How Wall Street took over the Forbes 400

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How Wall Street took over the Forbes 400

Wonkblog

By Matt O'Brien September 30 at 2:09 PM

A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? $1.55 billion. That's how much it took to make the cut for this year's vintage of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Pity the poor robber baron who's only amassed a $1.54 billion fortune.

Now, there's a ritualistic element to all this computing, quantifying, and cataloging. It seems like every year Bill Gates is number one, followed by Warren Buffett, a bunch of Walton heirs, and then an ever-longer list of Wall Street titans who run the gamut from CNBC celebrities to the anonymously opulent. But it's worth reminding ourselves that we didn't always have an economy where the surest path to dynastic wealth involved the words "two-and-20." Indeed, financiers only made up about 4.4 percent of the inaugural Forbes 400 in 1982; it's around 21 percent today. And, as you can see below, this is a story about the rise and rise of private equity and hedge funds.