The number and value of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region also grew, but the Middle East, Africa and the rest of the Americas took a hit as the value of oil and other commodities fell sharply.
AT recent values, the billionaires club is expanding beyond well-known figures like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
Taylor also owns the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, which jumped in value after fellow billionaire Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for an astronomical $2 billion, pushing up valuations of all NBA teams.
As you move up the value chain you have billionaires - globally wealthy people - who own homes all around the world and they spend a fraction of their time in each.
"The more we sanction Russia, the more the rouble loses value, the more the billionaires who invested outside Russia in, for example, London property gain through [foreign exchange] fluctuations and property and other valuable commodity investments," he said.
While Steve Jobs arguably did benefit society - or at least helped create stuff we like - the value produced by most billionaires is much more ambiguous, at best.
Forbes delves into billionaires' businesses, valuing everything from real estate to candy companies to offshore gambling operations.
The next day, Cruz issued a general attack on Trump's "New York values," which the billionaire effectively muted by talking about the heroism of New Yorkers on 9/11.
In fact, the magazine tracked how the prince's company's stock price seems to rise in the ten weeks before Forbes locks in its values for the billionaire's list.
Another coal billionaire is Aburizal Bakrie, whose holding in Bumi Resources also soared in value, helping him regain his billionaire status this year after nearly losing a bundle in the global credit crisis the previous year.
