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  3. Think of the upper echelons of the money-management business, and the image

Think of the upper echelons of the money-management business, and the image

游客2023-12-28  23
问题     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 May-fair, 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and fake country-house meeting-rooms designed to make their super-rich clients feel at home, But that picture is out of date.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 and European property.
    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. Family offices have become a force in investing, with up to $4 turn 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.
    The concept is hardly new; John 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.
    The costs of bringing such expertise in-mansion means that they generally make sense only for those worth over $100 m, the top 0.001％ of the global pile. Asian tycoons have created their own fiefs. The largest Western family offices, such as the one set up by George Soros, an investor and philanthropist, oversee tens of billions and are as muscular as Wall Street firms, competing with banks and private-equity groups to buy whole companies.
    Every investment boom reflects the society that spawned it. The humble mutual fund came of age in the 1970s after two decades of middle-class prosperity in America. The rise of family offices reflects soaring inequality. The number of billionaires is still growing. Family offices’ weight in the financial system, therefore, looks likely to rise further. As it does, the objections to them will rise exponentially. The most obvious of these is the least convincing—that family offices have created inequality. They are a consequence, not its cause.
    Nonetheless, there are concerns. The first is that family offices could endanger the stability of the financial system. The second worry is that family offices could magnify the power of the wealthy over the economy. It is the third danger that has most bite: that family offices might have privileged access to information, deals and tax schemes, allowing them to outperform ordinary investors.
    The answer is vigilance and light. Most regulators, treasuries and tax authorities are beginners when it comes to dealing with family offices, but they need to ensure that rules on insider trading, the equal servicing of clients by dealers and parity of tax treatment are observed. And they should prod family offices with assets of over, say, $10 bn to publish accounts detailing their workings. In return, they should be free to operate unmolested. They may even have something to teach hordes of flailing asset managers who serve ordinary investors, many of whom may look at their monthly fees and wish that they, too, could ditch the middlemen.
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答案     试想资金管理行业的高层办公场所，浮现脑海的是日内瓦或伦敦梅菲尔传统的私人银行，其内大理石大厅和田园风格会议室的设计是为了让超级富豪客户感到宾至如归，但这一印象已经过时，更确切的情景是在美国加州和新加坡的数百间玻璃隔断办公室中进行加拿大债券和欧洲房地产投资，随着财富的与日俱增，亿万富翁通过创立家族办公室来摆脱中间商，全球金融正在转型。这些私人投资公司在全球市场寻找机会。现在，家族办公室在投资界已形成一股不可小觑的力量，其资产高达4万亿美元，超过对冲基金资产总额，相当于全球股市价值的696。在民粹主义大行其道的时代，家族办公室不得不面对棘手的问题。那就是，它们如何集权并加剧社会不平等?
    家族办公室这一概念并不新鲜。1882年，约翰.洛克菲勒(John Rockefeller)成立了他的家族办公室。本世纪家族办公室的数量呈爆炸式增长，大约有5千至1万个家族办公室分布在美国、欧洲以及新加坡和香港等亚洲中心地区。尽管它们的主要任务是管理金融资产，但在大规模的家族办公室中(有些甚至拥有数百名员工)，它们承担着多种工作，从税务、法律工作到成为预定航班和照顾宠物的高级管家。
    只有全球前0.01％资产过亿美元的富豪能够承担家族办公室高度专业化服务的运作成本。亚洲大亨们已经建立了自己的家族办公室。西方最大的家族办公室，比如由投资家、慈善家乔治.索罗斯(George Soros)创立的办公室，其影响力可与华尔街公司匹敌，它管理着数百亿美元的资产，与银行和私募股权集团竞争收购公司。
    每一次投资热潮都折射出社会的发展现状。20世纪70年代，共同基金市场从起步走向成熟，当时美国中产阶级已经经历了20年的繁荣。家族办公室的兴起反映了日益加剧的不平等现象。亿万富翁的数量仍在增长。因此，家族办公室在金融体系中的权重似乎还会进一步上升，而对它们的反对意见也呈指数级增加，其中最明显，也最缺乏说服力的是指责家族办公室造成了社会不平等。实际上，家族办公室并非造成不平等的原因，而是其结果。
    尽管如此，公众仍心存忧虑。第一，家族办公室可能会危及金融系统的稳定；第二，家族办公室可能使得富豪能够左右经济命脉：第三个最不利的影响是家族办公室可能拥有获得信息、交易和税收计划的特权，从而使它们的投资表现优于普通人。
    公众应保持警惕并沉着应对家族办公室的崛起。多数监管机构、财政部门和税务当局都未处理过与家族办公室相关的事宜，但他们需要确保家族办公室为客户提供平等的服务、遵循同等税收原则并且不存在内幕交易。此外，他们还应敦促资产超过百亿美元的家族办公室公开运营账目。作为回报，他们可以不受干扰地经营业务，他们甚至可以传授经验给为普通投资者服务但陷入困境的资产管理公司。这些投资商看着每月支出的费用，大多数也希望自己能摆脱中间商。
解析     1.第1段第一句spring to mind为固定搭配，意思是 “如果某事突然出现在脑海中，你会突然想起它”。结合本文语境，此处可译作“浮现脑海”。
    2.第2段第一句句子较长，其中Global finance is being transformed说明了由于亿万富翁财富积累与日俱增，国际金融正在转型，在翻译时可将这部分放置句末，使译文更加符合中文先因后果的表达习惯。
    3.第4段第一句若直译为“把这样高度专业化服务带进豪宅的成本意味着，它们通常只对那些全球前0.01％资产过亿美元的富豪才有意义。”则显得生硬，在翻译时应尽量不受原文表达习惯的影响，将其译为“只有全球前0,01％资产过亿美元的富豪能够承担家族办公室高度专业化服务的运作成本。”，使译文更为自然。
    4.第4段第三句muscular意为“强健的”，而在文中指的是索罗斯创立的家族办公室的影响力与华尔街公司不相上下。因此，此处将as muscular as Wall Street firms译为“其影响力可与华尔街公司匹敌”更为合适。
    5.第6段第四句的bite为多义词。有“咬伤”“刺痛”“影响”等多个义项。根据本文语境，该处依旧提及的是家族办公室可能带来的负面影响。因此，此处应取第3个义项，灵活将the third danger that，has most bite处理为“第三个最不利的影响”。
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