ECONOMICS REPORT - The Fall of Bear Stearns
Thu, 20 Mar 2008
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
经济报道--贝尔史登公司的坠落
2008年3月20日
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。
This week, the crisis in credit markets claimed Bear Stearns. The eighty-five year old investment bank in New York agreed on Sunday to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase. The price: just two dollars a share, as part of a rescue plan organized by the government.
本周，信贷市场的危机结果了贝尔史登公司。这家在纽约、具有85年历史的投资银行，在星期日同意将其出售给JP摩根大通。作为(美国)政府牵头的救援计划的一部分，其价格仅为每股2美元。
Bear stock had traded at seventy dollars last week, and one hundred seventy last year.
贝尔史登公司的股票上周的交易价格是70美元，并且去年的价格是117美元。
The fall of Bear Stearns developed quickly. Banks were no longer willing to lend money to the company. The problems largely involved short-term loans, called repo borrowings, that are secured by assets like securities.
贝尔史登公司的坠落突如其来。银行不再借钱给贝尔史登公司。问题主要是短期借款，即用诸如证券等资产予以担保的协议回购借款。
The problem was that lenders no longer knew the value of the assets that secured Bear's debt. Bear Stearns invested heavily in securities based on risky home loans.
问题是出借人不知道为贝尔史登公司债务担保的资产价值。贝尔史登公司在具有极大风险的房屋借款类证券方面投资比重甚高。
Unable to get new loans, the bank suffered a liquidity crisis. By last Thursday, investors started withdrawing their money. This put more pressure on the bank to sell assets that no one wanted to buy. The next day, Bear informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would fail if nothing was done.
由于无法获得新借款，这家银行(贝尔史登公司)遭遇了流动性危机。到上周四，投资人开始挤兑；这增加这家银行出售无人愿买的资产。第二天，贝尔史登公司告知(美国)证券交易委员会，如果不采取措施，将破产。
Officials from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve wanted a deal to save Bear Stearns before markets opened this week in Asia. They worried that if Bear failed, it could lead to even more problems.
财政部和美联储的官员希望达成交易，在本周亚洲市场开盘之前挽救贝尔史登公司。他们担心，一旦贝尔史登公司破产，会导致更大的问题。
The central bank agreed to lend J.P. Morgan up to thirty billion dollars to finance the purchase of Bear's less-liquid assets. The loan will be secured with those assets, and the Fed will take responsibility for them.
中央银行(美联储)同意向JP摩根大通放款高达300亿美元，为贝尔史登公司流动性不良的资产收购进行融资。这一借款由这些资产进行担保，并且美联储将对这些资产负责。
To increase liquidity in the market, the Fed also agreed to lend money to securities dealers, including investment banks. The central bank has not done this since the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties.
为了增加市场的流动性，美联储同意向包括投资银行在内的证券交易人提供资金。中央银行(美联储)自1930年代的大萧条以来尚无先例。
Last week the Fed offered banks up to two hundred billion dollars in loans. And twice this week it cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks. The Fed also lowered the target rate for overnight loans between banks for the sixth time in six months. It cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points, to two and a quarter percent.
上周，美联储向银行提供高达2000亿美元的贷款；并且，本周第二次降低向银行直接借款的贴现率。美联储也在六个月内第六次降低了银行隔夜借款的目标利率；并且，将联邦基金利率降低0.75%，至2.25%。
Shareholders in Bear Stearns will vote on the takeover by J.P. Morgan. Some are expected to oppose the low-cost deal. Bear employees own about one-third of the stock in their company.
贝尔史登公司的股东将就JP摩根大通接管一事进行表决。某些股东预计会反对这一甩卖交易。贝尔史登公司的员工大约拥有公司股票的三分之一。
There was some good news this week for financial stocks. Three major investment banks reported earnings that were better than expected for the three months ending February twenty-ninth.
本周财务类股票有些好消息。三家主要投资银行报告了截止2月29日的前三月收益，并且好于预期。
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
这是由Mario Ritter编写的、VOA特别英语的经济报告。我是Steve Ember。
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