最不幸的对冲基金：OWS

    周一早上坐地铁的时候，我和往常一样正在埋头读报。当时我正在看有关“占领华尔街”运动（Occupy Wall Street，简称OWS）的报道，我抬头突然看站在我面前的一个人正好穿着一件带有“OWS”标志的海军蓝羊毛衫。由于我刚刚还在看相关的新闻，周日又在网上搜了大半天带有“占领华尔街”标志的T恤衫和马克杯，准备送给我父亲作为生日礼物（老爷子毕生都在为捍卫99%人群的利益而奋斗），我的第一反应是要是我早知道有这样一款羊毛衫就好了，这会是多棒的一件礼物啊。但接下来我再仔细看看，就发现它并不是占领运动的羊毛衫，上面写的是OWS资本管理公司（OWS Capital Management）。我不禁哑然失笑，引得几位乘客对我侧目。很多人都知道占领运动不只是一个重大的新闻事件，也是一个语言事件，它永远地改变了“占领（occupy）”这个词的含义。但一家投资管理公司名叫OWS，实在是太具讽刺意味了。

    我到办公室后做了一点调查，发现OWS是一家资产管理额略低于30亿美元的对冲基金One William Street Capital Management的缩写，这样的缩写可能特别容易让人想到占领运动。OWS的创始人是戴维•谢尔，前雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）董事总经理兼证券化业务国际主管。他于2008年离开雷曼兄弟，创立OWS，专门交易资产抵押证券。这个团队的成员大多是前雷曼雇员；One William Street并不是公司所在地——谢尔和他的50人团队位于曼哈顿中城——而是最初雷曼兄弟总部在1928-1980年之间的地址。

    我打电话过去并说明致电原因时，One William Street资本管理公司的一位发言人毫不奇怪。她承认，近些日子，公司的名称确实一直遭人戏谑；有些客户甚至开玩笑说，或许谢尔可以卖掉这个名字。

    后来我挂掉电话，准备接着干手头的活。这时我突发奇想，忽然想知道如今是谁占领了One William Street这个地方。这栋大楼如今的主人到底是谁呢？它就是意大利最大的银行——意大利联合圣保罗银行（Intesa Sanpaolo）。

    I had my head buried in the newspaper as usual on the subway this morning, reading about Occupy Wall Street when I looked up and saw a man in front of me wearing a navy blue fleece with an "OWS" logo on it. Having just been reading the news, and having spent much of Sunday surfing the web for Occupy Wall Street t-shirts and mugs for a birthday gift for my father—a lifelong champion of the 99%—my first thought was that I wish I had known about the fleeces, it would have made a much nicer gift. But then I looked a little more closely and saw that it wasn't an Occupy fleece, but one that read "OWS Capital Management." A few passengers looked at me when I laughed out loud. Many have noted how the Occupy movement is not only a major news event but a linguistic event too, forever changing the meaning of the word "occupy." But the irony of a money management firm named OWS was just too much.

    When I got to the office, I did a little investigating. It turns out, OWS is One William Street Capital Management, a hedge fund with just under $3 billion in assets under management—and lineage that might be particularly low-hanging fruit for the Occupiers. OWS was founded by David Sherr, a former Lehman managing director and global head of the firm's securitization business, who left in March 2008 to start OWS to trade asset-backed securities. The team is largely made up of former Lehman people; One William Street is not where the firm is located—Sherr and his team of 50 are in midtown—but the address of the original Lehman Brothers headquarters, where it was based from 1928 to 1980.

    A spokesperson for One William Street was not entirely surprised when I told her why I was calling. She acknowledged that yes, the firm's name has been joked about in recent weeks; some clients, she said, have suggested in jest that maybe Sherr could sell it.

    After we hung up I was about to go back to other business at hand when I wondered just who is, well, occupying One William Street these days. The building's current owner? Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank.