The Forbes 400 is back. And there are some interesting developments. For 1, the rich got richer. How much? Well, 12% more than last year for a combined total of $1.53 trillion, which is more than Canada’s GDP, and that was just the Top 400 on Forbes list. For the 18th straight year, Bill Gates was the richest man in America with a net worth of $59 billion. And while Warren Buffett was still #2, the gap between Buffett and Gates widened after losing pretty badly in Berkshire Hathaway stock.
Others on Forbes Top 10 included: Oracle founder Larry Ellison at $33 billion, industrialists Charles and David Koch at $25 billion each, Walmart heirs Christy Walton, Jim C Walton and Alice Walton at $24.5 billion, $21.1 billion and $20.9 billion, investor George Soros at $22 billion, and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson at $21.5 billion. Some of the younger faces on the list included Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, who made $10.6 billion last year to bring his total net worth to $17.5 billion and landed him the #14 sot on this year’s overall list. While Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook’s co-founder, became America’s youngest billionaire.
Some newcomers to the Forbes 400 include: Bob Stiller owner of Green Mountain Coffee, Go Daddy’s Bob Parsons, and energy big guns Farris and Dan Wilks. Not surprisingly, some old names showed up again on this year’s list like Starbucks’ founder Howard Schultz and Quicken’s Dan Gilbert who made a major comeback in 2011 to rank in the Top 400 after having slipped away last year.
