[2006.12.19]American investment banks:Streets ahead of the rest谦卑？闪一边 banks, investment, rest, American, Streets

sunny_49

[2006.12.19]American investment banks:Streets ahead of the rest

American investment banks
美国投资银行
Streets ahead of the rest
华尔街领跑世界
Dec 19th 2006 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

Humility? Forget it
谦卑？闪一边

IT HAS been a year to make even Croesus blush for the big Wall Street securities firms. Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers have all announced record profits and beaten analysts' expectations in the process. Morgan Stanley, which was due to report on December 19th, has also had an enviable year. Bloomberg, a financial-information firm, calculates that the industry will make $29.1 billion after tax in fiscal 2006, a 43% rise on last year, which was itself a bumper one. New York's tabloids have had a field day, splashing headlines like “Sachs of Loot” and fantasising about all the things outsized bonuses could buy.
这年头，华尔街的大证券公司赚得那可叫多啊，就算克罗伊斯再世也是自叹不如。高盛，贝尔史登（Bear Stearns），莱曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）统统宣布其获利颇丰，创了纪录，破了预期。摩根斯坦利，预定在12月19日公布，今年的业绩也是让人眼红。据彭博公司（金融信息公司）统计，2006财政年，该行业税后收入将飙升至291亿美元，与业绩本来就很优异的去年相比，涨幅也是达到43%. 纽约的小报今天忙得够呛，像“高盛的战利品”这样的头条漫天飞扬，幻想着光是奖金就能让人享尽世间荣华富贵。

Goldman, the best performer, is setting aside an unprecedented $16.5 billion to reward its talent, equal to $620,000 per employee across the firm. But it is now so profitable that the ratio of pay to revenue has actually fallen, to 43.7%, well below the 50% seen as a ceiling in the industry.
最大的赢家高盛公司张张口就是165亿美金，拿来犒赏手下的员工，平均每个人能分到62万，这一举动也是史无前例。但员工收入占公司全年收入的比例却在下降，只有43.7%，远低于该行业50%的上限，当然这得“归功于”公司收入这一巨大的基数。

This is all good news for purveyors of luxury goods and fancy homes, who hope to pick up more than a few crumbs from Wall Street's table. Orders for bespoke suits are up on last year, says Jack Mitchell, who kits out some of the financial bigwigs. New York officials are delighted, too. They have slashed the city's budget-deficit forecast, in part because of the sharp rise in tax receipts from investment banks.
奢侈品及高档家具经销商该高兴好一阵子了。他们也想凑到华尔街的饭桌前，好好吃上一顿，就算捡点面包屑也好。曾给好几位金融界的达人裁剪衣裳的杰克.米特谢尔，最近也是财运亨通，西装预订单在去年的基础上，保持强劲涨势。纽约当官的也是喜笑颜开，城市预算赤字大幅消减，这其中投资银行的飙升的税收贡献颇大。

The banks can thank near-perfect markets for their good fortune. Mergers and private equity are booming, as are stockmarkets (the Dow hit another high last week). Volatility is low, credit still plentiful. Hedge funds and others are trading derivatives at a furious pace, providing a further lift to the banks' prime-brokerage businesses. In these conditions, the banks have (so far) profited handsomely from ratcheting up their own risk-taking. Across the industry, value-at-risk—a measure of potential losses on a bad trading day—has risen steadily. Some 70% of Goldman's net revenues now come from trading and investing on its own account.
投资银行之所以能取得如此辉煌业绩，还得归功于近乎完美的市场表现：合并及私募股权投资发展迅速，股票市场也不例外，道琼斯指数上周又创新高；波动率处于低位，信贷依然充足；对冲基金疯狂交易衍生物，同时也拉动了银行的大宗经纪业务。在这样的背景下，迄今为止，投资银行通过提升其自身风险喜好程度，好好的赚了一笔。整个行业的风险价值—在交易不景气的日子里用于测算潜在损失的方法—也是稳步上升。高盛公司七成净收入就得益于自身账户的交易及投资。

Everyone knows this cannot last forever. The banks are hoping that their scope will help them when markets turn. Growth prospects look good in Asia and Europe, and all of the leading firms apart from Bear Stearns now do a big chunk of their business outside America. They are also beefing up their distressed debt and bankruptcy teams, a source of profit that should mitigate any pain from a rise in defaults and tougher debt markets.
一劳永逸的事是没有的，投资银行当然也明白这一点，他们只是希望如今的广阔领域可以在市场转冷时，帮上他们一把。亚欧发展前景良好，于是，除贝尔史登外，所有的这些领跑的公司都在极力开拓美国之外的市场。此外，他们正在广纳贤才，扩充处理令人沮丧的债务及破产问题的团队。这样的“源头活水”，在违约及顽固的债务市场抬头之际，也不失为止渴之饮。

Goldman's boss, Lloyd Blankfein—who is set to pocket $50m or more this year, another industry record—has called for humility as his troops reflect on their stellar year. But with investment banks outperforming their commercial-banking counterparts on almost every measure, including share price, the gloating will be hard to contain. Just now, much of it is directed at Citigroup, which is under pressure to cut costs and raise its share price. Strikingly, the financial conglomerate is paying slightly higher interest on its five-year debt than Lehman or Bear Stearns.
高盛的老板劳伊德·布兰克芬口袋鼓鼓（今年他将5000万美金，或许更多装入自家腰包，这也创造了该行业的一个神话），却在他的团队战绩辉煌时，叫嚣保持低调。但当你看到投资银行几乎在每个方面都超过商业银行时，这其中包括每股股价，你也许就不仅仅满足于沾沾自喜了。而且，这种自得之态似乎就是做给花旗看的。花旗集团目前正处在降低成本，提升股价的双重压力之下。然而，引人注意的是这一金融巨头为其五年期负债付出的利息稍高于莱曼及贝尔史登。

Moreover, any investment banker worth his salt will tell you that there is not much money in meekness. After a day or two reacquainting themselves with their families at Christmas, most will race back to their desks next week, hungry to make another killing.
此外，任何一个精明的投资银行家都明白谦卑恭顺是赚不来钱的。圣诞夜他们与家人聚聚，之后，他们立马杀回办公室，为了下一场屠戮，他们已经饿得不行。

[ 本帖最后由 sunny_49 于 2006-12-25 17:42 编辑 ]

sunny_49

前几篇受原文束缚较大，为此，一直在寻求放开手的那种豁然开朗。此篇就是这种尝试之下的产物，虽然可能顾此失彼（自我感觉比翻这篇的仁兄繁冗一些）。希望这种努力能得到大家的肯定，当然也会将这种尝试继续下去，还望诸位能给出高见

danho

其实这也没什么奇怪的，谁叫人家赚得多呢。 原文没有这句话

private equity私募股权投资业务,这个和个人股权是完全不同的概念.
volatility is low波动率处于低位,这个比起"股价不见大起大落"更加准确,客观和忠实原文
credit still plentiful,信贷仍然充裕,而非银行存款.
hedge funds and others are trading derivatives at a furious pace对冲基金狂热的交易衍生品

prime-broerageda投行大宗经纪业务
ratcheting up risk-taking 调高了他们的风险喜好程度

everyone knows每个人都知道

scope广度,而非规模,后文显而易见,他们在非北美市场的涉足才是在北美市场转向是挽救他们的希望
defaults违约

called翻译成叫嚣有所不妥

share price就是股价

日子当然是不好过。 这无异于雪上加霜。都是原文没有的


很多术语翻译错误,

翻译当然要受到原文的束缚，否则怎么是翻译呢？胡乱自己添加原文没有的东西肯定是不对的.

[ 本帖最后由 danho 于 2006-12-25 13:00 编辑 ]

sunny_49

这位仁兄批评的对阿，把我从歧途中拉了回来，不胜感谢。自己也觉得有点过了。
还有很多术语的错译也要谢谢这位仁兄的纠正。
翻译的确不好做，这次算是领悟到了，不宜生硬，但过犹不及亦非译也！

sunny_49

Everyone knows 这一句：一劳永逸的事是没有的，投资银行当然也明白这一点，前一句把每个人都知道省掉不译，然后在后面补充“投资银行当然也明白这一点”，应该算增益吧，而且也可以跟后面连接起来，并不是说把“每个人”替成“投资银行，所以我还是坚持自己的，不过还是要谢谢给我挑了这么多错啊，其他的都改过来了。谢了！

[ 本帖最后由 sunny_49 于 2006-12-25 17:38 编辑 ]