At the beginning of 2009, the rich looked doomed.

The population of U.S. millionaires shrunk more than 15% in 2008. With Lehman Brothers Holdings having collapsed, 2009 was shaping up to be even worse. Stocks were falling, along with most other asset classes. Hedge funds and private equity were locking up cash, leaving even billionaires short on liquidity. Throw in Bernie Madoff, higher taxes, investigations into offshore tax havens and an increasingly populist government and you had the makings of the greatest destruction of wealth-and global attack on the rich-since the Great Depression.