number 13, at $14 billion) have each made $13 million per day over the past two years.
Notably missing is Martha Stewart, who dropped off the list after losing nearly $400 million over the past year.
One-third of those on the Forbes list are concentrated in two places: California, which has 89 billionaires, and New York City, home to 44 of the 400 richest Americans.
When Forbes first published the list in 1982, the list contained only 13 billionaires. “Pouring 40 million caffeinated drinks a week landed Starbucks honcho Howard Schultz on our list of America’s 400 richest,” noted Forbes in its story. “Manny Mashouf placed his skimpy women’s wear on TV shows like Party of Five and Ally McBeal; today he has a $1.5 billion fortune in Bebe clothing stores.”
Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson, who rebuilt his fortune with investments in real estate and restaurants, is among the 14 returnees to this year’s list.
Another big gainer is investor Warren Buffett, who added $6 billion. That wealth, and the rest of what he has accumulated as a value investor, will be given away, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Eight members of last year’s list died, including investor Preston Tisch, Grey Goose vodka creator Sidney Frank, and James and Margaret Cargill, two cousins who inherited a stake in the world’s largest commodities company from William W. Cargill.
Thirty-four people couldn’t keep up or gave their money away. They include leveraged buyout tycoon Theodore Forstmann, chicken king Donald Tyson, real estate investors John Arrillaga and Richard Peery, and fashionista Richard Hayne. Husband-and-wife banking team Herbert and Marion Sandler dropped from our rankings after giving away more than $1 billion combined to charity.
Everyday people rarely discuss money in terms of billion of dollars. That’s usually a tasked reserved for country statistics and corporate buyouts of enormous multinational companies.
These enormous sums of money are hard for the average person to grasp.
Here’s the best illustration: a stack of 1 billion $1 bills would reach a height of 80 miles.
