华尔街迎来新女王(节选）

    华尔街历史上不乏赫赫有名的公司起伏沉落，丧失它们引以为豪的传统。在过去的20年中，像所罗门兄弟（Salomon Brothers）、E.F. Hutton和Paine Webber等公司都被大银行收购，一度响当当的招牌自此退出历史舞台。金融危机期间，这个趋势更是加速发展，雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）和贝尔斯登（Bear Stearns）这样鼎鼎有名的公司也轰然崩塌。就在今年，摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）给拥有半个世纪历史的美邦（Smith Barney）品牌划上了句号。

    传奇市政债券公司Lebenthal & Co.也曾遭遇了同样的命运，2005年被美林（Merrill Lynch）收购。这看起来是金融编年史上最离奇、最有传奇色彩的一个品牌的终结。如果你接近中年（或岁数更大一些），你或许还记得由“为债券而生”的吉姆•莱本索尔担任主角的一系列电视广告。他数十年如一日地在地铁和垃圾填埋场等各色地点一直用他急促的音调教育美国投资者投资债券，甚至声称“债券就是我的孩子！”

    经过一番涅槃重生，近年来Lebenthal & Co.已成为一家欣欣向荣的独立公司。现年48岁的亚历桑德拉•莱本索尔是这家公司的CEO和主要所有者。她是吉姆的女儿，她的祖父母于1925年创立了这家公司，如今她已经是公司的第三代掌门人。眼下，她堪称是华尔街最受瞩目的女性。她不像一般的女性金融高管那样穿着稳重，言辞谨慎。

    莱本索尔是一流的交际专家，经常出现在曼哈顿社会版上，摩根大通（ J.P. Morgan Chase）债券王吉米•李、摩根士丹利经纪业务主管格雷格•弗莱明以及前Oxygen Media公司CEO杰拉尔•莱伯恩是她的客户或导师。莱本索尔还是私密社交圈Kappa Beta Phi的非正式女家长和主招募人，该社交圈的成员构成了金融界名人榜。而且她还继承了家族衣钵，承担起市政债券行业的主要发言人和捍卫者的角色。

    The history of Wall Street is marked by the rise and disappearance of famous firms and the loss of their proud traditions. In the past two decades Salomon Brothers, E.F. Hutton, and Paine Webber, to name a few, were absorbed by megabanks that retired their names. The trend quickened in the financial crisis as the likes of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns collapsed. And just this year, Morgan Stanley ended the half-century-old Smith Barney brand.

    The legendary municipal bond franchise Lebenthal & Co. suffered the same fate when Merrill Lynch bought the firm in 2005. And that appeared to be the end of the story for one of the quirkiest, most colorful brands in the annals of finance. If you're close to middle age (or older), you may remember the parade of TV ads featuring tweedy pitchman Jim "Built-by-Bonds" Lebenthal, who for decades lectured America's investors from landfills and subways in his clipped, staccato tone, announcing that "bonds are my babies!"

    But -- in a remarkable, odds-defying turn of events -- Lebenthal & Co. has recently been reborn as a thriving independent firm. The CEO and principal owner is Alexandra Lebenthal, 48, Jim's daughter and the third generation to head the firm founded by her grandparents in 1925. She's now arguably the highest-profile woman on Wall Street. And a typically sober-suited, buttoned-up female financial executive she is not.

    Lebenthal (pronounced Lay-ben-tholl) is an extraordinary networker and a fixture in the Manhattan society pages who counts as clients or mentors the likes of J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) bond king Jimmy Lee, Morgan Stanley (MS) brokerage chief Greg Fleming, and former Oxygen Media CEO Geraldine Laybourne. Lebenthal is also the unofficial matriarch and lead recruiter for a rowdy secret society called Kappa Beta Phi, whose members make up a who's who of the financial world. And she has assumed the family mantle as a leading spokesperson and champion of the municipal bond industry.