《经济学人》英文精读：深度分析超级富豪如何投资（上）

英文学习者对《经济学人》应该很熟悉，这是一份创刊175周年的英国报纸，用词地道优雅，若干英文考试都从中选材，比如高考、四六级、CATTI、雅思、托福等等。

今天为大家分享一下《经济学人》周刊文章《How the super-rich invest》，聚焦全球超级富豪如何投资。

全文约1300字，阅读时间8-10分钟。

01

Think of the upper echelons of the money-management business, and the image that springs to mind is of fusty private banks in Geneva or London’s Mayfair, with marble lobbies and fake country-house meeting-rooms designed to make their super-rich clients feel at home. But that picture is out of date. A more accurate one would feature hundreds of glassy private offices in California and Singapore that invest in Canadian bonds, European property and Chinese startups—and whose gilded patrons are sleepwalking into a political storm.

翻译：试想一下顶级的资产管理，脑袋里就会跳入这样一个画面——在日内瓦和伦敦梅菲尔区，大理石铺成大厅，乡村别墅式的接待室组成了私人银行——力求让超级富豪客户感觉宾至如归。但是这样的画面已经过时了。更准确的画面是这样的，加利福尼亚州和新加坡的数百个光亮透明的私人办公室投资加拿大债券、欧洲不动产和中国初创公司（中国初创公司的黄金赞助人正在政治风暴中梦游）。

Echelon n. 阶层；梯队

Spring v. 弹、跳、跃；spring to mind——跳入脑海中；用作名词意为春天、弹簧、喷泉。

Fusty adj. 腐臭的；过时的

Mayfair n. （伦敦）上流住宅区

Marble n. 大理石

Fake adj. 假冒的

Out of date adj. 过时的

Glassy adj. 光亮透明的

Bond n. 债券

Gild vt. （使）金光闪闪

Patron n. 赞助者

Sleepwalk v. 梦游

02

Global finance is being transformed as billionaires get richer and cut out the middlemen by creating their own “family offices”, personal investment firms that roam global markets looking for opportunities. Largely unnoticed, family offices have become a force in investing, with up to $4trn of assets—more than hedge funds and equivalent to 6% of the value of the world’s stock markets. As they grow even bigger in an era of populism, family offices are destined to face uncomfortable questions about how they concentrate power and feed inequality.

翻译：全球金融正在转型，随着百万富翁们财富与日俱增，他们创建“家族办公室”，跨过中间人，私人投资公司在全球市场中游走以期寻找机会。多半人忽视的是，家族办公室已成为一股投资势力，运营4万亿美元资产，超过对冲基金规模，相当于全世界股票市场价值的6%。在民粹主义时代，随着这股势力膨胀，家族办公室注定将面对如何集权和财富不均的难题。

Middleman n. 中间人

Roam v. 游荡（=wander）

hedge fund n. 对冲基金

Destine vt. （使）注定

Inequality n. 不平等

03

The concept is hardly new; John D. Rockefeller set up his family office in 1882. But the number has exploded this century. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 are based in America and Europe and in Asian hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Though their main task is to manage financial assets, the biggest offices, some with hundreds of staff, undertake all sorts of other chores, from tax and legal work to acting as high-powered butlers who book jets and pamper pets.

家族办公室的概念并不是新创的，约翰·D·洛克菲勒于1882年就设立了家族办公室。但家族办公室的数量在本世纪猛增。在美国、欧洲和亚洲金融中心比如新加坡和香港，共设有大约5000到10000个家族办公室。虽然他们主要工作是管理金融资产，但是那些拥有几百名工作人员的大办公室，扮演的角色类似于家族中权力很大的男管家，承担包括税务和法律工作、预定机票和照料宠物的各种杂活。

Explode v. 爆炸；爆发；激增

Undertake v. 承担

Chore n. 杂活；杂役

Butler n. 男管家

Pamper v. 宠爱

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