How Are The Celebrity Billionaires Doing In This Downturn?

Some celebrity billionaires still able to increase their wealth in these dire economic times. One of them is Oprah Winfrey. When the O Magazine carried the following headline "How did I let this happen again?" in its January issue, it managed to sell 1.1 million copies.

A powerful brand name of her five magical alphabets that form her name is what makes Winfrey among one of the 44 billionaires whose net worth still increased despite the current economic slump. Her name carries a net worth of $2.7 billion.

The same cannot be said for billionaire Donald Trump whom has lost nearly half of his fortunes due to the past year real estate slump. It would be interesting to watch Trump in the NBC's new Celebrity Apprentice season and see how the man taking all the "pain" of his loses.

It seems that fashion icon George Armani (net worth $2.8 billion)is not perturbed by the current economic woes that the world is facing as he just opened a multi million dollar 43,000-square-foot store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

Despite losing $1.4 billion in the past year, Ralph Lauren still being associated with a classy sporty sporting life and Richard Branson, with $1.9 billion gone, is Britain's most generous celebrity!

The most unbelievable news is Mexican drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, makes it to the Forbes world's most richest people list with a fortune of $1 billion. Guzman, who is just 5 feet tall, is at position 701 on the list and makes his fortune by being the biggest provider of cocaine to the States. According to Luisa Kroll, senior editor of Forbes, Guzman is unavailable for interview. Of course, if not he won't be able to elude capture from the Mexican government for 8 long years after his prison escape!

Oh, yes! Bill Gates (net worth $40 billion) has regained the top spot as the world's richest man despite losing $18 billion followed by Warren Buffet ($37 billion) and Carlos slim ($35 billion) of Mexico's Telecoms. Even in these bad times, there are 793 billionaires worldwide. Another 332 ex billionaires have turned millionaires this past year.