《時代經(jīng)典用詞》商業(yè)篇 其他
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automation
自動化
After more than two decades of healthy annual advances,American nonfarm productivity growth declined and sometimes reversed after 1973.
在超過20年健康的年增長率之后，美國的非農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)力自1973年后下滑，但偶有反彈。
Last year it grew nearly 3%,much of it due to blood-curdling corporate restructuring that was marked by increased automation,layoffs and lower wages.
去年增長幾乎達(dá)3%，但主要是因為企業(yè)采取更高度自動化、裁員、減薪等令人膽寒的整頓措施。
Customers balked,Wang abandoned the office-equipment business and filed fr bankruptcy last year.
顧客遲疑不前，王安放棄辦公設(shè)備部門，而在去年申請破產(chǎn)。
BM also tried and failed,
BM嘗試過也失敗，
as did oil giant Exxon,which ended up selling off its office-automation division in 1984 after investing more that $2 billion in it.
而石油巨人Exxon在投資超過20億美元的情況下，仍在1984年賣掉了它的辦公室自動化部門。
basket case
無用之物，無望之土
Africa has become the basket case of the planet,
非洲已成了地球上最沒有希望的土地，
he "Third World of the Third World,"a vast continent in free fall.
是“第三世界中的第三世界”，一個跌入深淵的遼闊大陸。
Sometimes called the world's richest basket case
緬甸有時被稱為全世界最富有的無望之土，
because of its wealth of such natural resources as teak and minerals.
因為它蘊含豐富的自然資源如柚木與礦產(chǎn)。
Burma needs foreign aid and investment to modernize.
緬甸需要國際的援助與投資以期現(xiàn)代化。
cellular phone
移動電話
With AT&T,Craig McCaw moves one step closer to realizing his biggest dream:
有了AT&T的支援，Craig McCaw離他的大夢又更近了一步：
building the first nation-wide cellular telephone network.
建立第一套全國性的移動電話網(wǎng)絡(luò)。
Since the storm had knocked out telephone lines.
因為暴風(fēng)吹垮了電話系統(tǒng)，
Allstate rushed to set up its own communication system,
Allstate趕忙自行建立通訊系統(tǒng)，
consisting of 80 shortwave radio units,850 pagers,173 cellular phones and a toll-free number.
包括80臺短波收音機、850個B.B.call、173個移動電話以及一根免費電話線。
By staking a position in the cellular phone market,MCI takes its battle against AT&T to new heights.
MCI在移動電話市場取得一席之地，將它與AT&T的戰(zhàn)爭拉到新高點。
Channel Tunnel
英吉利海峽海底隧道
Last week,when the news of the Chunnel breakthrough was announced,
上周當(dāng)海峽隧道貫通消息公布時，
the Sun,Britain's leading tabloid,cautioned its readers.
英國小報領(lǐng)袖《太陽報》警告讀者：
"It won't be long before the garlic-breathed bastilles will be here in droves once the Channel Tunnel is open."
“一旦海峽隧道貫通，不久以后，滿嘴大蒜味的巴士底人就會大批涌來。”
Deep in the British psyche there is a reservation about ending the island-nation status.
在英國人內(nèi)心深處，對結(jié)束島國式的生活還是有所保留。
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
破產(chǎn)
Just a week earlier the airline had veered away from a return trip to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,from which it had emerged four years ago.
就在上周航空公司才剛剛避過再度落入破產(chǎn)保護(hù)的命運。四年前大陸航空才剛結(jié)束上一次的破產(chǎn)保護(hù)期。
Ames Department Stores(fiscal 1989 sales;$ 3.4 billion)declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11
Ames百貨公司(1989會計年度營業(yè)額；34億美元)宣告破產(chǎn)，
as the result of lingering complications from its 1988 acquistion of the Zayre chain.
因為它在1988年收購Zayre連鎖店后的問題一直無法解決。
derivatives
衍生性金融商品
Procter $ Gamble announced that it was taking a $102 million after-tax charge on its third-quarter earnings
寶潔公司宣布要自第三季的利潤中扣除已稅的1.02億美元，
because it was "badly burned" by two derivatives contracts.
因為該公司被兩宗衍生性金融商品的契約害慘了。
Derivatives-abstractions of stocks,bonds and futures-are a huge business($4.5 trillion in contraxts),
把股票、債券和期貨抽象化的衍生性金融商品，是筆大生意(契約價值高達(dá)4.5兆美元)，
but pose a danger to world financial markets because of lack of regulation.
但是因為缺乏管制，對世界的金融市場造成危機。
As such,they are often called the junk bonds of the '90s.
