The world's rich part with $7.9 trillion in assets

Everyone knows 2008 was an extremely tough year, with the global financial crisis shaving off hundreds of billions of dollars in global wealth. The latest World Wealth Report attempts to measure those losses, at least for the world's richer population which bore the brunt of the impact of the crisis.

The wealth of the world's high-net-worth individuals HNWIs fell by 19.5% to $32.8 trillion in 2008 from $40.7 trillion in 2007. That's an unprecedented decline in HNWI assets in the 13 years that Merrill Lynch and consulting firm Capgemini have collaborated on this report. All regions suffered losses in HNWI assets, with North America down 22.8%, Asia Pacific down 22.3%,...