Moscow now boasts more billionaires than New York

The world8217;s list of billionaires has almost doubled in the past four years, Forbes said. There were 469 US billionaires, worth a combined 1.6 trillion, while the 656 billionaires who live outside the United States are worth 2.8 trillion. Russia came in second place as home to 87 billionaires and Moscow is now the world8217;s billionaire center, the magazine said. The Russian capital is now home to more billionaires than New York City.

India, China and Turkey also saw large gains in numbers of billionaires. The world8217;s youngest billionaire is 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social networking Web site Facebook. The magazine estimated his worth at 1.5 billion and said he is the youngest self-made billionaire to ever appear in the Forbes billionaire rankings.

The recent turmoil in the financial markets has taken its toll on the list. James Cayne, chairman of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos; William Pulte, who founded US home builder Pulte Homes Inc; and Howard Schultz, founder of coffee chain Starbucks, all fell off the billionaire8217;s list amid declines in their companies8217; stock prices. The decline in the dollar, a trend that Buffett himself has been betting on since 2002, provided a boost to billionaires outside the United States, particularly because the Forbes list is tabulated in US dollars.