US News

BUST IS BOOM TIME FOR BLOOMY

It’s good to be king.

Mayor Bloomberg is no longer just the most powerful man in town – he’s the richest too.

Hizzoner has risen to the top of the Big Apple entries on Forbes magazine’s 2009 billionaires list, reclaiming the title of city’s richest man from oil and gas tycoon David Koch.

And in a year where the list of the world’s billionaires shrank by almost a third due to the cratering economy, Bloomberg did the unthinkable – he got even richer.

Last year, the media mogul’s worth clocked in at $11.5 billion. But after he bought back 20 percent of his company Bloomberg LP from a foundering Merrill Lynch in July, his value skyrocketed and he is now worth a staggering $16 billion.

Not since entrepreneur William Russell Grace won the mayorship in 1880 but spent every afternoon running his company, W.R. Grace, has the city had such a financial colossus at its helm.

While Forbes listed Bloomberg’s worth as $20 billion on its 400 richest Americans list last September – meaning his value has dipped by $4 billion in the last six months – he still ranks as the 17th richest man in the world.

Bloomberg was quick to downplay the achievement.

“I don’t pay much attention to these lists,” he said. “The most important thing is what I do with philanthropy.”

The mayor, in fact, came in at No. 9 on a list of the country’s top philanthropists in 2008.

While Bloomberg’s financial situation defied gravity, a scan through the rest of the list revealed how deeply the global economic collapse has bitten into the wallets of the world’s wealthiest.

In all, the list shrank from 1,125 billionaires last year to 793, and their combined wealth slipped from $4.4 trillion to $2.4 trillion. Bloomberg was one of only 44 to see their value go up.

The average billionaire is now worth only $3 billion, down from $3.9 billion last year.

The bite was felt all over the world. The United States fell from 469 to 359 overall billionaires – down 110 from last year – toppling in overall value from $1.6 trillion to $1.1 trillion. Europe lost 102 billionaires and Asia lost 81.

The hardest hit was India’s Anil Ambani, whose value shrunk by $32 billion in the last year.

“It’s no surprise billionaires have been battered with the global economy,” said magazine editor Steve Forbes. “No tears will be shed for the fact that a billionaire has gone down in his net worth.”

Despite the hard hit taken by the dons on Wall Street, the shakeup has left the Big Apple as the city with the most billionaires in the world – with 55. That puts Gotham back on top of Moscow, which had 74 billionaires last year and has just 27 now, landing it in third place following London.

But plenty of super-rich New Yorkers got less rich in the past year. Corporate raider Carl Icahn saw his worth fall $5 billion and media tycoon S.I. Newhouse’s holdings fell $4.5 billion.

David Koch – the previous holder of the wealthiest New Yorker crown – lost $3 billion, falling from $17 billion to $14 billion.

The global economic meltdown also rejiggered the list at the very top – once again making Microsoft founder Bill Gates the wealthiest man in the world with $40 billion.

He displaces Warren Buffett, who slips to second with $37 billion. Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu is at third with $35 billion.

But collectively the three men lost $68 billion in the last year.

Falling completely off the list were former Citibank chairman Sandy Weill, former AIG chief exec Hank Greenberg and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In all, 355 people fell off the list and only 38 new people joined.

lukas.alpert@nypost.com