In summer 2008 we found an apartment in Paris. But getting a mortgage was tricky. French banks wanted proof that we’d be able to keep paying no matter what. We showed them some shares. Shares can fall, they scoffed. Then a bank sent me to a cardiologist. He turned me inside out, and was already ushering me wordlessly out of the door when I asked him what he’d found. “It’s OK,” he mumbled. He wasn’t working for me. He was working for the bank, which wanted to know whether I might live long enough to pay off a 25-year mortgage.
2008年夏季，我們在巴黎看中了一座公寓。但獲得貸款非常困難。法國的銀行要求我們證明，無論發生什麼情況，我們都有能力還款。我們出示了一些股票。它們嗤之以鼻：股票可能下跌。後來有家銀行讓我去見一位心臟病專家。那位專家對我進行了徹底檢查，我問他發現什麼問題沒，這時候他正一言不發地引我出門，嘴裏嘟囔了一句：「沒問題。」他不是爲我工作，他爲銀行工作——銀行想知道我能否活得夠長，可以還清25年的貸款。
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