resignation from A.I.G.

众所周知的一封信，致A.I.G.高管的辞职信，今天在阮一峰的blog里看到的。觉得这封信的文法不错，很值得借鉴，所以顺手一摘，好提醒自己要时刻注意学习E文啊~阮一峰原文很精彩~（详情请点击）
话不多说，看看这封鼎鼎大名的resignation吧~

【正文】

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

亲爱的 Mr. Liddy，

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

我很遗憾地在此递交辞呈。我决定从“AIG 金融产品部”（译者注：后文简称AIG-FP）离职。我希望您能抽出一些时间，将整封信看完。在我详细叙述辞职的理由之前，请允许我说一些心里话：

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

我对于自己在 AIG-FP 的商品与权益部门所做的一切，感到自豪。导致AIG大幅亏损的 CDS 交易，我没有以任何形式参与，或是应该对此负责。现在 AIG-FP 的400多位员工中，和此事有关的人员屈指可数。大部分应该负责的人都早已离职，而且显然躲过了如今外界公众的咆哮。

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

经过了12个月的辛勤工作——其间公司多次跟我们保证，我们将在2009年3月获得年终奖——现在，我们这些 AIG-FP 部门的员工，感觉自己被公司出卖了，而且还遭受到政府和国会的不公平对待。作为对此的回应，我准备离开公司，并且把我得到的税后奖金，全数捐献给因为这次金融风暴受害的人。对于这笔钱，我一分钱都不留。

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

在做出这个决定前，我已经为公司奉献了11年高质量的服务。但是如今我没有办法在这种不正常的环境下继续善尽我的职责，而且公司也不再为此付我薪水了。和你一样，我也被要求以年薪1美元的代价工作，而且我也同意了，因为我认为我不只对公司有责任，而且也对提供援助的政府有责任。但是现在两者都让我失望了，我没有办法再每天花上10个、12个、甚至 14个小时，不陪伴家人，却为了让我失望的人的利益继续工作。

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

你和我从来没有单独见面或交谈过，所以我想和你谈谈我自己的一些背景。我的父母都是学校教师，我是在钢铁厂里长大的，那些厂如今都倒闭了。我努力学习，被麻省理工学院录取，靠奖学金读完了大学。我在自己身上实现了美国梦。

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

1998年，我作为一个债券交易员，加入了AIG。随后，成为了商品和权益交易部门的主管。在危机发生的的数年前，被提升为商品部门的业务开发主管。在这段时间内，我的部门持续盈利，大部分的年头都能获利超过1亿美金。最近，在 AIG-FP 解体的过程中，我也是主要负责把声誉良好的商品指数部门卖给瑞士银行的人。如你所知，类似这样把业务单位卖掉的交易，对于AIG的生存、以及将来偿还美国纳税人的援助，是非常必要的。

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

显而易见，我的薪资报酬主要来自于我们部门的高盈利。我从来没有从现在导致公司巨额亏损的 CDS 交易中领过1分钱。而且，我和许多 AIG-FP 部门的同事一样，在这些亏损的 CDS 交易中，损失了不少毕生积蓄，因为我们都把推迟支付的工资，投资在 AIG-FP中。如同广大的美国纳税人一样，我们从未从CDS交易中获利，却深受其害。

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

我对你目前在AIG的角色，抱着崇高的敬意。因为在CDS交易上，你和我一样无辜，而且在国家需要你的时候，你勇敢地站出来响应政府的号召，但是现在却因此而饱受抨击。

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

你也相当清楚，这个部门内大部分的员工都和这些巨额亏损毫无关联。你没有站在我们一边，让我感到相当失望。上周三，你面对国会议员和媒体关于我们年终奖的不实指控、以及后来纽约检察官发表一些无事实根据的评论的时候，却没有办法挺身而出为我们辩解。我们AIG-FP部门的同仁深深感觉自己被背叛了。

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

去年10月，当你知道这个年终奖的发放计划时，我猜想，你认为AIG-FP部门的人员需要一些诱因才能够留下来。而且，这个年终奖，既合乎道义又有实际效果，应该得到执行。这大概就是公司在那个月里，先后三次跟我们保证会履行诺言，发放年终奖的原因。

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.”

