巴菲特的高盛交易为什么赚了

    那么高盛公司在金融危机最为肆虐的时候到底陷入了多大的麻烦呢：这个麻烦价值24亿美元。因为假如当初巴菲特是从公开市场买入同等市值普通股的话，减去巴菲特的收益，高盛公司可省下24亿美元。在美联储（Federal Reserve）最近一次压力测试中，高盛排名靠后。因此，这笔资金可能是高盛现在最想要回来的。

    最终，高盛公司搬起石头砸自己的脚，牺牲自己的利益替巴菲特——它最好的客户和股东之一——带来了一笔回报丰厚的交易。它甚至还糊里糊涂不知道原因何在。当初由于市场急需信心提振，巴菲特投资高盛被解读对该行以及整个美国银行业所投的信任票。交易没有马上显灵。但是我敢肯定，当时高盛公司和巴菲特本人都把这种解读当作是他们达成交易的意义所在。至于巴菲特本人，作为唱多市场的领军人物之一，当初他为什么会看上了这点甜头呢？这就不得而知了。

    究其原因，除了钟爱樱桃可乐和淳朴的乡村范儿之外，也许股神还善于杀价。也可能是因为高盛在2008年9月下旬就已经岌岌可危了，而公司高管和巴菲特你知我知。两个原因随便你挑，反正我信第二个。

    译者：默默

    So how much trouble was Goldman in at the height of the financial crisis: $2.4 billion worth. That's how much extra the bank paid Buffett above what he would have earned if he had just bought the shares on the open market. Goldman recently came out toward the bottom of the Federal Reserve stress test, so that's probably capital it would like to have back now.

    In the end, Goldman gave a sweetheart deal to one of its best clients, and his shareholders, at the expense of its own. And it's not even clear why. Buffett's investment in Goldman was seen as a vote of confidence in the firm and U.S. banks in general at a time when the market needed it. It didn't work immediately. But I'm sure both Goldman and Buffett saw that as the real point of the deal. And since one of the biggest individual benefactors of a rising market is Buffett himself, it's not exactly clear why he would have needed such sweeteners.

    It could be that despite the Cherry Coke and down-home charm, Buffett drives a hard bargain. Or could be that in late September 2008, things were turning ugly at Goldman, and both the firm's executives and Buffett knew it. You can make your own pick. But I would probably go with the latter.