因為它們經(jīng)常被稱作90年代的垃圾債券。
embezzlement
盜用公款
They had charged that Papandreou ordered state companies to deposit funds in the private bank at a time when its owner was suspected of embezzlement.
他們指揮帕潘德里歐在一家私人銀行的所有人處在盜用公款的嫌疑之時，仍執(zhí)意命令國營企業(yè)將錢存入此銀行。
Papandreou was also accused of taking bribes from the bank owner.
帕潘德里歐同時被控自銀行所有人處收取賄賂。
futures
期貨
Among other things,the Finance Ministry gave investors easier access to borrowed money and curbed the hours of futures trading.
許多措施中，包括大藏省讓投資者更暢通的貸款渠道，并且縮短了期貨的交易時間。
industrial park
工業(yè)園區(qū)
"He was proud of his expertise.He was very much in love with himself."
“他對自己的專家手法很自豪，很欣賞自己。”
Last year the feds and local police busted Wills' six-man,14,000-sq.-ft."chop shop" set in an industrial park in Bensalem,Pennsylvania.
去年調(diào)查局和當(dāng)?shù)鼐煸谫e州Bensalem附近一個工業(yè)園區(qū)內(nèi)破獲了Wills和五個同伙的“解體工廠”，面積達(dá)1.4萬平方英尺。
The first bombs accomplished little,
第一次轟炸成果不大，
so U.S. warships on Sunday fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at an Iraqi industrial park near Baghdad
于是美國戰(zhàn)艦在周日對巴格達(dá)城附近的一個工業(yè)園區(qū)發(fā)動戰(zhàn)斧巡航導(dǎo)彈攻擊。
that Washington said housed a nuclear facility.
華盛頓方面宣稱此處藏有核武器制造設(shè)施。
liquidity
流動性、變現(xiàn)性
In 1990 News faced a liquidity crisis caused by the recession,a huge drop in advertising revenues,
1990年，News Corp。面臨資產(chǎn)變現(xiàn)性危機，因為經(jīng)濟不景氣，廣告費收大降，
and Murdoch's reliance on short-term loans at a time when interest rates were rising rapidly.
而利率急速上升，危及默多克對短期融資的倚賴。
P.R.
公關(guān)
It might also avoid the kind of public relations debacle Detroit's fat cats endured last week.
也可以避免像底特律那些腦滿腸肥的主管一樣，在上周忍受完全失敗的公關(guān)所帶來的苦果。
premium
保險費
And though all are supposed to hold down the zooming increase in medical costs,
雖然每種方法的目的都是為了降低醫(yī)療成本，
the competing plans would rely on market mechanisms while Clinton would try tight,mandatory limits on increases in insurance premiums.
但是其他人的計劃都得依靠市場機能，只有克林頓想用緊密、強制性的限制來抑制保險費的上升。
Options include a short-term freeze on prices charged by doctors,hospitals,laboratories and nursing homes,and a cap on insurance premium increases.
政府的選擇包括短期凍結(jié)醫(yī)師、醫(yī)院、實驗室與私人療養(yǎng)院的收費，并且對保險費上漲設(shè)定上限。
Rupert Murdoch
默多克：媒體大亨
Delphi,which was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.in September,
Delphi在9月被默多克的News Corp.買下。
began providing its customers full Internet access last summer.
Delphi在今年夏天起即已提供客戶全盤的國際互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)。
Silicon Valley
硅谷
In all,thieves last year ripped off up to $40 million worth of chips from California's Silicon Valley,according to the FBI.
聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局透露：整體而言，加州的硅谷在去年一年被偷走了價值近4000萬美元的電腦芯片。
When Apple Computer co-founder Steven Jobs burned out 10 years ago,the Silicon Valley company brought in marketing maven John Sculley.
蘋果電腦的共同創(chuàng)辦人Steven Jobs 10年前精疲力竭地離開公司，這家硅谷公司找來營銷專家John Sculley。
Now it is Sculley who has apparently flamed out.
現(xiàn)在換成Sculley明顯要掛免戰(zhàn)牌了。
He has stepped down as CEO,but will stay on as chairman to focus on new business opportunities.
他已辭去了總裁的職位，但仍保持董事長的身份，并將專注在尋找新商機上。
technology transfer
技術(shù)轉(zhuǎn)讓
Republican fund raisers such as Floyd Brown see a bait-and-switch tactic
共和黨募款人如Floyd Brown等人想到“放長線釣大魚”的計謀。
that they hope to capitalize on by portaying her as massively influencing everything from the appointment of the deputy assistant undersecretary for technology transfer to a decision on whether the U.S. should bomb Serbian artillery lines.
