In 2008, many of our national billionaires gave much of their fortunes away, involuntarily. From Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas and Macau casino billionaire who lost $24 billion ($24B) to Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and the Google guys, last year was a very difficult year to amass. Now who’s to say that losing “a few personal billion” when you still have “a few” is an innovation problem - it matters when these entrepreneurs pull back on progress and humanitarian giving to stem private losses.

Per Forbes, Warren Buffet lost $16.5B, Gates was down $12.3B and Google’s Larry Page lost more than half of his g-trove: $11.9B.

Google shed 59% of its stock value with co-founder Sergey Brin managing a slightly lesser $11.7B reduction, and CEO Eric Schmidt lost $3.8B. Interestingly, no mention of Carlos Slim of Telmex who has recently surplanted Gates as the second wealthiest individual in the world. Other notables include: Larry Ellison down $8.2B, Sumner Redstone shed $7.2B, Amazonian Jeff Bezos lost $4.6B (perhaps he should have produced a few more Kindles to meet demand) and Rupert Murdoch wrote off $4B.

Combined, the tycoons on [Forbes'] ranking lost $167 billion in 11 months, while shares of the companies in which they own stakes fell an average 59%.

As I head out to Vegas for CES this week - where old, new and potential Medici flock each year to press flesh, create bigger flat screens and find new ways to exploit media - it will be significant to see just who is willing to still take risks, make aggressive acquisitions (Lionsgate with TV Guide, anyone?) even with a smaller purse.