When Paul Fischer checked his bank account Friday night, he had a happy surprise. His balance had exploded to $88,888,888,888.88. A very lucky number indeed, and close to $89 billion.
當保羅·費舍爾周五晚查詢銀行帳戶余額時,他遇到了一個驚喜:他的帳戶余額一下子變成了88,888,888,888.88美元。這確實是一個非常吉利 的數字,而且是將近890億美元。
Of course, the balance was a technical error by SunTrust Bank, which quickly fixed the problem. It also may have occurred in other accounts.
當然,這是SunTrust Bank的一個技術性失誤造成的,銀行很快就改正了錯誤。其他人的帳戶也可能發生過類似的事。
'You say, 'Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?'' said Mr. Fischer, who owns a jewelry concessionaire for Florida theme parks. 'Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank.'
費舍爾說,你說說看,880億美元,我能用這筆錢干點什么呢?他有佛羅里達主題公園的珠寶特許經銷權。他說,或許有幾個我們這樣的人,就能讓SunTrust Bank傾覆。

Mr. Fischer had other ideas as well. Before the problem was fixed, he asked a SunTrust rep if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account until it was reclaimed and donate the interest to charity. Total interest: more than $7.3 million.
費舍爾還有其他的想法。在錯誤改正之前,他問SunTrust的一名業務代表,在這筆錢被銀行追回之前,他是否可以把它轉到一個生息帳戶,把利息捐給慈善機構??偫⒂?30多萬美元。
The bank said no.
銀行說,不可以。
The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning.
周六早晨之前,這筆錢就從他的帳戶中消失了。
'It's all gone. I'm poor again,' he said. 'I was a billionaire for five hours.'
他說,都沒了,我又變窮了,我當了五個小時的億萬富翁。
This kind of bank error happens frequently. But Mr. Fischer raises an interesting question: What if, for five hours, you truly did have $89 billion?
這類銀行失誤經常發生。不過費舍爾提出了一個有趣的問題:如果你真的擁有890億美元達五個小時,你會怎么辦?
What would you do with the money? The ground rules are that you would have to give the money back - and whatever you bought or invested with it - after five hours.
你會拿這筆錢做什么?規則是,五個小時之后,你必須把錢退回去──無論你用這筆錢買了什么或投資了什么項目,你也都必須退回去。