他們想把她描寫成無事不管的第一夫人，從管技術(shù)轉(zhuǎn)讓的副助理次長的任命到美國是否應(yīng)該轟炸塞爾維亞的炮兵陣地。
The U.S. joined the other 16 members of the Coordiating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls,
美國與其他16個“出口管制協(xié)調(diào)委員會”的成員達(dá)成了共識。
which monitors the transfer of technology to communist countries,
本來委員會是監(jiān)控對共產(chǎn)國家的科技轉(zhuǎn)讓，
in approving the sale of sophisticated machine tools,telecommunications equipment and computers to those nations if they put in place safeguards to protect the Western technology.
但大家現(xiàn)在均同意出售精密的工具機、通訊設(shè)備和電腦給這些國家，條件是它們承諾立法保護(hù)西方科技。
vertical integration
縱向一體化
"The U.S.claims that our keiretsu-ka of banks and other financial institutions is outrageous.
“美國人說我們在銀行與其他金融機構(gòu)的縱向一體化是無法無天。
I don't agree.It's an idiosyncrasy of the Japanese economy."
我不同意。這是日本經(jīng)濟的特色。”
The strategy is vertical integration,a coordinated system to offer patients whatever they need,
策略是縱向一體化，利用上下協(xié)調(diào)的體制，讓患者得到任何需要的項目，
from X rays to transplants,in the setting that makes the most sense.
在同一地點即可提供應(yīng)具備的服務(wù)，例如從照X光片到器官移植。
The Devil's in the Derivatives
衍生性金融商品的鬼魂
1.Even Marcia Stasch got caught.
連Marcia Stasch也上了當(dāng)。
She had sold securities for a living and so,naturally,she read the prospectus and the brochures from the local brokerage of Piper Jaffray that came on heavy-card stock paper.
靠賣證券吃飯的她，很自然地看到了當(dāng)?shù)亟?jīng)紀(jì)行Piper Jaffray以印股票用的厚卡紙印制的計劃書與簡介手冊。
They offered a government bond fund that seemed the perfect place to invest the $50,000 Stasch's 86-year-old widowed mother had made after selling her home in Minneapolis,Minnesota.
他們提供一種公債基金。Stasch86歲的寡母賣掉明尼蘇達(dá)州明尼阿波利斯市的房子，得款5萬元，似乎拿來投資這基金非常恰當(dāng)。
Not only did Piper tout the triple-A-rated fund as a low-risk investment,but also said it would produce enough income-$318 a month-to pay her mother's rent.
Piper不但自夸這個AAA級的基金風(fēng)險極低，同時說每個月318美元的收入足夠她母親付房租。
"I told Mom,‘This is your decision,but I'm comfortable with it,’"Stasch recalls.
Stasch回憶說：“我跟媽說，‘這是你的決定，但是我覺得不錯’”。
2.When the first dividend check arrived for her mother is February,however,the investment was already worth several thousand dollars less.
但當(dāng)2月第一張股利支票寄來時，她母親發(fā)覺這筆投資金額已經(jīng)少了幾千元。
It shrunk even further in March.
到了3月，少得更多。
But it was not until the Mother's Day weekend in May that Stasch learned from a newspaper article what her mother had really bought:
但一直到5月母親節(jié)那個周末，Stasch才從報紙上得知她母親到底買了什么東西：
far from being a safe investment,the fund was loaded with volatile securities called derivatives
這個基金絕不是安全的投資，卻充斥著叫作衍生性金融商品，充滿變數(shù)的證券。
that had gone into a free-fall when interest rates shot up.
在利率竄升后，此種商品的價值就像自由落體般往下墜落。
"I told my family not to panic,but I was thinking,‘My God,what did I get into?’"Stasch says.
Stasch說：“我叫家人別慌，但自己卻在想：‘老天！我到底碰上了什么？’”
Fearing that her mother would lose all her money,Stasch dumped the fund-at $14,000 loss.
在害怕母親輸光積蓄的情況下，Stasch認(rèn)賠殺出，虧損1.4萬美元。
"I'd never heard of derivatives,"she says "I cried and she cried."
“我從來也沒有聽說過衍生性金融商品。我和媽都哭了。”
3.In recent months a humiliating lesson has come to households,boardrooms and town halls across the country:
過去幾個月來，全國各地的家庭，公司董事長和市政廳都分享同樣羞辱的教訓(xùn)：
derivatives can turn around and bite even those who think they know something about prudent investing.
