华尔街第一夫人传奇（节选）

    穆里尔•西伯特被尊为“华尔街第一夫人”的时间几乎已经跨越了两代人。她是第一位在纽约证券交易所（New York Stock Exchange）获得交易席位的女性，为此她在1967年拿出了近50万美元【314.25万元人民币，她说其中大部分是大通曼哈顿银行（Chase Manhattan）提供的贷款，由大卫•洛克菲勒（前摩根大通主席）亲自批准】。

    当时，纽交所另外1,365个交易席位上坐的都是男性。蒙大拿州一份报纸打出了这样的标题：《裙子入侵交易所》（SKIRT INVADES EXCHANGE）。一位男性证券分析师对巴尔的摩的记者调侃说：“女性把这么多的时间都花在设法控制自己的丈夫上，因此她们”在“挑选理想投资对象方面有着天然优势”。《纽约时报》（New York Times）则在头版引述了未透露姓名的朋友们对西伯特的描述：“活泼、热情、年近四十”。

    这样空洞的新闻报道并没有妨碍西伯特在职业声誉和经济两方面都取得成功。从那时起，无论她的事业处于顶峰还是陷入低谷，无论她创业冒险还是投身慈善，无论她为公众服务还是迎接个人挑战，人们一直把西伯特视为一名斗士。一些女性以西伯特为楷模；而其他人，无论男女，则都把她视为金融界一位有预见性而又丰富多彩的人物。西伯特了解手中的股票，也知道如何去看财务报表，但她特别喜欢向别人炫耀的是她学会了用粗口来对付别的交易员，而且这项本领至今未忘。

    西伯特在克利夫兰出生并成长。1954年，23岁的西伯特开着她的旧斯蒂旁克（Studebaker）轿车来到东海岸。她没有大学文凭，只有口袋里的500美元和在华尔街立足的梦想。西伯特十几岁时和家人到过纽交所，从挑台向下看时，她立刻就被吸引住了——这可能就像当时的男孩子第一次从看台上俯视扬基棒球队的球场。由于没有完成大学学业，美林（Merrill Lynch）没有接纳西伯特。再找工作时她撒了个谎，说自己有学位。这让她得以开始自己的职业生涯。她的第一份工作是在证券经纪公司Bache & Co.研究部门当实习生，周薪65美元，并最终将研究范围定为航空航天业。随后，她成为另外两家证券公司——Finkle & Co.以及Brimberg & Co.的合伙人。从1977年起，西伯特在纽约州银行督察的位置上工作了五年，作为第一位女性银行督察，她把这个职位称为“S.O.B.”。西伯特一直自诩为富有同情心的共和党自由派，而任命她担任银行督察的则是时任州长的民主党人休•凯里。1982年西伯特还参加了共和党的纽约州参议员初选，但以失败告终。

    Muriel "Mickie" Siebert has been known as the "First Lady of Wall Street" for almost two generations. She was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, paying nearly half a million dollars in 1967 for the privilege. (She says she borrowed the majority of it, from Chase Manhattan, after David Rockefeller personally approved the loan.)

    At the time, there were 1,365 other members, all men. SKIRT INVADES EXCHANGE, proclaimed a headline in a Montana newspaper. One male securities analyst explained to a Baltimore journalist that "women spend an awful lot of time trying to manage their husbands, so they have a natural advantage" in "picking good investments." On its front page, the New York Times, quoting unnamed friends of hers, described Siebert as "bubbly and ebullient and fortyish."

    Despite such inane commentary in the press, she thrived, both in terms of professional reputation and financial success. Ever since -- through business peaks and valleys, entrepreneurial adventures and philanthropic efforts, public service and personal challenges -- Siebert has been seen as a crusader. Some women have considered her a role model; others, irrespective of gender, have simply viewed her a prescient and colorful character of the financial world. She knows her stocks and she knows how to read a financial statement, but she especially likes to boast that she learned to use four-letter words when dealing with traders -- and has never lost the knack.

    Born and raised in Cleveland, the 23-year-old Siebert came East in 1954 in her old Studebaker, with no college degree, $500 in her pocket, and only the dream of a life on the Street. As a teenager, she had visited the NYSE (NYX) with her family and, looking down from the balcony from the Exchange, she was instantly taken—perhaps not unlike a boy of the time who first cast eyes down upon Yankee Stadium from the bleachers. After being turned down by Merrill Lynch because she hadn't graduated from college, she fibbed that she had a degree. Thus she was able to launch her career as a $65-a-week trainee in the research department at the brokerage firm Bache & Co., eventually specializing in the airlines and aerospace industries. Later on, she became a partner two other securities firms, Finkle & Co. and Brimberg & Co. For five years, beginning in 1977, she served as superintendent of banking for New York State -- the first woman to hold the job, which she calls "S.O.B."; a lifelong self-described bleeding-heart Republican," she was appointed by a Democrat, then Gov. Hugh Carey. She also had a failed run in a G.O.P. primary in New York State for the U.S. Senate in 1982.