David Bowie was known for his ability to reinvent himself. But he also helped inspire a pocket of Wall Street that tries to create money out of weird things like billboard rental income, cellphone tower lease payments and literary or film libraries.

大卫·鲍伊(David Bowie)以擅于重塑自我著称。但他对华尔街亦有所启迪。华尔街为了赚钱花样百出，广告牌租金收入、手机塔租赁费、文学或电影资料库藏都成为他们的工具。

In 1997, Mr. Bowie bundled up nearly 300 of his existing recordings and copyrights into a $55 million security that paid the buyer — Prudential Insurance Company of America — a 7.9 percent annual rate over 10 years, backed by the income from his royalties and record sales, and the licensing of his songs for films or other uses.

1997年，鲍伊把他现成的近300项录音和版权打包为一个5500万美元的抵押，卖给美国保诚保险公司(Prudential Insurance Company of America)，在他的版税和唱片销售收入，以及电影等场合使用他的歌曲所支付的授权费支持下，买主得到了十年期7.9%的年收益率。

The so-called Bowie bonds were among the first in what would become a wave of esoteric asset-backed securities deals based on intellectual property, including a more recent one involving Miramax’s film library (including titles like “Pulp Fiction” and “The English Patient”). Bankers have also come up with securities backed by franchise revenue for the restaurant chains Sonic and Church’s Chicken, among others.

这种所谓的“鲍伊债券”(Bowie bonds)是基于知识产权的资产担保证券交易的先驱之一，外界对这种交易知之甚少，它还包括后来米拉麦克斯公司(Miramax)电影资料库（其中有《低俗小说》和《英国病人》等电影）的交易。银行还推出了特许经营收入担保的证券，比如餐厅连锁索尼克(Sonic)和德州炸鸡(Church's Chicken)等等。

The buyers in these deals, which are negotiated privately by the banks that put the transactions together, tend to be specialized hedge funds or big institutions that can negotiate terms with the bankers. Individual investors never got their hands on a Bowie bond because Prudential never sold any of its stake.

这些交易是由牵头的银行私下协商的，买主往往是专门的对冲基金或大型机构，可以与银行协商交易条款。“鲍伊债券”从未落入过个人投资者手中，因为保诚没有出售过它的任何份额。

A Prudential spokesman declined to comment.

保诚发言人拒绝对此置评。

At the time it was a good deal for Mr. Bowie. He got upfront cash for a decade’s worth of royalty and licensing revenue without having to give up ownership of his songs.

在当时，这个交易对鲍伊来说相当有利。他不必放弃自己歌曲的所有权，就可以预支十年版税和授权费收入。

Originally rated A3 by Moody’s Investors Service, Bowie bonds were later downgraded to Baa3, just above junk status. By the early 2000s, Internet file sharing had become a factor, and musicians were generating less income because album sales were declining.

“鲍伊债券”最初被信誉评级机构穆迪(Moody's)评为A3级，后来降为Baa3级，仅高于垃圾级。到21世纪初，互联网文件共享蔚然成风，随着专辑销量下降，音乐人的收入也在减少。

Still, Mr. Bowie’s Wall Street collaboration inspired other celebrities to cash in while the getting was still good. Edward Holland, Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, the Motown hit songwriters, did a deal, as did James Brown and Rod Stewart. In 2002, DreamWorks SKG entered into a $1 billion deal involving its film catalog.

不过，鲍伊与华尔街的合作启发了其他名人，他们在收入还不错的情况下也开始套现。摩城唱片(Motown)金曲作者爱德华·霍兰德(Edward Holland)、布赖恩·霍兰德(Brian Holland)和拉蒙特·齐尔(Lamont Dozier)达成了一个交易，詹姆斯·布朗(James Brown)和罗德·斯图尔特(Rod Stewart)也是如此。2002年，梦工厂(DreamWorks SKG)达成了一项10亿美元的电影资料库交易。

Most asset-backed securities are secured by income generated from mortgages, credit card loans and auto loans. But mortgage-backed securities gave the sector a bad name during the financial crisis and investors backed off for a while.

大多数资产担保证券，都是通过抵押贷款、信用卡贷款和汽车贷款产生的收入获利的。但在金融危机期间，抵押贷款担保证券毁了这一行的名声，投资者也离开了一段时间。

Issuance of asset-backed securities dropped 16.6 percent last year, to $184 billion, with a steep drop off in deals backed by credit card loans, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

证券业和金融市场协会的资料显示，资产担保证券去年的发行量下滑16.6%，至1840亿美元，信用卡贷款担保交易量出现暴跌。

Deals backed by unusual assets make up about a tenth of the asset-backed security market, appealing to investors who want higher yields and are willing to take on more risk.

在资产担保证券市场中，用非常规资产担保的交易约占十分之一，它们吸引的是那些追求更高收益率，也愿意承担更多风险的投资者。

“There’s a nonanalytic aspect to these deals that makes them riskier,” says Sylvain Raynes, a founder of R&R Consulting who worked at Moody’s at the time the Bowie bond was being rated.

“这类交易存在一种非分析性，因此它们风险更高，”咨询公司R&R Consulting创始人西尔万·雷恩斯(Sylvain Raynes)说。鲍伊债券接受评级的时候，雷恩斯在穆迪工作。