雙語財經新聞 第7期:雷曼破產十訓(2)

6. Listen to the old guy. Pete Peterson, head of Lehman Brothers for 10 years until 1984，had served as commerce secretary in the Nixon administration and was a skilled negotiator who wanted to foster links with Europe and Japan. His traders thought him an insufferable gasbag and threw him out. They promptly lost control of the bank to American Express, which owned Lehman for the next decade, while Mr Peterson became founder of Blackstone, the private equity company, and a billionaire. Now in his 80s，he has spoken of the immorality of providing tax cuts to “fat cats” like himself.

第六，要聽老人言。皮特?彼得森在1984年以前做了10年雷曼掌門人。他曾任尼 克鬆賄的商務部長，是一位希望與關和日本發展關係的談判專家。彼得森手下 的交易員認爲他是一個令人無法容忍的話癆，於是把他趕下了臺。這些人很快便失 去了對雷曼的控制權，在接下來的10年裏，雷曼的所有權一直掌握在美國運通手 中。彼特森則創建了私人股本公司百仕通，併成爲一位億萬富翁。彼特森現已年逾 八旬，他曾講過，向他這樣的“肥貓”提供減稅是不道德的。

7. Get a hinterland. With their 15-hour days and enormous incomes, investment bankers have limited grasp of cultures beyond investment banking. Robert “Bobbie” Lehman, senior pArtner for 40 years until his death in 1969, had a lifelong love of art and built America’s finest private collection. It has its own wing in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Mr Fuld sponsored a room of Rothkos and other works in the Museum of Modern Art shortly before Lehman Brothers went under. But, as he said at the time, this was mainly the initiative of his wife Kathy. It remains a monument to what might have been.

第七，要給自己找塊心靈的淨土。每天工作15個小時、收入豐厚的投資銀行家 們，對投資銀行業以外的文化知之甚少。羅伯特?雷曼當了40年的高級合夥人，直到 1969年去世。他畢生愛好藝術，打造了美國最精美的私人收藏。這些收藏在紐約大 都會博物館擁有自己的展廳。就在雷曼兄弟倒閉前不久，富爾德向現代藝術博物館 一個展示羅斯科和其他作品的展廳提供了資助。但正如他當時所說，這麼做主要是 出於他妻子凱西的提議。它成了一座紀念碑，提醒着人們世界本來的面目。

8. Don*t trust the maths. Bobbie Lehman discovered such entrepreneurs as Juan Trippe of Pan Am and Charles Thornton of Litton Industries, the electronics pioneer, and said of his investment philosophy that he “bet on the man”，Dick Fuld bet on the formula, notably the al^bra3 that said arcane financial instruments backed by subprime mortgages could not fail.

第八，不要篤信數學。博比?雷曼發掘出了像泛美的胡安?特里普和電子業先驅 企業斯頓工業的查爾斯?桑頓這樣的企業家。他曾說過，他的投資理念是“押注於 人”。富爾德則押注於數學公式,特別是那些顯示由次級抵押貸款支持的神祕金融 工具不可能失敗的公式。

9. Bring back enlightened government. Lehman Brothers was at its peak in the 1950s，the prosperous Eisenhower years when public and private partnership was an economic given. Lehman Brothers died at a time when regulation had been driven out by a private sector that said it knew best. It didn’t.

第九，要重新引入開明的政府。雷曼兄弟的全盛時期出現在20世紀50年代繁榮 的艾森豪威爾時代，那時公私合營是經濟中理所當然的事。雷曼兄弟的覆滅則出現 在一個私營部門排斥監管的時代。私營部門稱自己最有頭腦,事實並非如此。

10. Stop selling rubbish. Capitalism now makes money by betting on failure rather than success. As the FT reported last week, George Sorosand John Paulson, the hedge fund managers, bring in more than Boeing. They would not be so prosperous without the billions they made betting against the fanciful financial instruments mentioned above. The Lehman Brothers of old was an enterprise that dealt in goods of real value. The one that died did so when it was caught peddling junk.

第十,不要再兜售垃圾。資本主義如今的賺錢方式是押注於失敗而不是押注於 成功。正如英國《金融時報》上週所報道的，對衝基金經理喬治?索羅斯和約翰?保爾 森如今賺得比波音還多。如果不是靠做上述稀奇古怪的金融工具嫌了數十億，他們 就不會像現在這樣富有。早年的雷曼兄弟是一家經營有實際價值的商品的企業。而 倒閉的那個雷曼兄弟則是因爲被發現在兜售垃圾才走上了絕路。