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，我们在巴黎看中了一座公寓。但获得贷款非常困难。法国的银行要求我们证明，无论发生什么情况，我们都有能力还款。我们出示了一些股票。它们嗤之以鼻：股票可能下跌。后来有家银行让我去见一位心脏病专家。那位专家对我进行了彻底检查，我问他发现什么问题没，这时候他正一言不发地引我出门，嘴里嘟囔了一句：“没问题。”他不是为我工作，他为银行工作——银行想知道我能否活得够长，可以还清25年的贷款。
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