Gates No. 1 on Shrinking Billionaire List

His $59B tops Warren Buffett's $39B

(NEWSER) - Forbes is out with its annual ranking of the richest Americans, with some familiar names up top. Highlights from the magazine and MSNBC :

1. Bill Gates, $59 billion
2. Warren Buffett, $39 billion
3. Larry Ellison (Oracle), $33 billion
4. (tie) Charles Koch, $25 billion
5. (tie) David Koch, $25 billion

But he still has $63B left for comfort

(NEWSER) - From the everything's-relative department: The world's richest man has lost about $8 billion in this week's market mess, reports Bloomberg . The fortune of Mexico's Carlos Slim is now worth about $63 billion in US dollars, down 11% from the end of July. Mexico's stock market has been in the skids this week along with the rest of the world's. More»

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart could be worth $100B

(NEWSER) - The world may soon have a new richest person, and good money says you've never heard of her. Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is projected to reach a net worth as high as $100 billion—more than Carlos Slim ($74 billion), Bill Gates ($56 billion), and Mark Zuckerberg ($13.5 billion). She's currently worth $9 billion, making her the wealthiest person in Australia, but her value is rising quickly because of high iron ore prices and increased exports to China, writes Clare O'Connor at Forbes . And her company is about to expand in a big way. More»

But the $290B we ponied up in 2010 is still below 2007 levels

(NEWSER) - Charitable giving increased last year as the economy improved, rising 3.8% to $290.89 billion, up from $280.3 billion in 2009. "There was a lot more optimism, all relative, in 2010," says an analyst. "People are still generous despite uncertainty, despite not having jobs, and despite confusion about what the future holds." But "if giving continues at this two or three percent (growth) level, it's going to take us a while to get back to where we were before." More»

Mexican tycoon world's richest man with $74 billion

(NEWSER) - Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim is the richest person in the world for the second year running, according to Forbes' latest list of billionaires . The 71-year-old Slim, now worth an estimated $74 billion, widened the gap with No. 2 Bill Gates thanks to some canny business moves last year, including heavy investment in mining, Reuters notes. Warren Buffett, Louis Vuitton chief Bernard Arnault, and Oracle's Larry Ellison round out the top 5 of the world's estimated 1,210 billionaires, who have a combined net worth of some $4.5 trillion. More»