蓋茨第17次登頂福布斯全美富豪榜
Things are on the up for US Billionaires with more than half of them adding to their net worth in a year which once again saw Bill Gates as the richest of them all, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday.
Gates, founder of Microsoft, was the richest person in the United States for the 17th year in a row with an estimated worth of $54 billion, up $4 billion from last year.
No. 2 on the list was investor Warren Buffett, worth $45 billion, up $5 billion. Oracle founder Larry Ellison's net worth was unchanged, in third place, at $27 billion. Christy Walton, heir to Walmart founder Sam Walton's fortune, was in fourth place with $24 billion, up $2.5 billion.
In stark contrast to the 2009 Forbes 400 list, 217 of the tycoons are now worth more than they were a year ago. Just 84 of the billionaires had a decrease in wealth.
In 2009 a whopping 314 members of the exclusive club had experienced a decrease in their wealth.
The top 10 gained $24.9 billion. The same group had shed almost $40 billion last year.
The total wealth of the group is up 8 percent, besting the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which measured a stock market increase of just 1 percent, Forbes said.
The Forbes 400 are worth a combined $1.37 trillion, compared with $1.27 trillion last year.
The price of admission to the list is back up to $1 billion from 2009 when $950 million was enough to make the top 400.
There are no new entries or drop-offs in the top 10 but the list shuffled. The Koch brothers, heads of energy and manufacturing giant Koch Industries, now rank above three other members of the Walton family and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of news and information company Bloomberg LP, who round out the top 10.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, No. 35, saw the largest relative increase, more than tripling his fortune to $6.9 billion from $2 billion. Fellow Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin join the list with fortunes of $1.4 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively. Born eight days after Zuckerberg, 26-year-old Moskovitz is the world's youngest billionaire.
The oldest tycoon on the list is David Rockefeller Sr., 95, worth $2.4 billion.
Media magnate Oprah Winfrey comes in at No. 130 and is one of 42 women on the list.
Automobile heir William Ford Sr. made the list for the first time since 2005, at the 385th spot with $1 billion after Ford Motors Co's stock rose 50 percent and hit a 5-year-high.
California is the state with the most billionaires -- 83 -- among them No. 332 Meg Whitman, worth $1.2 billion, the Republican candidate for governor of the state in November elections.
The full Forbes 400 list can be seen at
《福布斯》雜誌週三稱，美國億萬富翁們的財政情況正在好轉，超過半數的富豪在過去一年中淨資產有所上升，而比爾•蓋茨則再次成爲美國首富。
微軟公司創始人蓋茨以540億美元的資產總值連續第17年蟬聯美國首富，他的財富比去年增加了40億美元。
位居榜單第二的是投資大亨沃倫•巴菲特，其資產總值450億美元，比去年增加了50億美元。甲骨文公司創始人拉里•埃利森的淨資產未發生變化，爲270億美元，位居第三。沃爾瑪公司創始人薩姆•沃爾頓的財富繼承人克里斯蒂•沃爾頓排名第四，資產總值240億美元，比去年增加了25億美元。
同2009年福布斯全美富豪400強榜單截然不同的是，今年有217位富豪的資產總值超過了去年，只有84位富豪的資產有所減少。
2009年的榜單中，這些富豪中有多達314位成員的財富有縮減。
今年榜單上前十位富豪的財富增長了249億美元，而去年他們的財產縮水近400億美元。
《福布斯》稱，前十位富豪的總資產相比去年增長了8%，遠遠高出標準普爾500指數計算出的股票市場僅1%的增長率。
福布斯全美富豪400強的資產總值達1.37萬億美元，而去年爲1.27萬億美元。
上榜富豪的最低資產總值也回升到10億美元，而在2009年，擁有9.5億美元就足以進入前400名。
榜單前十名雖然未出現新富豪，也沒有富豪跌出前十，但排列次序出現了變動。能源和製造業巨頭科氏工業集團老闆科氏兄弟如今排在沃爾頓家族的另外三名成員和紐約市市長邁克爾•彭博之前，作爲新聞資訊公司彭博通訊社創始人，邁克爾•彭博目前位列第十。
社交網站Facebook的創始人馬克•扎克伯格排在富豪榜第35位，是上榜富豪中財富增長最多的人，他的資產增長了三倍多，從去年的20億美元增長到69億美元。和他共同創建Facebook的達斯汀•莫斯科維茨和愛德華多•薩維林分別以14億美元和11.5億美元的身價上榜。26歲的莫斯科維茨比扎克伯格小8天，是世界上最年輕的億萬富翁。
上榜富豪中年齡最大的是現年95歲的老大衛•洛克菲勒，資產總值24億美元。
傳媒大亨奧普拉•溫弗瑞排在榜單第130位，是上榜的42位女富豪之一。
由於福特汽車公司股價上漲50%，創下五年來新高，福特汽車公司繼承人老威廉•福特自2005年來首次上榜，以10億美元的資產總值排在榜單第385位。
加州擁有83位富豪，是富豪最多的一個州————其中包括排名第332位的梅格•惠特曼。她的資產總值達12億美元，是11月參與州長選舉的共和黨候選人。
福布斯全美富豪400強的完整榜單可以在網站上看到。
Vocabulary:
whopping: very big（巨大的；很大的）
best: to defeat or be more successful than somebody（打敗；勝過）
shuffle: to move things into different positions or a different order（把……變換位置）
round out: 完成
magnate: a person who is rich, powerful and successful, especially in business 權貴；要人；富豪；（尤指）產業大亨
