英文早读第134篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
I know that some of you are not particularly interested (and shouldn't be) in what is taking place on the financial stage. For those who are, I am enclosing a reprint of an unusually clear and simple article which lays bare just what is occurring on a mushrooming scale. Spectacular amounts of money are being made by those participating (whether as originators, top employees. professional advisors, investment bankers, stock speculators, etc… ) in the chain-letter type stock-promotion vogue. The game is being played by the gullible, the self-hypnotized, and the cynical. To create the proper illusions, it frequently requires accounting distortions (one particularly progressive entrepreneur told me he believed in "bold, imaginative accounting"), tricks of capitalization and
camouflage of the true nature of the operating businesses involved. The end product is popular, respectable and immensely profitable (I'll let the philosophers figure in which order those adjectives should be placed).
我知道你们中有些人对金融市场正在发生的事情并不是特别感兴趣（也不应该）。对于那些感兴趣的人，我随信附上一篇异常清晰简洁的文章的重印件，它直白地揭示了正大规模发生的事情。那些参与击鼓传花式股票推销热潮的人（无论是作为发起者、高层员工、专业顾问、投资银行家、股票投机者等等）都赚得盆满钵满。这场游戏的参与者是易上当受骗的人、自我催眠的人以及玩世不恭的人。为了营造出合理的假象，往往需要在账目上做手脚（一位特别激进的企业家曾告诉我，他信奉“大胆、富有想象力的会计手段”），运用资本化的伎俩以及掩盖所涉及经营业务的真实性质。最终的产物是广受欢迎、受人尊敬且利润丰厚（至于这几个形容词的排列顺序，就留待哲学家们去琢磨吧）。
Quite candidly, our own performance has been substantially improved on an indirect basis because of the fall out from such activities. To create an ever widening circle of chain letters requires increasing amounts of corporate raw material and this has caused many intrinsically cheap (and not so cheap) stocks to come to life. When we have been the owners of such stocks, we have reaped market rewards much more promptly than might otherwise have been the case. The appetite for such companies, however, tends to substantially diminish the number of fundamentally attractive investments which remain.
坦率地说，由于这类活动所产生的附带影响，我们自身的业绩在间接层面其实是大幅提升的。要形成一个不断扩大的击鼓传花链条，就需要越来越多的公司原始素材，这使得许多原本就很廉价（以及并非那么廉价）的股票活跃了起来。当我们持有这类股票时，我们收割市场回报的速度比原本可能的情况要快得多。然而，对这类公司的追捧倾向大幅减少剩余的那些从根本上具有吸引力的投资项目的数量。
I believe the odds are good that, when the stock market and business history of this period is being written, the phenomenon described in Mr. May's article will be regarded as of major importance, and perhaps characterized as a mania. You should realize, however, that his "The Emperor Has No Clothes" approach is at odds (or dismissed with a “SO What?” or an "Enjoy, Enjoy”) with the views of most investment banking houses and currently successful investment managers. We live in an investment world, populated not by those who must be logically persuaded to believe, but by the hopeful, credulous and greedy, grasping for an excuse to believe.
我相信，当这段时期的股市和商业史被书写时，梅先生文章中所描述的现象很有可能会被视为至关重要的，甚至可能会被定性为一种狂热现象。不过，你们应该明白，他那种“皇帝的新衣”的处理方式与大多数投资银行以及当下成功的投资经理们的观点是相悖的（或者会被他们以“那又怎样？”或者“好你喜欢你就享受吧”这样的态度不屑一顾）。我们生活在一个投资世界里，这个世界里充斥的不是那些必须经过逻辑说服才会相信的人，而是那些满怀希望、轻信他人且贪婪的人，他们急切地寻找着一个相信的借口。
Finally, for a magnificent account of the current financial scene, you should hurry out and get a copy of “The Money Game” by Adam Smith. It is loaded with insights and supreme wit. (Note: Despite my current “Support Your Local Postmaster” drive, I am not enclosing the book with this letter - it retails for 6.95.)
最后，要想深入了解当前的金融状况，你们应该赶紧去买一本亚当·斯密所著的《金钱游戏》。书中满是深刻的见解和绝妙的智慧。（注：尽管我目前正在开展“支持你们当地的邮递员”的活动，但我不会随这封信附上这本书——它的零售价是6.95美元。）
14.bare：裸体的；光秃秃的；荒芜的
15.originator：创始人
16.speculator：投机商
17.vogue：时尚；流行；风尚
18.gullible：轻信的；易受骗的
19.hypnotize：着迷；迷住；催眠
20.cynical：愤世嫉俗的；怀疑的；悲观的
21.illusion：幻觉；错觉
22.distortion：扭曲；失真；变形
23.bold：大胆的；粗体的；明显的
24.imaginative：富有想象力的
25.camouflage：伪装；掩饰
26.immensely：极大的
27.philosopher：思想家
28.candidly：坦率地说
29.raw：未经加工的；未经处理的
30.intrinsically：固有的；内在的；本质的
31.reap：收割；收获；取得
32.appetite：食欲；胃口；欲望
33.mania：狂热；狂躁
34.credulous：轻信的；易受骗的
35.grasping：贪婪的；贪心的
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