World's Richest 400 People Lost a $182bln 'Drop in the Bucket' This Week

The 400 wealthiest people in the world lost an aggregate $182 billion this last week. However, that is only eliciting a collective yawn since it’s really a fractional percentage of their overall worth.

As a result of the fallout from the Chinese stock market collapse and a retreat in the value of commodities worldwide, stock markets around the world collapsed with the US Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 500 points. 

The result is a significant amount of lost wealth, especially among the richest who tend to hold the largest portfolios. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracks the worth of the 400 richest people in the world with well-known business icons such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, David and Charles Koch, the Walton family and Jeff Bezos at the top. The list revealed that this week reflected the largest loss since tracking began in September 2014. 

Friday’s plummet alone — in which Standard & Poor’s 500 Index ended its worst week since 2011 — led to a combined loss suffered by index members totaling $76 billion. The losses mean that they are now “in the red” for 2015, down $74 billion from where they started.

However, anyone concerned about the plight of the maligned wealthy need not worry a cent. The losses reflect a “drop in the bucket” given that they’re total worth is $3.98 trillion (with a T).

Yes, the 400 richest people in the world are worth a total of nearly $4 trillion. Also to put that in perspective, American billionaires on the list account for about half of that worth.