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Fantasy finally meets reality on Wall Street.
幻想最終在華爾街遇到了現實。
Two years ago the stockmarket was in the grip of speculative mania.
兩年前，股市還處于投機狂潮之中。
Shares in GameStop, a struggling video-game retailer, hit an all-time intraday high of $483 on January 28th 2021, up from around $5 at the beginning of the month.
2021年1月28日，苦苦掙扎的電子游戲零售商“游戲驛站”的股價從月初的約5美元漲至483美元，創下歷史新高。
Retail traders co-ordinated in a Reddit forum and snapped up shares using brokerage apps like Robinhood.
散戶們在Reddit的一個板塊上協商一致，使用Robinhood等交易軟件搶購股票。
Empowered by technology, newcomers piled into GameStop, ostensibly because the beleaguered chain was one Wall Street had heavily sold short (ie, bet that the firm's shares would fall in price).
在技術的推動下，大量散戶參與了游戲驛站的股票交易，表面原因是這家陷入困境的連鎖店是被華爾街嚴重做空的公司（即預測該公司的股價將會下跌）。
Short-sellers were the villains.
做空者罪大惡極。
When GameStop spiked they lost their shirts.
如果游戲驛站股價飆升，他們就會損失慘重。
What could be better?
還有比這更好的事嗎？
The question at the time was how much of this would endure.
當時的問題在于，這樣的情況能持續多久。
Manias are as old as the hills, but this one seemed different: it was enabled by new technology that wasn't going anywhere.
人類的強烈欲望并不是什么新鮮事，但這一次似乎不同：它是在不會消失的新技術的幫助下實現的。
For a time, the GameStop crew were unstoppable.
一段時間內，游戲驛站的支持者勢不可擋。
They pumped up prices for companies that had attracted interest from short-sellers, such as AMC, a cinema chain, and Bed, Bath & Beyond, a home-goods retailer.
他們抬高了做空者感興趣的公司的股票價格，比如連鎖影院美國電影院線和家居用品零售商Bed，Bath&Beyond。
Battle-hardened short-sellers, including Andrew Left of Citron, a research firm, threw in the towel.
包括香櫞研究公司的安德魯·萊福在內的很多久經沙場的做空者都認輸了。
Melvin Capital, a firm that had shorted GameStop, which the Reddit hordes made the cartoon villain of the saga, decided to close its doors in May 2022.
梅爾文資本曾做空游戲驛站，被Reddit用戶塑造成了這一傳奇故事中卡通反派，受事件影響，這家公司決定在2022年5月關閉。
When interest rates are zero the price of a dream can be infinite.
當利率為零時，夢想的價格可能沒有上限。
Higher rates change the dynamic.
利率的上升改變了這種動態。
Last year was therefore rough on the meme-portfolio, but its fans are nothing if not resilient, even when making losses.
因此，去年對meme投資組合來說是艱難的一年，但它的粉絲具有極大的韌性，即使是在虧損的情況下也是如此。
Matthias Hanauer of Robeco, an asset manager, tracks the most heavily shorted stocks in the MSCI Developed Index, a benchmark of global shares.
荷寶的資產管理人馬蒂亞斯·哈瑙爾追蹤了全球股市基準指數，即摩根士丹利資本國際公司發達指數中被嚴重做空的股票。
Since December 31st 2020, a month before GameStop shares peaked, they have underperformed the market by around 15 percentage points.
自2020年12月31日以來，也就是游戲驛站股價達到峰值的前一個月，該公司股票的表現落后大市約15個百分點。
If 2022 was a reckoning with professional investors, then 2023 will be a reckoning with reality.
如果2022年是對專業投資者的報復，那么2023年將是對現實的報復。
A slowing economy is going to break many of the companies meme-stockers profess to adore.
經濟放緩將摧毀許多meme股股民宣稱熱愛的公司。
Monetary tightening slows the economy with a lag.
貨幣緊縮緩慢地減緩經濟發展。
As conditions worsen, struggling retailers, such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, are floundering.
隨著情況的惡化，Bed，Bath&Beyond等苦苦掙扎的零售商處境更加艱難。
On January 26th the shower-curtain purveyor was served a slew of default notices by its bankers.
1月26日，為這家浴簾供應商提供資金的銀行向其發出了一系列違約通知。
Reuters, a newswire, has reported it may soon file for bankruptcy.
新聞通訊社路透社報道稱，該公司可能很快會申請破產。
The end of more than a decade of rock-bottom interest rates is also beginning to reveal corporate misdeeds and sometimes outright fraud.
長達十幾年的利率極低的時代終結，企業的不端行為，甚至是徹頭徹尾的欺詐行為也開始暴露出來。
"Capital was free for 12 years," says a former Wall Street tycoon.
“資本在這12年是免費的，”一位前華爾街大亨表示。
"We have no idea about all the places capital went that it should not have gone."
“我們不知道資本都去了哪些不該去的地方?！?/p>
Some initial pockets of misallocation have become apparent.
原本不當配置的情況得以顯露。
The pricking of the bubble in cryptocurrency markets has exposed businesses including Celsius and FTX, the founders of which have been charged with defrauding their investors.
加密貨幣市場的泡沫破裂，讓包括Celsius和FTX在內的企業存在的問題暴露了出來，這兩家公司的創始人都被控對投資者進行欺詐。
