Ever wonder how Scrooge McDuck was able to
actually swim in all that money? Bloomberg knows.Photo: Getty Images
You haven’t, by any chance, been feeling rich lately, have you? Sort of feeling a little bit smug that the burst of the real-estate bubble won’t splatter all over you? At least a little bit excited that in November, your every-other-Friday paycheck will come three times instead of twice? Well, just in time for all that, Forbes has released its annual list of the 400 richest people in America. And guess what? Sixty-four of them are New Yorkers! The top 100 billionaires, in fact, include household (okay, apartment-hold) names like shareholder activist Carl Icahn, Revlon CEO Ron Perelman, designer Ralph Lauren, Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse … oh yeah, and Mayor Bloomberg, who at $11.5 billion is America’s 25th richest man. According to Forbes, he more than doubled his wealth from last year, which was enough to leapfrog over rival media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the ranks.
9. David Koch: $17 billion (oil, commodities)
18. Carl Icahn: $14.5 billion (leveraged buyouts)
25. Michael Bloomberg: $11.5 billion (Bloomberg LP)
28. Ronald Perelman: $10 billion (Revlon)
33. Rupert Murdoch: $8.8 billion (News Corp.)
37. Samuel Newhouse Jr.: $8.5 billion (Advance Publications)
40. Stephen Schwarzman: $7.8 billion (Blackstone)
45. Leonard Blavatnik: $7.2 billion (Access industries)
57. Henry Kravis: $5.5 billion (leveraged buyouts)
64. Ralph Lauren: $4.7 billion (all things Wasp)
68. Paul Milstein and family: $4.5 billion (Emigrant, real estate)
68. Stephen Ross: $4.5 billion (never trust a man with two first names)
78. Joan Tisch: $4.2 billion (Loews widow)
79. Leonard Stern: $4.1 billion (real estate)
82. Leon Black: $4 billion (leveraged buyouts. You don’t know what those are, do you?)
91. Stanley Druckenmiler: $3.5 billion (hedge funds)
91. Bruce Kovner: $3.5 billion (hedge funds)
91. Ira Rennert: $3.5 billion (investments)
91. Daniel Ziff: $3.5 billion (inheritance. The dude is 35!)
91. Dirk Ziff: $3.5 billion (inheritance. He’s slightly older, but you’d still do him.)
91. Robert Ziff: $3.5 billion (inheritance. At this point it’s just unfair.)
Our favorite addition to the list, of course, is George Steinbrenner, all the way down at No. 380! At $1.3 billion, this is his first year on the list. Welcome, George — don’t think this means we’ll go soft on you in the postseason!
The Forbes 400 [Forbes]
