2020年经济学人 一周要闻 甲骨文状告谷歌侵权 美联储呼吁再推刺激措施 Nexi近54亿美元收购SIA

The world this week

本周国际要闻

Business

经济

The IMF urged governments in rich countries to step up spending on investment, pointing out that, even before COVID-19, public-investment-to-GDP ratios were declining. The rates of return from spending on adaptation to climate change in particular are often greater than 100%, it said. Meanwhile, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, described the path to economic recovery after the pandemic as “the long ascent—a difficult climb that will be long, uneven¹ and uncertain. And prone² to setbacks.”

国际货币基金组织敦促富裕国家政府加大投资力度，并指出，即使在新冠肺炎疫情之前，公共投资占国内生产总值的比例就已经在下降。该组织称，特别是用于适应气候变化的支出的回报率通常超过100%。与此同时，国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯塔利娜·格奥尔基耶娃(Kristalina Georgieva)将大流行后的经济复苏称为“一个漫长、不均衡以及充满未知的艰难爬坡的过程。”而且容易受挫。”

Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, once again called for more fiscal³ stimulus⁴ measures. He described the policy risks of supporting the American economy as asymmetric⁵: providing too little help will be worse than providing too much. Donald Trump⁶ said he would not agree to a stimulus package until after the election. Employers created 661,000 jobs in September, a much smaller number than in each of the previous four months, when firms rehired as lockdowns eased.

美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔（Jerome Powell）再次呼吁采取更多的财政刺激措施。他直言，支持美国经济的政策干预风险是不对称的：提供太少的帮助反而比提供太多的帮助更为糟糕。特朗普表示，在大选结束后，他才会实施经济刺激计划。9月份，雇主们创造了66.1万个工作岗位，这一数字远低于前四个月的数字。当时随着封锁令的逐渐放开，企业开始重新招聘。

OurCrowd, an investment platform based in Jerusalem, struck a partnership⁷ with a business-development company backed by Al Naboodah Investments of Dubai. It is the first big alliance between investment firms in Israel and the United Arab Emirates after the recent normalisation of relations between the two countries.

总部位于耶路撒冷的投资平台OurCrowd与迪拜Al Naboodah投资公司支持的一家商业发展公司建立了合作关系。这是最近以色列和阿联酋关系正常化后，两国投资公司的第一次大联盟。

There was more consolidation⁸ in the payments industry with the announcement that Nexi, Italy’s biggest provider of digital payments, would buy SIA, a smaller rival that is owned by the Italian government. Through a development bank, the government will retain a 25% stake.

随着意大利最大数字支付提供商Nexi宣布将收购规模较小的竞争对手SIA（后者为意大利政府所有），支付行业出现了更多整合。通过一家开发银行，政府将保留25%的股份。

Companies aiming to increase staff diversity may be drawing more legal scrutiny⁹ from the American government. Microsoft and Wells Fargo, who have both promised to double their number of black executives, were both contacted by the Department of Labour recently to inquire whether their plans comply with laws that forbid hiring practices based on race.

旨在增加员工多样性的公司可能会受到美国政府更多的法律审查。微软和富国银行都曾承诺将其黑人高管人数增加一倍。最近，美国劳工部联系了这两家公司，询问其计划是否符合禁止基于种族的招聘行为的相关律法。

America’s Supreme¹⁰ Court heard arguments from Google and Oracle¹¹ in a closely watched case concerning how copyright law should apply to computer code. Oracle argues that Google unlawfully reused parts of Java, a programming language, in its Android smartphones. Google retorts that such reuse has been common industry practice for decades, and is vital for interoperability between software. A lower court’s ruling in Oracle’s favour in 2018 alarmed the rest of the tech industry, which mostly takes Google’s side.

在一起备受关注的案件中，美国最高法院听取了谷歌和甲骨文公司关于版权法如何适用于计算机代码的争论。甲骨文方面认为，谷歌在其安卓智能手机中非法重用了编程语言Java的部分内容。谷歌方面反驳称，几十年来，这已经成为行业惯例，并且对于软件之间的互操作性至关重要。2018年，一家下级法院做出了有利于甲骨文公司的裁决，震惊了科技行业的其他公司，他们大多与谷歌一个战队。

1 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

2 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

4 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

5 asymmetric   

a.不对称的

参考例句：

• Most people's faces are asymmetric. 大多数人的脸不对称。
• We have made no reference to asymmetric carbon atoms. 我们未曾涉及不对称碳原子。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

8 consolidation   

n.合并,巩固

参考例句：

• The denser population necessitates closer consolidation both for internal and external action. 住得日益稠密的居民，对内和对外都不得不更紧密地团结起来。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• The state ensures the consolidation and growth of the state economy. 国家保障国营经济的巩固和发展。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法

9 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 oracle   

n.神谕，神谕处，预言

参考例句：

• In times of difficulty,she pray for an oracle to guide her.在困难的时候，她祈祷神谕来指引她。
• It is a kind of oracle that often foretells things most important.它是一种内生性神谕，常常能预言最重要的事情。