I get talking to a fund manager at a party. He has the complexion of the one per cent: somehow matte and glossy at the same time. His biggest investor is a Gulf state, which I could have guessed. The second-biggest? The municipal pension scheme of a city that isn’t in England’s top 10 by population. At a similar event, one guest is treated with more deference than Eleanor of Aquitaine. She must represent a Faang. Or a sovereign wealth fund. But no: another provincial pension pot.
我在一次聚會上和一位基金經理聊了起來。他的膚色有著那種「百分之一」階層的特徵：不知爲何既啞光又有光澤。他最大的投資者是一個海灣國家，這一點我倒是早有預料。那第二大投資者呢？竟然是一個人口未進英格蘭前十的城市的市政養老金計劃。在類似的場合，有一位嘉賓受到的禮遇甚至超過了阿基坦的埃莉諾(Eleanor of Aquitaine)。我猜她一定代表著某家FAANG公司，或者某個主權財富基金。但其實不是：她同樣代表的是另一個地方養老金池。（譯者注：阿基坦的埃莉諾是歐洲中世紀最具傳奇色彩的女性之一。她的一生橫跨十二世紀絕大部分時間，兩度成爲王后、兩度參與十字軍東征、兩度掀起王位繼承戰爭，留下了「歐洲祖母」的稱號。）