盖茨第17次登顶福布斯全美富豪榜

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 www.forbes.com/Forbes400.

《福布斯》杂志周三称，美国亿万富翁们的财政情况正在好转，超过半数的富豪在过去一年中净资产有所上升，而比尔．盖茨则再次成为美国首富。

微软公司创始人盖茨以540亿美元的资产总值连续第17年蝉联美国首富，他的财富比去年增加了40亿美元。

位居榜单第二的是投资大亨沃伦．巴菲特，其资产总值450亿美元，比去年增加了50亿美元。甲骨文公司创始人拉里．埃利森的净资产未发生变化，为270亿美元，位居第三。沃尔玛公司创始人萨姆．沃尔顿的财富继承人克里斯蒂．沃尔顿排名第四，资产总值240亿美元，比去年增加了25亿美元。

同2009年福布斯全美富豪400强榜单截然不同的是，今年有217位富豪的资产总值超过了去年，只有84位富豪的资产有所减少。

2009年的榜单中，这些富豪中有多达314位成员的财富有缩减。

今年榜单上前十位富豪的财富增长了249亿美元，而去年他们的财产缩水近400亿美元。

《福布斯》称，前十位富豪的总资产相比去年增长了8%，远远高出标准普尔500指数计算出的股票市场仅1%的增长率。

福布斯全美富豪400强的资产总值达1.37万亿美元，而去年为1.27万亿美元。

上榜富豪的最低资产总值也回升到10亿美元，而在2009年，拥有9.5亿美元就足以进入前400名。

榜单前十名虽然未出现新富豪，也没有富豪跌出前十，但排列次序出现了变动。能源和制造业巨头科氏工业集团老板科氏兄弟如今排在沃尔顿家族的另外三名成员和纽约市市长迈克尔．彭博之前，作为新闻资讯公司彭博通讯社创始人，迈克尔．彭博目前位列第十。

社交网站Facebook的创始人马克．扎克伯格排在富豪榜第35位，是上榜富豪中财富增长最多的人，他的资产增长了三倍多，从去年的20亿美元增长到69亿美元。和他共同创建Facebook的达斯汀．莫斯科维茨和爱德华多．萨维林分别以14亿美元和11.5亿美元的身价上榜。26岁的莫斯科维茨比扎克伯格小8天，是世界上最年轻的亿万富翁。

上榜富豪中年龄最大的是现年95岁的老大卫．洛克菲勒，资产总值24亿美元。

传媒大亨奥普拉．温弗瑞排在榜单第130位，是上榜的42位女富豪之一。

由于福特汽车公司股价上涨50%，创下五年来新高，福特汽车公司继承人老威廉．福特自2005年来首次上榜，以10亿美元的资产总值排在榜单第385位。

加州拥有83位富豪，是富豪最多的一个州————其中包括排名第332位的梅格．惠特曼。她的资产总值达12亿美元，是11月参与州长选举的共和党候选人。

福布斯全美富豪400强的完整榜单可以在www.forbes.com/Forbes400网站上看到。

Vocabulary:

whopping: very big（巨大的；很大的）

best: to defeat or be more successful than somebody（打败；胜过）

shuffle: to move things into different positions or a different order（把……变换位置）

round out: 完成

magnate: a person who is rich, powerful and successful, especially in business 权贵；要人；富豪；（尤指）产业大亨