衍生性金融商品會回過頭來，反咬一口那些自認(rèn)為對謹(jǐn)慎投資很了解的人。
And this drubbing from derivatives is sure to continue."The gunslingers may be lying low,but they haven't hung up their guns,"declares Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
得自衍生性金融商品的痛苦經(jīng)驗還沒有結(jié)束的跡象，馬薩諸塞州眾議員Ed Markey說：“這些殺手也許目前蟄伏一時，但是他們還沒有高掛槍枝，洗手不干。”
As chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees financial institutions,Markey has put forward a bill that would increase federal supervision of the largely unregulated derivatives dealers.
身為眾議院監(jiān)督金融機構(gòu)小組委員會的主席，Markey已經(jīng)提出法案，要求聯(lián)邦政府加強對幾乎不受管束的衍生性金融商品交易商的監(jiān)督。
James Midanek,a financial expert whose firm Solon Asset Management helps victims of derivatives to minimize their losses,also sees more trouble ahead.
Solon Asset Management公司幫助受害者縮小損失，該公司的財務(wù)專家James Midanek預(yù)測會有更多問題出現(xiàn)。
"It's going to hit home a little more,"he says.
他說：“更多打擊將接踵而至。
"We are going to hear more from local municipalities and colleges,and other less sophisticated investors who remain unaware of their exposure."
地方政府、學(xué)院和其他對自己身處險地而不知的單純投資人，會繼續(xù)傳出壞消息。”
4.Here is the astonishing range of investors who find themselves in that category:
以下是發(fā)現(xiàn)自己身處洪流的投資人一些例子，范圍驚人：
-Huge companies have taken big beatings.
——大企業(yè)輸大錢。
Procter & Gamble lost $157 million playing the derivatives market this year
寶潔公司今年輸了1.57億美元，
and ousted its corporate treasurer.
并開除了它的財務(wù)長。
British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Holdings lost $115 million.
英國制藥巨人葛蘭素輸?shù)?.15億美元。
Gibson Greetings in Cincinnati,Ohio,lost more than $20 million
俄亥俄州辛辛那提市的Gibson卡片公司輸?shù)舫^2000萬美元，
and last month sued Bankers Trust,which had sold the derivatives to the card company.
并在上個月控告賣商品給它的Bankers Trust。
5.-Municipalities,colleges and even and Indian tribe suffered.
——地方市鎮(zhèn)當(dāng)局、大學(xué)甚至一個印第安部落也都吃到苦頭。
Maple Grove,a Minneapolis suburb,
位于明尼阿波利斯市郊，人口有4萬的Maple Grove，
has seen its $5 million investment in the Piper Jaffray fund shrink to about $3.6 million this year.
今年投資在Piper Jaffray基金的500萬元已經(jīng)縮水到剩360萬元左右。
"A number of people had had terrific experience with it,"says Jon Elam,the city administrator of Maple Grove.
Maple Grove的市Jon Elam說：“不少人曾在其中嘗到甜頭。
"It was unbelievable to me when I found out what the fund was made up of.
當(dāng)我發(fā)現(xiàn)真相時，簡直無法相信這個基金的組合。
It was then that I realized it was basically a hedge fund,betting on the decline of interest rates.
那時我才了解它基本上是一個避險基金，賭利率會下降。
That's the reason it did so marvelously in the early '90s."
這就是為什么它在90年代初能表現(xiàn)那么好的原因。”
6.-In Texas the former vice president for finance of tiny Odessa College poured virtually all the school's funds into derivatives.
——在得克薩斯州一家迷你學(xué)院Odessa College的前任財務(wù)副總幾乎把全校的資金都投入購買衍生性金融商品。
The staff and faculty of the two-year college watched in horror as the $22 million in investments lost nearly half their value,
這所二年制?？茖W(xué)校的教職員驚恐地發(fā)現(xiàn)2200萬美元的投資幾乎損失一半，
forcing the public school to borrow $10.5 million in emergency funds,raise tuition and jack up local property taxes.
迫使這所公立學(xué)校借貸1050萬緊急貸款、提高學(xué)費與地方財產(chǎn)稅。
Meanwhile,the Shoshone Indians,a tribe of 3,000 in western Wyoming with a 70% rate of unemployment,
同時，西懷俄明州的Shoshone印第安人，3000人口中有70%失業(yè)，
purchased nearly $5 million of derivatives last year from a traveling financial salesman;
也在去年向一個四處旅行的推銷員買下將近500萬美元的衍生性金融商品，
the value of the purchases has since shriveled to about $3.5 million.
