从羽毛球选手被取消比赛资格说起

Sport is littered with examples of players not trying their best at times in order to win. Swimmers and runners pace themselves. Tennis stars throw sets when they are down in order to save energy. Teams in tournaments know that where they finish in early rounds determines who they face later on. The truth is that fans often watch sportsmen deliberately underperforming.

体育界充斥着运动员为了最终获胜而在某个阶段不愿尽力的事例。游泳和田径选手可能放慢自己的节奏。网球明星在比分落后时可能放弃一局，以节省体力。参加竞标赛的团队明白，他们在最初几个回合的成绩，将决定他们在下一轮比赛中与哪一个队相遇。事实上，体育爱好者们常常看到运动员故意不尽力。

Hence the disgust over four badminton teams “not using one’s best efforts to win at the Olympics is doltish and inconsistent. And the issue extends well beyond sport. If the Chinese, South Korean and Indonesian teams were companies, for example, they would be applauded for eschewing short-term gains to deliver longer-term results. Last week, the Kay Review found that “short-termism is an underlying problem in UK equity markets.

因此，对于四对羽毛球选手在伦敦奥运会上“没有尽力赢得比赛的反感，是愚蠢和不一致的。这个问题远远超出体育的范畴。比如，如果这几对中国、韩国和印尼羽毛球选手是企业，他们将受到赞赏，因为他们为了实现更长期的佳绩而放弃短期收益。上周，约翰·凯的研究得出结论称，“短期主义是英国股市的一个根本问题。

But shareholders, like spectators, are also prone to inconsistency and confusion. Chief executives are often judged on quarterly performance. Investors generally lack patience. Facebook, say, is being sold off in part because of the heavy capital expenditure necessary to build a sustainable business – its capex-to-sales ratio last quarter was 35 per cent. Mark Zuckerberg could easily slash that to boost short-term profits.

但是，股东与观众一样，都容易前后不一和糊涂。人们常常根据季度业绩来评判首席执行官们。投资者通常缺乏耐心。例如，Facebook遭到抛售，在一定程度上就是因为该公司为了打造可持续的业务而加大资本开支力度，上一个季度，其资本支出对销售额比率达到35%。若要提升短期利润，马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)大可以削减资本支出。

A problem with this argument, however, is that long-termism is not always what it is cracked up to be either. The infinite time horizons of sovereign wealth funds can lead to investments that distort markets in which mere mortals operate. Qatar Holding, for example, is making a right mess of the merger between Glencoreand Xstrata, and does not seem to care that it has lost its dishdasha on investments in the likes of Barclaysand Credit Suisse.

不过，这个论点的问题在于，长期主义也未必像某些人吹嘘的那么英明。主权财富基金无止境的长远眼光，可能导致扭曲市场的投资，使凡人不能正常操作。比如，卡塔尔控股(Qatar Holding)正在给嘉能可(Glencore)与矿商超达(Xstrata)的合并案捣乱，而且似乎不在意自己在巴克莱银行(Barclays)和瑞信(Credit Suisse)等的投资近乎血本无归。

The Badminton World Federation should not have disqualified players for wanting to win gold. Investors have to be more balanced in their assessment of what victory means.

世界羽毛球联合会(Badminton World Federation)不应该取消那些想要夺金的运动员的资格。投资者在胜利意味着什么的问题上，则需要做出更加平衡的评估。

Lex专栏是由FT评论员联合撰写的短评，对全球经济与商业进行精辟分析