Richest 400 Americans' net worth jumps 13 percent to $1.7 trillion

UPDATE

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates' 'Giving Pledge' Gets 11 More Billionaires To Pledge Half Of Wealth
Posted: 09/19/2012

Warren Buffett got 11 more billionaires to agree to give away half of their wealth to charity.

The Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative started by the business mogul and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to get the super rich to pledge their fortunes early in their lives, so that they can have more control of how it’s spent. In the two years since it was launched, the pledge has recruited 92 billionaires, including the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Some of the newest members of the benevolent club include Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin, along with Intel Chairman Emeritus Gordon Moore and his wife Betty, MarketWatch reports.

Moore, who already gave away half of his fortune when he established a foundation that focuses on science, health and environmental issues, told the Wall Street Journal that his giving habits already put him “ahead of the curve.”

"It won't change much of what I'm doing," he told the news outlet, but "it's a good idea and has shaken loose a lot money that otherwise would have been tied up for a long time."
read more here

Richest 400 Americans' net worth jumps 13 percent to $1.7 trillion: Forbes
Dan Burns
Reuters
11:17 a.m. EST, September 19, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The net worth of the richest Americans grew by 13 percent in the past year to $1.7 trillion, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday, and a familiar cast of characters once again populated the top of the magazine's annual list of the U.S. uber-elite, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and the Koch brothers.
read more here