????那么高盛公司在金融危機最為肆虐的時候到底陷入了多大的麻煩呢：這個麻煩價值24億美元。因為假如當初巴菲特是從公開市場買入同等市值普通股的話，減去巴菲特的收益，高盛公司可省下24億美元。在美聯(lián)儲（Federal Reserve）最近一次壓力測試中，高盛排名靠后。因此，這筆資金可能是高盛現(xiàn)在最想要回來的。

????最終，高盛公司搬起石頭砸自己的腳，犧牲自己的利益替巴菲特——它最好的客戶和股東之一——帶來了一筆回報豐厚的交易。它甚至還糊里糊涂不知道原因何在。當初由于市場急需信心提振，巴菲特投資高盛被解讀對該行以及整個美國銀行業(yè)所投的信任票。交易沒有馬上顯靈。但是我敢肯定，當時高盛公司和巴菲特本人都把這種解讀當作是他們達成交易的意義所在。至于巴菲特本人，作為唱多市場的領軍人物之一，當初他為什么會看上了這點甜頭呢？這就不得而知了。

????究其原因，除了鐘愛櫻桃可樂和淳樸的鄉(xiāng)村范兒之外，也許股神還善于殺價。也可能是因為高盛在2008年9月下旬就已經(jīng)岌岌可危了，而公司高管和巴菲特你知我知。兩個原因隨便你挑，反正我信第二個。

????譯者：默默

????So how much trouble was Goldman in at the height of the financial crisis: $2.4 billion worth. That's how much extra the bank paid Buffett above what he would have earned if he had just bought the shares on the open market. Goldman recently came out toward the bottom of the Federal Reserve stress test, so that's probably capital it would like to have back now.

????In the end, Goldman gave a sweetheart deal to one of its best clients, and his shareholders, at the expense of its own. And it's not even clear why. Buffett's investment in Goldman was seen as a vote of confidence in the firm and U.S. banks in general at a time when the market needed it. It didn't work immediately. But I'm sure both Goldman and Buffett saw that as the real point of the deal. And since one of the biggest individual benefactors of a rising market is Buffett himself, it's not exactly clear why he would have needed such sweeteners.

????It could be that despite the Cherry Coke and down-home charm, Buffett drives a hard bargain. Or could be that in late September 2008, things were turning ugly at Goldman, and both the firm's executives and Buffett knew it. You can make your own pick. But I would probably go with the latter.