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雙語閱讀：假如你能做五小時的億萬

來源：新浪教育發布時間：2010-04-08

　　當保羅•費舍爾(Paul Fischer)周五晚查詢銀行帳戶余額時，他遇到了一個驚喜：他的帳戶余額一下子變成了88,888,888,888.88美元。這確實是一個非常吉利的數字，而且是將近890億美元。

　　當然，這是SunTrust Bank的一個技術性失誤造成的，銀行很快就改正了錯誤。其他人的帳戶也可能發生過類似的事。

　　費舍爾說，你說說看，880億美元，我能用這筆錢干點什么呢？他有佛羅里達主題公園的珠寶特許經銷權。他說，或許有幾個我們這樣的人，就能讓 SunTrust Bank傾覆。

　　費舍爾還有其他的想法。在錯誤改正之前，他問SunTrust的一名業務代表，在這筆錢被銀行追回之前，他是否可以把它轉到一個生息帳戶，把利息捐給慈善機構。總利息將有730多萬美元。

　　銀行說，不可以。

　　周六早晨之前，這筆錢就從他的帳戶中消失了。

　　他說，都沒了，我又變窮了，我當了五個小時的億萬富翁。

　　這類銀行失誤經常發生。不過費舍爾提出了一個有趣的問題：如果你真的擁有890億美元達五個小時，你會怎么辦？

　　你會拿這筆錢做什么？規則是，五個小時之后，你必須把錢退回去──無論你用這筆錢買了什么或投資了什么項目，你也都必須退回去。

　　When Paul Fischer checked his bank account Friday night, he had a happy surprise. His balance had exploded to $88,888,888,888.88. A very lucky number indeed, and close to $89 billion。

　　Of course, the balance was a technical error by SunTrust Bank, which quickly fixed the problem. It also may have occurred in other accounts。

　　“You say, Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?” said Mr. Fischer, who owns a jewelry concessionaire for Florida theme parks. “Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank。”

　　Mr. Fischer had other ideas as well. Before the problem was fixed, he asked a SunTrust rep if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account until it was reclaimed and donate the interest to charity. Total interest: more than $7.3 million。

　　The bank said no。

　　The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning。

　　“It's all gone. I'm poor again,”he said. “I was a billionaire for five hours。”

　　This kind of bank error happens frequently. But Mr. Fischer raises an interesting question: What if, for five hours, you truly did have $89 billion?

　　What would you do with the money? The ground rules are that you would have to give the money back - and whatever you bought or invested with it - after five hours。

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