Michael Brush是纽约的一位财经作者,毕业于哥伦比亚商学院, 为纽约时报,金钱(Money)杂志及经济学人(Economist)等撰写商业和投资类文章,也是"来自投资一线的教训"(Lessons from the Front Line)一书的作者.最近他写了篇"华尔街的五大谎言"(The five biggest lies on Wall Street),感觉蛮有道理,节选翻译过来,以供参考

These are the tenets you counted on for years, like 'buy and hold' and heed the advice of 'experts.' Keep these whoppers in mind as you plan your financial future.  

在过去数年里, 你依赖过诸如"买进,然后持有"及听从专家的建议等这些信条.在将来投资的时候,切记这些弥天大谎

If you had any money in stocks in the past few years, you might be feeling pretty dumb right now -- since you're down more than 40% on those "investments."

如果这几年,你在股市上有投资,现在,你也许感到自己相当愚蠢,因为你的投资已经跌去了40%

But stop being so hard on yourself. Yes, you probably should have pulled more money out in time.

然而,就此收手,很难.是的,你可能应该及时抽身

Big Lie No. 1: The market will take care of everything

谎言1: 市场将搞定一切

Remember Ronald Reagan's line, "Government isn't the solution to our problems; government is the problem"? The Gipper may have had some great political insights, but the train wreck in the market shows this one wasn't one of them

还记得里根总统说过的"政府并非问题的解决方案,政府就是问题"吗? 里根当时有许多伟大的见识, 但是这一次不同于以前 (注:在这里,原作者用的是一个典故,里根演过运动员Gip,因此得绰号Gipper.在低迷或消沉的时候,电影里的著名台词Win one for the Gipper,激励过无数美国人)

During most of this decade, Wall Street lobbyists persuaded would-be regulators in the Bush administration to lay off. "The markets" would find the best solutions to any problems on their own

最近十年,华尔街的说客劝说布什当局放弃监管,声称市场自己将找到最好的解决方案

In the free-for-all that ensued, the Wall Street Masters of the Universe made untold millions -- and left us with huge problems. The damage caused by all the tricks, scams and skullduggery has cost more than $7 trillion in market losses so far, not to mention millions of jobs and a deep recession

在得到保证后,华尔街捞了数不清的钱财,留下一堆难题给我们. 因欺骗和诡计招致市场损失了七万亿,就这还没提数百万计的工作流失和很深的衰退

Big Lie No. 2: The 'experts' will help you

谎言2: 专家将帮助你

Many of us rely on the "experts" for guidance in the market, and they failed us miserably

我们中的许多人在市场上依赖专家的指导投资. 然而, 专家们导致了我们惨败

The "experts" have conflicts of interest. Mutual funds, hedge funds and brokerages want to keep you at the table so that they can continue to earn fees from your nest egg. "They don't care if you win or lose, they just want you to keep playing the game"
 

专家有利益冲突. 共同基金,保值基金及经纪人想留住你的目的是为了提取交易费用."他们不在乎你输还是赢,他们只想让你继续玩游戏"

Big Lie No. 3: Buy and hold

谎言3: 买进, 然后持有

Anyone who has followed this advice since the late 1990s now feels deceived. "Buy and hold" once seemed so obvious. Over the long haul, stocks advance 10% to 12% a year, goes the mantra.

自九十年代末以来,遵循这些建议的投资者如今感到被骗了. "买进,然后持有"曾经是明显的,股市每年增长10%到12%

The problem was that investors and financial advisers use an assessment of risk tolerance to determine exposure to various asset classes like stocks, bonds and cash

问题是投资家和财务顾问使用了风险评估允差去确定股票,债券和现金等资产的类别

Then the level of risk in the stock market changed violently. But investors -- or their financial advisers -- didn't adjust their portfolios away from stocks toward safer assets like cash

当风险波动剧烈时,投资家或者财务顾问并没有把投资组合调整到更安全的资产,如现金上

Big Lie No. 4: Overpaid CEOs are worth the money

谎言4: 给CEO们支付太多钱是应该的

why is most of the world suffering such a deep recession and huge market losses? After all, the CEOs at the banks that got us into this mess were paid like kings.

谁将承受衰退和巨大的市场损失? 那些把我们陷入困境的银行CEO们依旧是拿高薪的打工皇帝.(注:作者随后列举了很多例子)

None of this is new. CEOs have been collecting big bucks for lousy performances for years

这些例子中没有一个是新的.银行的CEO们已经从他们很糟糕的业绩中捞了很多钱(注: 想起了国内保险业的马明哲)

Big Lie No. 5: Buy a flat-screen TV, save the economy

谎言5: 为拯救经济,去消费吧

(注: 这段说给没有储蓄习惯的美国人听了,我们不用管了)