一位参与决策的消息人士这样解释给我听：“理念是信息优势（当然都是合法的信息）能帮助各项业务相比独自经营有更好的表现。”比如，贝恩的私募股权业务或许能发现潜在的市场错位，上市股票投资团队就可以藉此进行做空或做多（不清楚这一理论付诸实践的机会有多少，如果曾经付诸实践的话）。

    反过来，Brookside也可以为企业内部提供上市股票研究，要不然贝恩还要想办法获得第三方分析师的报告。显然，对于像尚未敲定的私有化交易、其他上市公司的非公开信息等等，需要设立庞大的法律防火墙进行隔离，但贝恩资本在公司内部设立Brookside时看中的就是协同效应。

    Brookside也帮助贝恩资本进一步机构化——形成了创建关联公司的一套方法，后来又有了Sankaty Advisors（信贷业务）和Absolute Return Capital（绝对回报业务）。如今，贝恩资本管理着超过70亿美元资产。

    罗姆尼本可能成为Brookside的唯一所有人，但1999年2月他离开了贝恩资本，开始打理盐湖城奥运会。不过，最新的罗姆尼个人财产信息显示，他在Brookside基金中仍拥有几百万美元。

    这些都不是什么大秘密。贝恩资本的网站上就提到了Brookside，虽然需要有客户密码才能真正进入Brookside网页。但这是这场大选以来双方很大程度上一直（至少迄今为止）忽略的问题之一。

    如果罗姆尼一旦出任总统，他可能会任命监管对冲基金的官员，负责签署或否决与对冲基金相关的法律法规等等。所以，不妨考虑一下，他曾经拥有一支对冲基金。

    译者：早稻米

    A source involved in the decision-making explains in to me thusly: "The concept that there were informational advantages, all of course legal, that would help each of the businesses to perform better than they would as a standalone." For example, Bain's private equity group might identify potential market dislocations that the public equities team could trade against either short or long (it's unclear how often, if ever, that theory was put into practice).

    Conversely, Brookside could provide in-house public equities research that Bain otherwise would need to get from third-party analysts. There obviously were large legal firewalls when it came to things like pending take-private transactions or other non-public information for listed companies, but the justification for launching Brookside inside of Bain was synergistic in nature.

    Brookside also helped further institutionalize Bain Capital – establishing a method for creating affiliates that later would include Sankaty Advisors (credit) and Absolute Return Capital (absolute returns). Today the group manages over $7 billion in assets.

    Romney would be Brookside's sole owner until leaving Bain in February 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, although he still had millions of dollars tied up in Brookside funds as of his most recent financial disclosures.

    None of this is some huge secret. Brookside is mentioned on Bain Capital's website, although you need a client password to actually enter the Brookside section. But it's one of those things that has been largely ignored by both sides on the campaign trail, at least so far.

    Considering that a President Romney would be asked to appoint regulators who oversee hedge funds, or to sign/veto new hedge fund-related regulations, it's worth remembering that he used to own one.