Warrent Buffet,Bill Gates and Carlos Slim(L-R).US tycoons¹ are back on top with Microsoft founder² Bill Gates again the world's richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.

US tycoons are back on top with Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world's richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.

The wealthy few did not escape big shocks this year, with net worth on the list of 793 billionaires -- down from 1,125 billionaires in 2008 -- plummeting³ to 2.4 trillion dollars from 4.4 trillion, Forbes said.

"The biggest news today is that we are here and there still are billionaires," Forbes spokeswoman Monie Begley joked at a press conference.

The much-watched annual rich list put Gates back on top with a net worth of 40 billion dollars, although he saw his bank balance lose 18 billion over the last 12 months.

In second came investor⁴ Warren Buffett with 37 billion dollars, despite losing 25 billion dollars this year in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway shares.

Also losing 25 billion dollars, Mexican telecoms king Carlos Slim still managed to come in third with 35 billion dollars.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at number 17, was notable as the only top 20 member to see a net gain.

That was not because of his salary, which is a symbolic⁵ one dollar a year, but thanks to re-evaluation of Bloomberg financial news agency after the mayor bought a 20 percent stake from Merrill Lynch last year for 4.5 billion dollars.

About 64 percent of the billionaires are self-made and their average age is 63.7, a slight rise resulting from the lower number of rich Russians and Chinese, whose average ages last year were 46 and 48.

By contrast with that aging trend, Gates is a relatively⁶ youthful 53.

The youngest billionaire prize this year goes to Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Germany, who is 25 and listed as having 2.1 billion dollars.

But one of the young success stories from last year -- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg -- dropped off the list altogether.

《福布斯》杂志于本周三公布全球富豪榜，美国富豪重振雄风，微软公司创始人比尔•盖茨重登榜首。在今年全球经济危机的形势下，就连亿万富翁们也感到了“寒意”。

《福布斯》称，今年富豪们也难逃经济危机的重创。2008年全球共有1125名亿万富翁，而今年仅有793名，且他们的净资产总值从去年的4.4万亿美元跌至今年的2.4万亿美元。

《福布斯》女发言人莫尼•贝格利在新闻发布会上开玩笑说：“今天最大的新闻是我们还在这里，我们还有亿万富翁。”

尽管盖茨的资产在过去一年中缩水180亿美元，但他仍以400亿美元的净资产重登倍受关注的年度富豪榜之首。

“股神”沃伦•巴菲特以净资产370亿美元屈居第二。去年他持有的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司的股票大幅贬值，令他损失250亿美元。

同样损失250亿美元的墨西哥电信大亨卡洛斯•斯利姆仍以350亿美元的身价名列第三。

纽约市长迈克尔•彭博排名第17位。在上榜的前20名富豪中，仅有他在过去一年中实现了资产净增长。

但这并不是因为他象征性的1美元的年薪，而是因为他去年以45亿美元的价格从美林公司购得彭博财经新闻社20%的股份后，彭博社的股票价值被重新评估。

在上榜的亿万富豪中，有64%是白手起家，他们的平均年龄为63.7岁。由于今年俄罗斯和中国的富豪排名相对靠后，所以相对于去年他们46岁和48岁的平均年龄，今年上榜富豪的平均年龄略有增长。

与富豪榜的老龄趋势相比，盖茨还相对比较年轻，只有53岁。

本年度最年轻的亿万富豪是来自德国的阿尔伯特•冯•托恩和塔克西斯。今年25岁的他以21亿美元的身价跻身该榜。

而去年创造成功神话的年轻富豪、Facebook的创始人马克•扎克博格今年则跌出该榜。

Vocabulary:

self-made:自力更生的；白手起家的