$49.5 billion in US Treasury? For these billionaires, that’s nothing

USA

The Treasury Department’s cash balance fell to just under $49.5 billion on Wednesday, as the United States was running out of money to pay its bills.

That was significantly less than the $316 billion the division had in operating cash held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the beginning of the month.

How empty is the treasury really? By comparison, $49.5 billion is comparable to the gross national product of Azerbaijan and Tunisia and below the wealth of the two dozen richest people in the world. Of course, many of those billionaires’ assets are tied up in stocks, rather than cash.

Here’s a list of people with wealth in excess of US cash reserves, according to The Bloomberg News Billionaire Index starting Thursday. (According to the news agency’s editorial policy, the billionaire owner, Michael Bloomberg, is not eligible for the index. Forbes, however, estimate his ability for $94.5 billion.)

Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury conglomerate LVMH: $189 billion
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter: $179 billion
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos: $139 billion
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft: $125 billion
Larry Ellison, co-founder and executive chairman of Oracle: $116 billion
Steve Ballmer, investor and former CEO of Microsoft: $113 billion
Larry Page, co-founder of Google: $112 billion
Warren Buffett, investor: $111 billion
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google: $106 billion
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook: $92.3 billion
Carlos Slim, investor: $90.3 billion
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, heiress to the L’Oréal fortune and board member of the company: $87.2 billion
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of energy group Reliance Industries: $83.7 billion
Amancio Ortega, founder of the fashion group Inditex: $67.1 billion
Jim Walton, heir to the Wal-Mart fortune: $66.6 billion
Rob Walton, heir to the Wal-Mart fortune: $64.9 billion
Alice Walton, heir to the Wal-Mart fortune: $63.8 billion
Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of conglomerate Adani Group: $63.4 billion
Jacqueline Mars, heiress and co-owner of the candy maker Mars: $61.7 billion
John Mars, heir and chairman of Mars: $61.7 billion
Zhong Shanshan, founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring bottled water company: $61.6 billion
Julia Flesher Koch and family, heirs of businessman David Koch: $60.6 billion
Charles Koch, CEO of industrial conglomerate Koch Industries: $60.4 billion
Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman of Dell Technologies: $53.4 billion