其價值現(xiàn)已跌落至350萬美元左右。
7.-Mutual funds have been a particularly fertile ground for unexpected casualties because investors often don't know the full content of the portfolios into which they are buying.
——在共同基金的領(lǐng)域中特別容易出現(xiàn)意外的“傷亡”，因為投資人常常無從完全了解他們所購買的投資組合。
Funds run by such firms as Paine Webber,Kidder Peabody and Bank American
像Paine Webber,Kidder Peabody與Bank American這些機構(gòu)所經(jīng)營的基金，
have put up more than $500 million this year to bail out investments in derivatives.
在今年都撥超過5億美元的款項來救回在衍生性金融商品上的投資。
Just last week Arthur Levitt,chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission,told Congress
就在上周，證券與交易委員會主管Arthur Levitt才告訴國會說丹佛市的Community Asset Management Inc.
that an $83 million fund run by Community Asset Management Inc. of Denver had become the first money-market fund to shut down because of derivatives losses.
所經(jīng)營的一個價值8300萬美元的基金，已成為首宗因衍生性金融商品損失而倒閉的貨幣市場基金。
The fund's 113 customers,
該基金的113位投資人，
consisting of banks and other institutions,will collect 94 cents for every dollar they invested.
包括銀行與其他機構(gòu)，只能拿回原投資額的94%。
8.-Even the Wall Street firms that concoct these securities have taken a whipping.
——即使連創(chuàng)造出這些商品的華爾街經(jīng)紀(jì)行也吃了大虧。
Bankers Trust,which relies heavily on derivatives for its profits,
極倚賴衍生性金融商品利潤的Bankers Trust，
saw its earnings drop 28% to $181 million in the second quarter as clients stopped buying the risky instruments.
其第二季的收只有1.81億美元，跌落了28%，因為顧客不再購買這種高風(fēng)險投資工具。
The decline was particularly sharp in the division of the bank that uses computerized programs run by math whizzes-who are known as "quants"-to create the derviatives.
在這家銀行中，由所謂“數(shù)字專家”的數(shù)學(xué)高手操作電腦程序而制造出衍生商品的部門，尤其損失慘重。
Its earnings have fallen more than 50% since this year's first quarter.
它自今年第一季起收入下降50%以上。
9.Derivatives are causing all this havoc because they have swiftly become a linchpin of global commerce and the world's financial system.
正因為衍生性金融商品已很快成為全球商業(yè)與金融系統(tǒng)的交接點，它們才能造成如此嚴(yán)重的傷害。
Companies regularly use a form of derivatives called swaps to protect against the risk of sudden changes in exchange rates,commodities prices or other costs when they trade overseas or build plants abroad.
企業(yè)會固定利用一種叫“交換”的衍生性金融商品來避免匯率、商品價格及其他成本突然變動的風(fēng)險，以安心從事海外貿(mào)易或在海外設(shè)廠。
Like all derivatives,they function,essentially,as bets on the direction of particular markets.
“交換”與所有衍生性金融商品一樣，基本上是對某特定市場的走向來下賭大小，這樣的保障何其誘人，
So coveted is such insurance that the total face amount-or "notional value"-
以致于交換與類似契約的財面價值，或“概念價值”，
of swaps and similar contracts has soared to an astronomical $11 trillion,up from $5.1 trillion since 1990.
已從1990年的5.1兆美元遽升至天文數(shù)字的11兆美元。
10.While derivatives can take on many forms,they all share certain similarities.
雖然衍生性金融商品有很多面貌，但仍有共通點。
No matter how complex a derivative may be,
無論這種商品有多復(fù)雜，
it is at bottom a security that takes-or derives-its value from underlying things that can range from the familiar(stocks or bonds or interest rates)to the exotic(gold in Ghana or copper in Mexico).
它仍是一種證券形式，而它的價值則來自基本的商品，范圍從熟悉(股票、債券或利率)的到充滿異國情調(diào)的(加納的黃金或墨西哥的銅)。
Moreover,those underlying things can be sliced and diced in all kinds of ways.
這些基本商品可以用各種花樣來分割，然后放在賭桌。
Among the most popular derivatives in mutual-fund portfolios are the so-called interest-only strips,
在基金組合中最受歡迎的一種叫做“利息附加”，
which pay interest that comes from pools of government-backed mortgages.
支付的是一組一組政府背書抵押品的利息。
These strips became hot when interest rates fell below the level they were paying.
當(dāng)一般利率低于這商品付出的利息時，投資人趨之若鶩。
But is interest rates rose higher,these securities became less attractive and plunged in value.
但當(dāng)利率上升后，這些證券就不再誘人，價值也跌入谷底。
