北京紐約誰是財富之都 各家數據說法不一

Never before have we had so much information about the world’s billionaires.

今天我們對億萬富翁的瞭解超過歷史上任何時候。

We know their average age (63), their marital status (90 percent are married, 6 percent divorced), their most common alma mater (Harvard) and even their most common sign under the Chinese zodiac (the snake). We can get daily updates on their net worth and their competitive positions within the wealth rankings.

我們知道他們的平均年齡（63歲），他們的婚姻狀況（90%已婚，6%離異），最常見的母校（哈佛），甚至最常見的生肖（蛇）。我們每天都可以獲取他們的資產淨值最新統計，以及他們在財富排行榜中的位置。

An entire cottage industry has grown up around probing and publicizing billionaire wealth. At least six different companies now compile billionaire lists.

圍繞着對億萬富翁財富的調查和公佈，產生了整整一個小型產業。至少有六家不同的公司在編制富豪榜。

“Look, the billionaires control more than 4 percent of the wealth on the planet,” said David Friedman, president of Wealth-X, a private company that tracks and ranks billionaires. “There’s a lot of interest in who they are and how much they have. As long as there has been wealth, there has been a fascination with who has the most.”

“要知道，這個星球的財富有4%以上控制在億萬富翁手裏，”從事富豪數據追蹤和排名的私人公司Wealth-X總裁戴維·弗裏德曼(David Friedman)說。“他們是誰，有多少錢，是很多人關心的問題。只要還有財富這東西存在，就會有人渴望知道誰擁有最多。”

Yet determining how much the billionaires have — and exactly how many there are in the world — depends on who’s counting. The fast-growing number of rich lists has produced wildly different sets of numbers on the population and wealth of the world’s billionaires. While one company says there are more than 2,400 billionaires in the world, another says there are about 1,800. One says China has the most and that Beijing is the world’s billionaire capital, while another says the United States has twice as many as China.

然而，明確億萬富翁擁有多少資產——以及全世界到底有多少億萬富翁——要看是誰在計算。富豪榜一天比一天多，圍繞全世界億萬富翁的數量和財富炮製出形色各異的數據。有一家公司說全球億萬富翁在2400人以上，還有一家說大概是1800人。有一家說中國的億萬富翁最多，北京是世界富豪之都，而另一家說美國的富豪人數是中國的兩倍。

Tallies of individual fortunes vary even more. One ranking pegs the Ikea tycoon Ingvar Kamprad as the 10th-richest man in the world, with a $42 billion fortune. Another ranking says he’s not even a billionaire. The Koch brothers, David and Charles, are each worth either $43 billion or $55 billion, depending on the source.

具體到個人的財富，統計的差異就更大了。有一個榜單把宜家(Ikea)大亨英格瓦·坎普拉德(Ingvar Kamprad)放在全球財富榜第10的位置，擁有420億美元。還有一個榜單說他連億萬富翁都不算。科赫(Koch)兄弟——戴維(David)和查爾斯(Charles)——各自的身家爲430億或550億美元，具體要看你信哪個數據源。

The Kochs are doing just fine either way, of course. And whether there are 2,400 billionaires or 1,800 hardly matters to most of us. Yet in the age of rising wealth concentration, the financial lives of billionaires have attained outsize importance to policy analysts, inequality crusaders and wealth voyeurs alike. And measuring the wealth of the wealthy, it turns out, is often more art than science.

當然，無論選哪個，科赫兄弟的成績都是相當不錯的。富豪總數究竟是2400還是1800，對我們多數人來說也沒什麼意義。但是在這個財富日漸集中的時代，億萬富翁的財務狀況在政策分析家、反不平等鬥士和財富窺探者們的眼裏顯得格外重要。而現在我們也已經知道，估量富人的財富更多的是一種藝術而不是科學。

"Some of the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt,” said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "But the estimates have value because it tells us what activities are most rewarding and where the billionaires are coming from. A best estimate is better than no estimate with wealth.”

“這些數據不可盡信，”彼得森國際經濟研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)高級研究員卡羅琳·佛洛恩德(Caroline Freund)說。“但是估算是有意義的，因爲我們從中能看到哪些活動有最多的回報，億萬富翁都來自什麼地方。最好的財富估算總比沒有估算強。”

Forbes magazine started the rich-list craze in 1982, when it published its first “400” list of the 400 richest Americans. It followed in 1987 with its World’s Billionaires List. In 2010, two Forbes staff members left to help start Wealth-X, a private wealth research firm also devoted to calculating the fortunes of billionaires and multimillionaires. The company now has over 170 researchers compiling detailed “billionaire dossiers,” which it sells to private banks, private-jet sellers, luxury retailers, universities, charities and other groups looking for clients or donors.

《福布斯》雜誌(Forbes)在1982年開啓了財富榜的熱潮，當時它刊出了首個最富有美國人“400”榜單。而後是1987年的世界億萬富翁榜單。2010年，兩名《福布斯》員工離職後參與創辦了Wealth-X，同樣是一家專注於計算富豪身家的私人研究機構。這家公司現擁有170名研究人員，他們編制出詳盡的“億萬富翁檔案”，賣給私資銀行、私人飛機銷售商、奢侈品零售商、大學、慈善機構等等在尋找客戶或金主的機構。

Wealth-X keeps its own finances a secret, but says its business has tripled over the last three years. The company says its larger army of researchers has helped it identify more than 2,400 individual billionaires in the world, compared with Forbes’ 1,864. (Forbes says it tracks an additional 500 billionaire “family fortunes.”)

