In this post from yesterday I reported the results of my comparison of Forbes‘s list of the richest 100 Americans in 2013 with Forbes‘s list of the richest 100 Americans in 2008. (The 2014 rankings will not be out until September.) I found that 21 of the still-living 100 richest Americans in 2008 were no longer, as of September 2013, among the richest 100 Americans.
I also asked Cafe patrons to take a stab at looking at the full lists of 400 (rather than just the top 100) richest Americans for both of these years. Steve Gadd jumped on the assignment immediately. He found that
68 names from 2008 dropped from the list by 2013 for reasons other than death or in-family transfer.
That’s a turnover rate of 17 percent over the course of the full five years.
Steve also comments that
There are so many good stories here, like Richard Yuengling’s beer fortune, Ty Warner’s Beanie Babies largesse, and the Christopher Goldsbury salsa bounty.
