Forbes 400 Movers and Groovers

Banker Andrew Beal triples his net worth this year

The 2009 Forbes 400 list just came out and I found myself more interested in the rankings than I’ve been in awhile.

Overall, the big guys lost money for only the 5th time since 1982.  Their losses were a combined $300 billion in net worth.

From Forbes:

Faltering capital markets and real estate prices, along with divorce and fraud, pushed the fortunes of 314 members down and drove 32 plutocrats off the rankings….The 10 richest Americans lost a combined $39.2 billion in the past 12 months, a 14% decline.

Gates is still on top ($50 billion) followed by Buffett, who lost $10 billion (he’s down to his last $40 billion), and Oracle’s Larry Ellison is still clinging to the 3rd spot with a measly $27 billion.

But the moves beneath the top ten were where the action was:

The biggest gainer is banker Andrew Beal, who tripled his net worth to $4.5 billion buying up cheap loans and assets as the markets crumbled last fall.

Newcomers to the list include Marvel Entertainment chief Isaac Perlmutter, whose net worth soared to $1.55 billion after Disney agreed to buy the superhero outfit in August for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Other new members include Bloomberg LP co-founder Charles Zegar ($1 billion), mapping-software magnate Jack Dangermond ($2 billion) and trading titan Steven Schonfeld ($1 billion).

Congrats to the up-and-comers, I’ll be up there with you guys someday.

The full list is worth a look:

The Forbes 400 2009 (Forbes)