雙語閱讀：假如你能做五小時的億萬
來源：新浪教育發(fā)布時間：2010-04-08
當(dāng)保羅•費(fèi)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(shí)是一個非常吉利的數(shù)字，而且是將近890億美元。
當(dāng)然，這是SunTrust Bank的一個技術(shù)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(fā)生過類似的事。
費(fèi)舍爾說，你說說看，880億美元，我能用這筆錢干點(diǎn)什么呢？他有佛羅里達(dá)主題公園的珠寶特許經(jīng)銷權(quán)。他說，或許有幾個我們這樣的人，就能讓 SunTrust Bank傾覆。
費(fèi)舍爾還有其他的想法。在錯誤改正之前，他問SunTrust的一名業(yè)務(wù)代表，在這筆錢被銀行追回之前，他是否可以把它轉(zhuǎn)到一個生息帳戶，把利息捐給慈善機(jī)構(gòu)�？偫⒂�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(dāng)了五個小時的億萬富翁。
這類銀行失誤經(jīng)常發(fā)生。不過費(fèi)舍爾提出了一個有趣的問題：如果你真的擁有890億美元達(dá)五個小時，你會怎么辦？
你會拿這筆錢做什么？規(guī)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。
