A couple of years ago, I wrote a book about the financial crisis for the American and British markets. Before publication, I was told I would need to make tweaks to cater for differing transatlantic tastes. So for the UK edition I included long passages about Northern Rock (the failed British bank). And in the American edition I replaced that with passages on Countrywide (the US mortgage giant). So far, so unsurprising. But the real fun erupted when I wrote the preface. Initially I planned to start the book by admitting that I was not a true expert on high finance: instead I crashed into this world in 2005, after a background spent in journalism-cum-social anthropology – making me a well-intentioned amateur, but without complete knowledge.
两年前，我为美国与英国市场写了一本关于金融危机的书。出版前我被告知，我需要做一些微调，以迎合大西洋两岸日益不同的口味。所以，在面向英国的版本内，我加入了大段打断有关北岩银行（Northern Rock，已倒闭的英国银行）的章节。而在美国的版本中，我则将这些章节换成了有关Countrywide（美国住房抵押贷款巨头）的内容。到此，一切还算平淡无奇。但在写序言时，真正有趣的事情发生了。起初，我计划以承认自己并非真正的复杂金融专家开篇：相反，我是在拥有新闻与社会人类学背景之后，于2005年闯入这个领域的——使我成了一个善意的业余爱好者，但没有完整的相关知识。