The financial turmoil has swept the title of America's richest man out of Bill Gates's hands and handed to his old buddy and Warren Buffett.
According to reports overnight, US magazine Forbes has recalculated the respective wealth of the richest 400 Americans following the turmoil in September and found that the Sage of Omaga fared rather well. His fortune swelled by $8bn (£4.68bn) to a robust $68bn during the month, thanks to a surge in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway empire.
Gates's fortune, though, shrunk by $1.5bn during the month to a not—penurious-quite-yet $55.5bn, putting the Microsoft co-founder in second place.
Most other billionaires on the list (which was released last month) also lost out in the crisis.
The full calculations will be released on October 27, but as it's a US-focused list it won't show how other tycoons like Carlos Slim have fared.
Rumours that Forbes is considering renaming it the "not as rich as they used to be" list remained firmly unsubstantiated at the time of writing.
We won't be losing too much sleep about the world's richest struggling to make ends meet, of course, but their wealth does have a wider relevance. Buffett is donating almost all of his money to support Bill Gates' charitable foundation – making them two billionaires that we're delighted to see thriving.
