【冰岛像是一个與冰川的對沖基金】The Great Iceland Meltdown
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October 19, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Great Iceland Meltdown
冰岛像是一个與冰川的對沖基金？London
Who knew? Who knew that Iceland was just a hedge fund with glaciers? Who knew?
( 强烈排比，三句连问？）
If you’re looking for a single example of how the globalization of
finance helped get us into this mess and how it will help get us out,
you need look no further than British newspapers last week and their
front-page articles about the number of British citizens,
municipalities and universities — including Cambridge — that are in a
tizzy today because they had savings parked in Icelandic banks, through
online banking services like Icesave.co.uk. As Dave Barry would say, I’m not makin’ this up.
（引文）
When I went to the Icesave Web site to see what it was all about,
the headline read: “Simple, transparent and consistently high-rate
online savings accounts from Icesave.” But then, underneath in blue
letters, I found the following note appended: “We are not currently
processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave
Internet accounts. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause
our customers.” Any “inconvenience?” When you can’t withdraw savings from an online
bank in Iceland, that is more than an inconvenience! That’s a reason
for total panic.
（讽刺笔吻）
So what’s the story? Around 2002, Iceland began to free its banks
from state ownership. According to The Wall Street Journal, the three
banks that make up almost the entire banking system in Iceland “grew
quickly on easy credit” and “their combined assets rose tenfold in five
years.” The Icelandic banks, while not invested in U.S. subprime
mortgages, had gone on their own borrowing and lending binges, wooing
savers from across Europe with 5.45 percent interest savings accounts.
（设问开头, 强烈吸引问句）
In a flat world, money can easily seek out the highest returns, and
when word got around about Iceland, deposits poured in from Britain —
some $1.8 billion. Unfortunately, though, when global credit markets
closed up, and the krona fell, “the Icelandic banks were unable to
finance their debts, many of which were denominated in foreign
currencies,” The Times reported. When depositors rushed to get their
money out, the Icelandic banking system had too little reserves to
cover withdrawals, so all three banks melted down and were
nationalized.
（简明叙事）
It turns out that more than 120 British municipal governments, as
well as universities, hospitals and charities had deposits stranded in
blocked Icelandic bank accounts. Cambridge alone had about $20 million,
while 15 British police forces — from towns like Kent, Surrey, Sussex
and Lancashire — had roughly $170 million frozen in Iceland, The
Telegraph reported. Even the bobbies were banking in Iceland!
（再给数据）
So think about it: Some mortgage broker in Los Angeles gives
subprime “liar loans” to people who have no credit ratings so they can
buy homes in Southern California. Those flimsy mortgages get globalized
through the global banking system and, when they go sour, they
eventually prompt banks to stop lending, fearful that every other
bank’s assets are toxic, too. The credit crunch hits Iceland, which
went on its own binge. Meanwhile, the police department of Northumbria,
England, had invested some of its extra cash in Iceland, and, now that
those accounts are frozen, it may have to reduce street patrols this
weekend.（幽默结尾）
（再设问）
And therein lies the central truth of globalization today: We’re all connected and nobody is in charge. Globalization giveth — it was this democratization of finance that
helped to power the global growth that lifted so many in India, China
and Brazil out of poverty in recent decades. Globalization now taketh
away — it was this democratization of finance that enabled the U.S. to
infect the rest of the world with its toxic mortgages. And now, we have
to hope, that globalization will saveth.
（联用两个冒号：点出中心思想，）
The real and sustained bailout from the crisis will happen when the
strong companies buy the weak ones — on a global basis. It’s starting.
Last week, Credit Suisse declined a Swiss government bailout and
instead raised fresh capital from Qatar, the Olayan family of Saudi
Arabia and Israel’s Koor Industries. Japan’s Mitsubishi bank bought a
stake in Morgan Stanley, possibly rescuing it from bankruptcy and
preventing an even steeper decline in the Dow. And Spain’s Banco
Santander, which was spared from the worst of this credit crisis by
Spain’s conservative banking regulations, is purchasing America’s
Sovereign Bankcorp.
（举例说明）
I suspect we will soon see the same happening in industry. And, once
the smoke clears, I suspect we will find ourselves living in a world of
globalization on steroids — a world in which key global economies are
more intimately tied together than ever before.
（个人意见但十分谦虚，I suspect we will）
It will be a world in which America will not be able to scratch its
ear, let alone roll over in bed, without thinking about the impact on
other countries and economies. And it will be a world in which
multilateral diplomacy and regulation will no longer be a choice.
It
will be a reality and a necessity. We are all partners now.
（it 引导，两个短句结尾，十分有力！）
摘自：Article source: NewYork Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19friedman.html?sq=china%20finance&st=nyt&scp=3&pagewanted=print
- From Internet source, Readers discretion advised!
- A personal independent searching / Discussions welcome
- 点译：Economic & Cultural points: 经济文化点：
It will be a world in which America will not be able to scratch its
ear, let alone roll over in bed, without thinking about the impact on
other countries and economies. And it will be a world in which
multilateral diplomacy and regulation will no longer be a choice.
It
will be a reality and a necessity. We are all partners now.
全文结尾句试译：（...当云开日出，）会有一个新的世界，而某一国将不能视他国和其他的经济于不顾，在自个床上‘拽耳挠腮，胡思乱想‘， 在新的世界里面，多边外交和游戏原则不是选择（可有可无), 而是一种现实和必需，全世界都（像是合伙人）都将参与了进来！
- Idiomatic usage: (vivid usage )，and expressions:
- a hedge fund with glaciers? 冰岛像是一个與冰川的對沖基金？
- in a
tizzy：a temporary state of anxiety and confusion:
- total panic：a sudden strong feeling of anxiety or fear that prevents reasonable thought and action:
- krona fell
- flimsy：adjective，very thin, or easily broken or destroyed:
- go sour
- toxic：adjective poisonous: toxic waste/chemicals/effluent
- when word got around about Iceland：word gets about/around/round
When word gets about/around/round, news spreads fast within a group of people:
“She doesn't want word getting around the office that she's pregnant.”
- lifted so many in India, China
and Brazil out of poverty （脱贫）
- taketh
away
- will saveth. （旧用法？）
- once
the smoke clears
- on steroids：noun [C] a drug for treating injuries that some people use illegally in sport to make their muscles stronger
- not be able to scratch its
ear, let alone roll over in bed, without thinking about（查无实据）
Ref: free online dictionary: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=83428&dict=CALD
黯读全篇，行文幽默，长短结合，小词活跃，设问多多，引人入胜，思想乐观，
学习经验：紧跟时局，无畏词艰，通篇概读，剖析入微，非专亦通，其乐也融！
一语点评：
个人搜索，学习备考，欢迎交流：
From Internet source, Readers discretion advised!
A personal independent searching / Discussions welcome
约翰雷K. Shaw Burlington, Ca. 2008 080813
You can reach him at:
lakeshore_viewer_2008@yahoo.cn (China)
john.canjourno.2008@gmail.com (Canada)
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本帖最后由 一语湖边 于 2008-11-16 01:23 编辑 ]
