巴菲特致股东的信 2016 - 10 对赌 5

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Much of the financial damage befell pension funds for public employees. Many of these funds are woefully underfunded, in part because they have suffered a double whammy: poor investment performance accompanied by huge fees. The resulting shortfalls in their assets will for decades have to be made up by local taxpayers. Human behavior won’t change. Wealthy individuals, pension funds, endowments and the like will continue to feel they deserve something “extra” in investment advice. Those advisors who cleverly play to this expectation will get very rich. This year the magic potion may be hedge funds, next year something else. The likely result from this parade of promises is predicted in an adage: “When a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with money leaves with experience.”

这种经济损失大部分降落在公众雇员的养老金上。这些基金中很多都资金严重不足,部分是因为这些基金遭受双重打击:糟糕的投资业绩以及高额的费用。由此导致的资产亏空不得不在未来几十年有当地纳税人来弥补。人类行为不会改变。富裕的个体、养老基金、大学基金及类似机构会继续觉得他们值得在投资建议里面另有所获。善于玩弄这种预期的顾问将会赚得盆满钵满。今年的魔法药水可能是对冲基金,明年可能是别的东西。这种承诺可能带来的结局可以用这句谚语生动描述:一个有钱人碰到一个有经验的人,结果是有经验的人得到了钱,有钱的人带着经验离开了。

Long ago, a brother-in-law of mine, Homer Rogers, was a commission agent working in the Omaha stockyards. I asked him how he induced a farmer or rancher to hire him to handle the sale of their hogs or cattle to the buyers from the big four packers (Swift, Cudahy, Wilson and Armour). After all, hogs were hogs and the buyers were experts who knew to the penny how much any animal was worth. How then, I asked Homer, could any sales agent get a better result than any other?

很久之前,我的姐夫荷马·罗杰斯是一位佣金代理人,在奥马哈畜牧场工作。我问他是怎么引导农夫或者农场主雇佣他来向四大罐头食品公司(SWIFT、Cudahy、Wilson和Armour)销售猪牛。毕竟,猪就是猪,而这些买家是专业的,他们清楚地知道所有动物的价值。于是,我问了下荷马,有没有可能某位销售代理能比其他的人要卖得更好?

Homer gave me a pitying look and said: “Warren, it’s not how you sell ‘em, it’s how you tell ‘em.” What worked in the stockyards continues to work in Wall Street. 

荷马同情地瞟了我一眼,说道:沃伦,关键不在于你是怎么卖,而在于你怎么告诉他们的。在畜牧场管用的方法在华尔街同样适用。

And, finally, let me offer an olive branch to Wall Streeters, many of them good friends of mine. Berkshire loves to pay fees – even outrageous fees – to investment bankers who bring us acquisitions. Moreover, we have paid substantial sums for over-performance to our two in-house investment managers – and we hope to make even larger payments to them in the future.

最后,我想向华尔街伸出我的橄榄枝,其中有很多人是我的好朋友。伯克希尔乐意付费-甚至是巨额费用-给那些能为我们带来并购的投资银行家。并且,我们已经向我们的在职投资经理就其出色表现支付了大额的报酬-我们希望未来能够支付给他们更多的报酬。

To get biblical (Ephesians 3:18), I know the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of the energy flowing from that simple four-letter word – fees – when it is spoken to Wall Street. And when that energy delivers value to Berkshire, I will cheerfully write a big check.

根据《圣经》(《以弗所书》3:18),我知道那个四字母词语-费用-对华尔街所流淌出来的能量的高度、深度、长度和宽度。如果这个能量能给伯克希尔带来价值,我会很乐意签署支票。