Wealth-X沒有透露自己的財務狀況，但聲稱其業務量在過去三年裏增加了兩倍。該公司表示，依靠更龐大的研究隊伍，他們得以在全球甄別出逾2400名億萬富翁，相比之下《福布斯》得出了1864名。（《福布斯》稱它另外還在跟蹤統計500富豪“家族”。）

“The quality of these lists comes down to resources,” Friedman said. “The more people you have working on it, the better your numbers are going to be.”

“這些榜單的質量最終取決於資源多寡，”弗裏德曼說。“你有越多的人手，做出來的數據就越好。”

In 2012, Bloomberg started publishing its real-time billionaires index, which is updated daily. And the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, a wealth research firm founded in 1999 by the British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf, has also started tracking billionaires worldwide after starting out with its China rich lists. Hurun publishes more than 20 magazines and supplements a year and makes money from a fast-growing series of conferences and events.

2012年，彭博(Bloomberg)開始發佈實時的億萬富翁指數，每天更新。總部位於上海的財富研究公司“胡潤百富”由英國會計師胡潤(Rupert Hoogewerf)在1999年創辦，最初編制的是中國富人榜，後來開始跟蹤統計全球的億萬富翁。胡潤每年出版逾20份雜誌和增刊，並通過舉辦越來越多的研討會和活動來賺錢。

The battle of the billionaire lists can grow contentious. In February, Hurun said that the 100 billionaires in Beijing made it the new “billionaire capital of the world” and that China had 568 billionaires to America’s 535. Forbes shot back in an article stating that New York was the billionaire capital, with 79, while Beijing ranked fourth with 51. Forbes and Wealth-X say the United States has more billionaires; Wealth-X tallies 585 in the United States to China’s 260. Forbes said Hurun sometimes included an entire family’s fortune when identifying a billionaire, while Forbes counted only individuals.

億萬富翁榜單之間的競爭有時會引發爭議。胡潤在2月表示，擁有100名億萬富翁的北京已經成爲“十億美金富豪之都”，中國有568名億萬富翁，而美國爲535名。《福布斯》用一篇文章予以回擊，稱紐約纔是億萬富翁之都，有79名，而北京有51名，位列第四。《福布斯》和Wealth-X稱美國的億萬富翁更多；Wealth-X統計出美國總共有585名，而中國有260名。《福布斯》稱胡潤有時會把整個家族的財富計爲一名億萬富翁，而《福布斯》只計個人。

While the lists are unanimous in crowning Bill Gates the richest man in the world, their valuations for him range from $75 billion to $85 billion. The Spanish retailing giant Amancio Ortega ranks second with about $74 billion.

這些榜單一致將比爾·蓋茨(Bill Gates)尊爲全世界最富有的人，不過它們給出的估值在750億到850億美元之間。西班牙零售業巨頭阿曼西奧·奧爾特加(Amancio Ortega)以約740億美元的身家位列第二。

Billionaires themselves often disagree with their public valuations. Some seek to be removed from the lists, fearing the exposure, and argue that their net worths are far lower. Others argue that their public valuations should be far higher.

對於他們得到的公開估值，富豪們自己時常會有不同意見。有人因爲不願受人矚目，試圖把自己的名字從榜單上撤下，並且表示他們的淨值遠沒有那麼高。有的人則認爲他們的公開估值應該高得多。

“Billionaires owe their success to being competitive, so they’re competitive about where they rank on the billionaires lists,” Friedman said.

“億萬富翁的成功有賴於他們的好勝心，因此他們對自己在富豪榜上的排名也是斤斤計較的，”弗裏德曼說。

None may be more competitive about their wealth ranking than Donald Trump. Despite Trump’s claims that his net worth exceeds $10 billion, all of the wealth research firms put him far lower in rankings. While Hurun lists Trump’s wealth at $6.5 billion, Forbes says it is $4.5 billion and Wealth-X has it at $4.5 billion. Bloomberg pegged him at $2.9 billion, which Trump called “a disgrace,” blaming Michael Bloomberg.

說到在財富排名上的好勝心，大概誰也比不過唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)。他聲稱自己的資產淨值超過100億美元，然而所有的財富研究機構給他的排名都遠低於這個水平。胡潤得出特朗普的財富爲65億美元，《福布斯》說是45億美元，Wealth-X也給出了45億美元。彭博給了一個29億美元，被特朗普斥爲“可恥”，並認爲是邁克爾·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)在從中作梗。

As for Bloomberg, Forbes put his net worth at $45 billion. But Bloomberg doesn’t appear on Bloomberg’s own billionaire list. The company says its policy “is not to cover” Bloomberg’s company, Bloomberg LP.

至於布隆伯格本人，《福布斯》稱他的資產淨值爲450億美元。但布隆伯格並沒有出現在彭博的億萬富翁榜單裏。該公司稱其政策規定要將布隆伯格的“彭博有限合夥公司”(Bloomberg LP)“排除在外”。