纽 约 华 尔 街

Until the recent tempest, Wall Street firms looked like just about the world's best businesses. Year after year, they posted sumptuous returns on equity, ever-rising share prices, and if you believed their claims, a new breed of CEOs who'd mastered the art and science of risk management. True, it was hard to decipher exactly how they made all that money. But make it they did.

　　Today, the magic is fading fast. It's time to step back and analyze how financial firms actually operate.

　　The truth is that they've been relying on a highly-flawed business model for years. Put simply, Wall Street firms used towering leverage to make tons of money in a long-running bull market that blatantly underpriced risk. At the same time, they handed a huge chunk of the gains to employees in the form of excessive pay.

　　Now that run is over, and the price of risk is rising dramatically. That's driving down value of everything from junk bonds to mortgaged backed securities. Wall Street's addiction to leverage is cutting the wrong way..

　　直到最近的风暴到来之前，华尔街的公司看上去就像是世界上最好的公司。年复一年，它们公布高额利润、一直上升的股价，如果你相信新一代掌握了风险管理艺术和科学的首席执行官们所说的话。确实，难以确切说明他们是如何赚得所有钱的，但他们的确赚了。

　　今天，魔法正在迅速消失。现在是回过头来分析一下金融公司事实上是如何操作的时候了。

　　事实是他们几年来一直依赖于一种有严重缺陷的商业模式。简单地说，华尔街的公司使用过份的杠杆作用在长时间明显低估风险的一轮牛市中赚取了大量的钱。同时，它们将收益中的大部分以高额的工资形式发给了雇员。

　　现在，这轮牛市过去了，风险的代价剧烈地上升。所有东西的价值缩水了，从垃圾债券到受抵押担保的

证券。华尔街对杠杆作用的痴迷正在开辟一条错误的道路