华尔街轮回：光环、财富与迷失的灵魂

    如果你住在纽约，你肯定熟悉华尔街青年才俊的标准形象：深色西装，宽领带，一丝不苟的发型，一副与娃娃脸极不相称的生意人派头。哦，对了，他们正在赚很多很多的钱。

    但事实证明，财富不是天上掉下来的。这份工作就是他们的生活。顶头上司就是他们的主人。iPhone一响，你的朋友就必须离开电影院，直奔办公室。

    在凯文•卢斯的最新佳作《华尔街的年轻人》(Young Money)一书中，一位华尔街高级经理人这样教导一位工作劲头十足的年轻人：“帮助这个世界固然很了不起，但你需要金钱激励。”按理说，这番话应该让我们感到震惊。但在许多了解金融世界真相的人士看来，这只不过证实了他们已有的看法。

    因此，目前还不清楚谁才是《华尔街的年轻人》瞄准的目标受众。纽约媒体界正在热议这本书，但对于那个世界（无论是财经记者，银行家自己，还是任何一位供职于曼哈顿、旧金山或波士顿的商界人士）来说，“年轻的银行家们过得并不开心”已经算不上什么新闻。卢斯描绘的图景或许真的会让许多远离权力中心的美国人感到震惊，受到启发，因为他们原本并不了解这一群体，不清楚这份工作并不那么光鲜的日常要求。但他们到底有多关心这档事？

    然而，《华尔街的年轻人》是一本非常有意思，毫无阅读障碍的好书，它会让你开怀大笑，但也有可能让你嗤之以鼻。切尔西对刚刚领到手的2.5万美元奖金很不满意。德里克进入金融界是因为，“我想让那帮认为我愚蠢到家的高中同学睁开狗眼，好好见识一下我的能耐。”他非常珍惜自己的“交易玩具”（“搞定，绝世大帅哥”是他庆贺大交易的口头禅），喜欢在睡觉前盯着它们看。J.P.时常播放说唱歌曲《早死快活》(Live Fast, Die Young)，以寻找灵感。但他听歌时戴着耳机，坐在办公桌旁，因为他总是独自一人，疲惫不堪地鼓捣各种数字，一直至深夜。

    如果卢斯有一个使命，那就是告诉美国人，华尔街“往上爬的人们”在熬到某个级别之前其实非常忙碌，沮丧且孤独，尤其是，累得要死。他们过着一种不健康的生活方式，无论是就身体，还是就情绪而言。卢斯笔下的主人公之一患上了一种残酷的疾病，这也许与他的工作压力不无关系。在工作的重压下，他们的许多关系轰然崩溃；这些年轻人一次又一次地取消与女友共进晚餐的约定。

    对所有这一切，你或许会翻个白眼，“唏嘘一番”。你或许会对那位大学毕业第一年就赚到了15万美元年薪、但过度劳累的22岁年轻人表示怜悯。卢斯承认，这条路是这些年轻人自己选的；在金融圈以外就职的同龄人看来，让银行家们倍感失望的年薪额简直就是天文数字。（“J.P.知道，普罗大众是不会同情他的，因为在其他行业，一位24岁的年轻人能拿到9万美元的年薪仍然是一个巨大的成就。”）但他通常不会就此发表评论。

    这本书的亮点之一是一段围绕德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)风险分析师朴秀珍（卢斯笔下8个主人公中仅有的两位女性之一）展开的讨论。这位乐观的卫尔斯利女子学院(Wellesley College)毕业生“很快就发现，她就职的风险管理部依然是男人的天下。”在朴秀珍所在的部门，只有她没有达到行政助理级别。她的经历给了卢斯一个机会，来讨论华尔街女性的处境这个重要的议题。他解释说，“女性在金融职场的进展一直比表面看起来的情形更加微弱，”随即列举了详实的数据证实自己的这种判断。

    If you live in New York City, you know the young Wall Street type: dark suit, wide-knot tie, meticulous hair, and an all-business demeanor that contradicts the baby face. Oh, and they're making a ton of money.

    But it turns out that wealth isn't free. The job is their life. The hours are excessive -- and not limited to the workweek. Their superiors own them. One iPhone ping and your friend must leave the movie and head to her office.

    At one point in Young Money, the well-written new book by Kevin Roose, a senior associate at a Wall Street firm lectures a young go-getter: "Helping the world is great and all, but you need to be motivated by money." We're meant to find such a quote shocking. But many who follow the world of finance will see it as confirming what they already thought.

    Thus, it's unclear who the audience really is for Young Money. The New York media world is buzzing about it, but the revelation that young bankers are unhappy does not constitute news for that world -- neither for financial journalists, nor for the bankers themselves, nor for any person working in business in Manhattan, San Francisco, or Boston. The picture Roose paints may indeed shock and enlighten the legions of people in America who live away from the power centers and are thus not already acquainted with young bankers or aware of the less glamorous, day-to-day demands of the job. But how much do they really care?

    Nevertheless, Young Money is a fun and fast read that will make you laugh out loud, or perhaps scoff instead. Chelsea isn't satisfied with her $25,000 bonus. Derrick entered finance because, "I want all those people in high school who thought I was stupid to fucking suck it." He cherishes his "deal toys" ("clear, Lucite hunks" commemorating big deals) and likes to look at them before bed. J.P. plays the rap song "Live Fast, Die Young" for inspiration -- but he's listening on headphones, at his desk, where he's crunching numbers into the night, alone, tired.

    If Roose has a mission, it's to inform America that until they hit a certain job level, Wall Street's ladder-climbers are in fact harried, frustrated, lonely, and, above all, dead tired. They lead an unhealthy lifestyle, physically and emotionally. One of Roose's subjects develops a brutal disease, perhaps not unrelated to his work stress. Many of their relationships collapse under the weight of their work; dinners out with girlfriends are cancelled night after night.

    Your reaction to all of this may be "boo-hoo" and an eye-roll. Pity the poor, overworked 22-year-old making $150,000 in her first year out of college. Roose acknowledges that these people have chosen this path, and that the sums they find disappointing are staggering to most of their non-banking peers. ("J.P. knew he wouldn't find much sympathy on Main Street, where being paid $90,000 as a twenty-four-year-old was still a tremendous accomplishment.") But in general, he resists from commentary.

    One highlight is the discussion around Soo-jin Park, a risk analyst at Deutsche Bank (DB) and one of only two women among Roose's eight subjects. An optimistic Wellesley College grad, Soo-jin "quickly discovered that her risk management group was still a man's world." She is the only female in her division who is not an administrative assistant. Her experience affords Roose the opportunity to discuss the important issue of women on Wall Street. "Women's progress in finance has been somewhat shallower than it appears," he explains, backing it up with numbers.