The rich get poorer

Don’t go looking for them in soup lines just yet, but the world’s billionaires have suffered too as the economy has tanked.

Where there were 1,125 billionaires on last year’s Forbes list, there were 793 when the new list was released Wednesday.

There was some jostling at the top. Bill Gates moved to No. 1 from No. 3, bumping investing guru Warren Buffett and Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. All of the top 10 billionaires saw their net worths fall.

Forbes reported that those on the list of billionaires had an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23 percent.

American billionaires this year accounted for 44 per-cent of the money and 45 percent of the slots. That’s up 7 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively.

Houston lost two of its billionaires, with money manager Fayez Sarofim and W&T Offshore founder Tracy Krohn falling off the list. But the city gained another: Bud Adams, the former Houston Oilers owner who still takes heat for moving the team to Tennessee more than 10 years later. He broke in at No. 647 with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.

Houston’s richest man, energy baron Dan Duncan, saw his rank rise to 81st, despite a $2 billion drop in his net worth. Rich Kinder, CEO and chairman of Kinder Morgan, and hedge fund manager John Arnold, were the only Houston billionaires on last year’s list whose values increased this year.

Oilman Jeffrey Hildebrand and lawyer Joe Jamail held steady at $1.5 billion each but moved up more than 300 spots to No. 468 on the list.

R. Allen Stanford wasn’t listed as a Houston resident when Forbes put his worth at $2 billion on last year’s list. Now the Mexia native whose company has its headquarters here has been removed from the list.

In a note about Stanford’s removal, Forbes said that “recent allegations have cast doubt on Stanford Financial Group’s purported revenues and returns.”