This time last year, a hot topic for debate was the looming presence of sovereign wealth funds. Most people had never heard of them until late 2007 when they started putting capital into banks that were looking wobbly. Wobbly banks loomed large too, mainly thanks to an announcement from Societe Generale on the Wednesday of the 2008 meeting that a rogue trader had cost it a lot of money. But there was no shortage of parties, and certainly no need to spend any money on feeding myself.
去年此時,人們爭論的一個熱點話題是剛剛嶄露頭角的主權財富基金。2007年底主權財富基金開始向看起來搖搖晃晃的銀行注資之前,多數人還從來沒有聽說過此類基金。搖搖晃晃的銀行也很惹眼,主要是因爲法國興業銀行(Societe Generale)在2008年年會的週三宣佈,一名流氓交易員害該行損失了一大筆資金。但宴會仍然源源不斷,自然我也就不用爲喫的花一個子兒。