314 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans poorer than last year
Warren Buffett’s wealth took a dive this past year, losing $10 billion in value on his shares in Berkshire Hathaway. At least he’s not alone. More than three-quarters of Forbes’s annual list of the 400 richest Americans lost wealth in the past year.
Buffett tosses around easy catchphrases: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Easy to say when you’ve got $3 billion to lose on General Electric, Mr. Buffett.
Clustered right behind Buffett, Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison are four members of Wal-mart’s Walton family that I’ll bet you can’t name. Internet fans will need to scroll down to the #11 spot to find the topmost Web 2.0 geeks on the list: Larry and Sergey from Google, pictured here in happier days before the money made everyone act weird around them. The pair have become puzzlingly aloof since they got rich. Are they building a faster-than-light drive or what? Because hey, I could really help with that.
[Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images]
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.