这大概也是你决定让这些年终奖提早3个月发放的原因。这个决定让我们感受到你对我们的支持，这一点都不像一个真心认为这些合约“难以接受”的人会做的事情。(译按：AIG CEO 在被炮轰的时候，曾经这样形容这些年终奖合约。)

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

最后，这大概也是你在3月13日最终授权支付这些年终奖的原因。

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

在过去6个月你领导AIG的期间，你从没有要求我们修改、重谈、或是放弃这笔年终奖，直到你出席国会听证会的数小时前。

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

我想你刚开始的想法是，既然这些年终奖原则上没错、在财务上也说得过去，那么应该给予尊重。但是这个做法现在看来在政治上不讨好。那么显然，你要么是误解了同联储、纽约州检察官、国会议员、财政部之间的成文或不成文的协议，要么就是不够坚定，无法抵挡这些政治压力。

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

现在，你要求 AIG-FP 部门的同仁缴回这些他们应得的年终奖。你可以想像，我们对你破坏了大家对公司的信任是多么怒火中烧，怨声载道。

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

既然我们大部分员工都是无辜的，罪恶感当然不是让我们缴回年终奖的动机。我们勤奋工作了12个月，现在理应按照合同被支付薪酬。这就好像一个水管工修好了水管以后，一个粗心的电匠却把房子烧毁了，水管工不应该被责怪一样，我们这些员工也是无辜的。

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

过去六个月当中，许多部门内的同仁，因为这份年终奖的缘故，拒绝了许多比 AIG 更稳定的工作机会。 AIG高层一直不断保证，这笔年终奖会如期支付。同仁们现在因为被骗，而感到非常愤怒，不愿意为了帮你的忙就把奖金缴回公司。

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

现在唯一让他们缴回奖金的动机其实只有恐惧。检察官已经放话，威胁要公布所有得到奖金的“可耻的人的姓名”。可是，检察官的正确做法，理应是在法庭上处理案件，而不是诉诸媒体。

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

所以，我该怎么办？这不是轻松的决定。我知道，在此前经济繁荣的时候，由于我的辛勤工作，我的生活要比大多数人过得优渥，我也仍然有足够的储蓄让我的家人不至于在这次风暴中受到毁灭性的打击。有些人可能会批评我们这行业的人报酬过高，我对此没有异议。

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

这就是我决定把税后奖金100%地捐出来、帮助受到金融风暴打击的人的原因。这不是什么避税花招；我只是希望，我最低限度能够对自己的红利奖金应该怎么使用做主，而不是听任这些钱消失在AIG 复杂的帐务中，或是消失在政府预算中。我们的年终奖吸引了太多大众的注意力，让大家没办法把目光放在需要帮助的人身上。我希望能够尽点力量，帮到那些真正需要帮助的人。

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

3月16日，我收到了公司支付的税后年终奖，总计$742,006.40。因为目前相关税务和法规还不确定，所以我实际捐赠的金额可能会小于这个数字。事实上，很可能是远小于，如果国会现在关于这笔奖金的90%惩罚性税法通过的话。总之，当我把这笔钱尽数捐出以后，你会立刻收到收款对象和捐款明细。

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

这个决定对我来说是对的。我祝其它AIG-FP的同仁好运，希望他们能够心情平和地在这个困难的处境下做出决定，但愿他们不要被恐惧的阴影围绕。

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Liddy先生，我也祝你好运，祝你能够实践把红利退回给政府的承诺，也祝你能够继续把AIG整顿好，尤其是那些不好处理的 CDS 交易。短期内，我会继续帮忙确保没有什么问题发生，但是在这周发生的事情以后，我没办法再留下来很长时间了，因为有太多嫌隙和不信任。我不知道你将如何看待我的离职信，但是我想纽约检察官应该会感到欣慰，因为我是自愿离职的，而不是如他所威胁的让他“扫地出门”。

Sincerely,

Jake DeSantis 敬上

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写的文笔很不错，翻译的也很精辟。总之是好文啊~
对于这场金融危机本身和A.I.G.集团的credit default swaps事件，我还是不发表什么评论了。对于经济，本人实在无任何高见。还是自认才疏学浅了。
不过对于A.I.G.的gossip，我还是略知一二的，著名的A.I.G.集团，这对于熟悉喜爱英超赛事的朋友们一定不会陌生。是谁在红魔的胸前飘扬~
bingo！A.I.G.集团赞助了Manchester United，是胸前球衣赞助商，ahahaha~
前段时间，SAMSUNG刚刚以天价赞助了Chelsea，4000多万米呢，A.I.G.对于曼联投下的赞助费也超过了4000万，嗯，在现在这样的经济世道下，这笔钱看来还是不能省下啊~
F1也都戴上了三千万的预算帽，当然了，这只是研发经费，还不包括赛车身上的各种广告。我想，今后的FIA应该颁布一项法令：严格限制F1赛车的广告面积。全面推广Brown-GP仅维珍集团单广告模式或已经不复存在的Honda地球车模式。hoho~不过这样看来，带来的结果就是：各集团对于单广告的赞助费用恶性竞争……
#￥……%……*&%#￥%￥#@%￥商业啊商业啊，经济啊经济啊，真是搞不懂了，恕我愚笨。