（上文阅读不便，特此更正。）
ECONOMICS REPORT - US Economy: Home Foreclosures, Late Payments Rise
Thu, 6 Mar 2008
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
经济报道－美国经济：房屋遭遇没收，逾期付款上升。
2008年3月6日，星期四。
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。
More bad news for the American housing market:
美国房产市场坏消息不断：
The Mortgage Bankers Association says housing repossessions are at their highest rates ever, led by California and Florida. And loan payments at least thirty days late are at their highest since nineteen eighty-five.
MBA（住房抵押贷款银行家协会）说，房屋收回比例上升至新高，加州和佛罗里达首当其冲。并且逾期30天以上的还款也是自1985年的新高。
Problems in the housing market represent the greatest risks to the economy.
Central bank chief Ben Bernanke says helping the economy is now more important than fighting inflation. He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that conditions are more difficult now than they were in two thousand one. That was the last year in which the American economy was in a recession.
房产市场的问题是美国经济的最大风险。
中央银行主席本. 伯南克说，目前帮助经济比解决通货膨胀更重要。他上周告诉参议院银行业委员会，情况比2001年还要不妙，而2001年是美国经济衰退期的最后一年。
Most economists define a recession as at least six months of economic shrinkage. The economy was still growing at last report, but very little: just six-tenths of one percent from October to December. That was down from almost five percent for the July-to-September period.
许多经济学家关于衰退的定义是经济紧缩至少6个以上。美国经济在上期报告中仍然增长，但非常缓慢：10－12月的增长仅为0.6%，而7－9月的增长几乎达到5%。
President Bush says the economy is in a slowdown and that he does not expect a recession. But investor Warren Buffett, just listed by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, gave his opinion Monday. "By any common sense definition we are in a recession," he said on CNBC television.
布什总统说，美国经济增长放缓，并且预期不会有衰退。但投资人沃伦•巴菲特（刚刚被《福布斯》杂志列为世界首富）在周一提出了其看法：他在CNBC电台说，“根据常识性定义，我们处在衰退之中。”
Economic weakness has pulled down the value of the dollar. One euro is now worth about a dollar and a half, a record high. A weak dollar reduces the price of American exports. But it means higher prices for oil, which is traded in dollars.
经济疲软拖累了美元。目前，一欧元相当于1.5美元，这是历史新高。弱势美元降低了美国出口的价格，但是，也意谓着以美元交易的石油价格更高。
This week, oil broke the all-time record of one hundred three dollars and seventy-six cents a barrel. That price, adjusted for inflation, was set in nineteen eighty.
本周，石油价格突破了每桶103.76美元的（整个）历史纪录。经通货膨胀调整后的这一价格是在1980年创造的。
The United States is the biggest buyer of oil. On Wednesday, OPEC refused the second American request this year to produce more oil. It said there is already plenty. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said high prices were the result of "mismanagement" in the United States economy.
美国是最大的石油采购国。在星期三，OPEC（石油输出国家组织）本年度内第二次拒绝美国的增产要求。OPEC说，目前石油供应充足；并说，石油高价是由于美国经济的“管理不善”。
Falling prices in the housing market are feeding a credit crisis. Home prices fell ten percent nationally in two thousand seven. And experts say prices could fall another ten to fifteen percent this year.
房产市场的价格下降促成了信贷危机。2007年，全国房屋价格下降了10%。另外，专家说，今年的房价还会再下降10－15%。
The Bush administration has been urging lenders to negotiate new terms for loans held by people in danger of losing their homes.
布什政府一直在敦促贷款人，与处于失去房产危险的借款人商谈新的条款。
Many people now owe more than their homes are worth. Some are simply walking away from their homes, even though that damages their credit records.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
目前，许多人欠款高于房产的价值。即使对他们的信贷记录有损，但有些人也采取从房产中一走了之的方法。
这是由Mario Ritter编写的、VOA特别英语的经济报道。我是Steve Ember。
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