The Grim Recession Reaper is out there weeding out the super rich by the bushel-full as the ranks of millionaires worldwide have fallen by 18 percent–22 percent in North America–while their assets plunged in one year by a whopping $13 trillion.

Poor folk, they used to control about $105 trillion in wealth, but they were down to a paltry $92 trillion in 2008.

The Boston Consulting Group, the folks who conducted the study, noted that the erosion of wealth was not confined to individuals and families but snared institutions as well. Both Harvard and Yale announced that their endowments dropped by more than 25 percent during their fiscal years which ended June 30.

Maybe 2009 will prove to be better for the top one-percenters as bourses worldwide seem to doing quite well. But the news doesn’t bode well for the Obama plan to tax the wealthy to pay for health care and other initiatives. The wealth spigot is running dry.