more details and photos after the jump…

The world now  has only 793 of them compared with 1,125 a year ago. A drop of 332 names that’s almost a third. The financial crisis takes its toll on the very rich as well and on average they have lost 23 percent of their wealth.

Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, whose source of fortune is listed as drug trafficking claims #701. Forbes’ description:

Mexico’s most wanted man, “El Chapo”, or Shorty, heads the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest suppliers of Cocaine to the U.S. In 1993 was arrested in Mexico on homicide and drug charges. Escaped from federal prison in 2001, reportedly through the laundry, and quickly regained control of his drug trafficking organization, which he still controls today. In 2008 Mexican and Colombian traffickers laundered between $18 billion and $39 billion in proceeds from wholesale shipments to the U.S.

Guzman, who is five feet tall and apparently extraordinarily charismatic. He isn’t the first alleged drug trafficker to make the list.

Some very interesting facts:

New York replaced Moscow as home to the most billionaires.

Russia lost nearly two-thirds of its billionaires, and India lost more than half.

The youngest on the list is Germany’s Albert von Thurn und Taxis, 25, with $2.1 billion.

Michael Bloomberg was the only member of the top 20 to see a net gain from last year.
Here’s the top 5:

1. Bill Gates (US)                              $40 bn   (last year #3)
2. Warren Buffett (US)                   $37 bn   (last year #1)
3. Carlos Slim Helus (Mexico)      $35 bn    (last year #2)
4. Lawrence Ellison (US)              $22.5 bn (last year #14)
5. Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden)      $22 bn     (last year #7)

Are you going to make it on the list next year? Hey, if you’re young enough, never say never!

more about Bill Gates – the world’s third richest man after the jump…

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, Gates is 53, born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington is the world’s third richesh man as of February 8th, 2009. Gates was the richest person in the world for 15 consecutive years. Gates is also an avid philanthropist perhaps he can donate some money to me, what do you think?

Bill is a genuis in case if you didn’t know, he graduated from high school and scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT test. I don’t want to remember my score. Check this out: Prior to the mid-1990s, an SAT score of 1590 corresponded roughly to an IQ of 170! 170 IQ! I didn’t know it existed.

Gates subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the Fall of 1973. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. Bill saw an opportunity eventually dropped out of Harvard and took a chance to start a software company with his friend, Paul Allen which is as we all know and breathe today “Microsoft”.

Next Sunday, we’ll be giving you another college dropout genius.. don’t forget to bookmark us and come back for more.

What do you think, college is a must? Of course how many Bill Gates are there in the world? One – so do listen to your folks go to college!

Watch video of Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft: