VOA慢速英语2020 经济大萧条与2008年总统大选(上)（在线收听）

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week, our series brings us to the events of two thousand eight. It was a year that combined one of the nation's worst financial crises with one of its most exciting elections in recent history. In two thousand six and two thousand seven, the American housing market began to collapse. Home values had been going up and up. Now the balloon burst. People started losing homes they had bought with money borrowed on easy credit terms -- loans they were then unable to repay.

欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。我们在本周的系列节目中将探讨2008年发生的事件。这一年发生了美国最严重的一次金融危机，同时也出现了近代史上最激动人心的一次选举。在2006年和2007年，美国房地产市场开始崩溃。房屋价值一直在上升，现在出现了问题。人们开始失去他们用简便的信贷条款借钱购买的房子，他们当时无法偿还这些贷款。

The hope was that the crisis in the housing market could be contained, and that it would not spread to the wider economy. Traditionally, local banks would have suffered the losses on the bad loans. But times had changed. Big investment banks had been buying those loans. The investment banks then resold them as securities offering high returns. Credit rating agencies working for the investment banks had told investors that the securities were safe. Selling a financial product based on a large group of loans was supposed to limit the risk if a few loans went bad. That was the idea. But that was before millions of homeowners stopped paying their mortgage loans. Mortgage bank securities became known as toxic assets, no one wanted to be anywhere near them.

人们希望房地产市场的危机能得到遏制，不会蔓延到更广泛的经济领域。当地银行一直以来会因坏账而蒙受损失。但时代改变了，大型投资银行一直在购买这些贷款。这些投资银行随后将其作为高回报证券进行转售。为投资银行工作的信用评级机构告诉投资者，这些证券很安全。销售基于大量贷款的金融产品本来是为了限制少数贷款变为坏账的风险。理论上是这样的。但当数百万房主停止支付抵押贷款之后，情况就并非如此了。抵押贷款银行的证券被称为有毒资产，没人愿意接近。

In March of two thousand eight Bear Stearns became the first investment bank to fail as a result of the crisis. Others followed. In September, Lehman Brothers, the nation's fourth-largest investment bank, sought protection in bankruptcy court. Its failure only deepened the fears in credit markets. Toward the end of two thousand eight an international credit freeze developed. No one wanted to take the risk of lending money to banks or other companies that might have owned toxic assets. Some people feared that there could even be a global depression, the first since the nineteen thirties. The United States economy -- the world's largest -- started shrinking at the end of two thousand seven. The unemployment rate started rising.

2008年3月，贝尔斯登成为第一家因危机而倒闭的投资银行。其他银行紧随其后。今年9月，美国第四大投资银行雷曼兄弟公司向破产案法庭寻求保护。它的失败只会加深信贷市场的担忧。到2008年底，出现国际信贷冻结。没人愿意冒险把钱借给银行或其他可能拥有不良资产的公司。一些人担心甚至可能出现全球大萧条，这是自20世纪30年代以来的首次大萧条。世界上最大的美国经济在2007年底开始萎缩，失业率开始上升。

President George W. Bush's administration, Congress and the central bank, the Federal Reserve, took extraordinary steps to deal with the growing financial crisis. Their efforts included loans to banks, automakers and other companies. The aim was to rescue businesses that officials considered "too big to fail." The bailouts from Washington were a decision that not all of the American people agreed with. But the people also had to make a decision of their own in two thousand eight.

布什总统的政府、国会和中央银行美联储采取了不同寻常的措施，来应对日益严重的金融危机。他们的努力包括向银行、汽车制造商和其他公司提供贷款，目的是拯救那些被官方认为“大到不会倒”的企业。不是所有美国人都同意华盛顿政府制定的救助计划，但是民众也不得不在2008年做出自己的决定。

It was a presidential election year, and the candidates were some of the most diverse in the nation's history. The Republican Party nominated Arizona Senator John McCain. At seventy-two he would have taken office as the nation's oldest first-term president. "So stand up with me, my friends, stand up and fight for America, for her strength, her ideals and her future. The contest begins tonight!" John McCain had been a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-seven, the North Vietnamese shot down his plane and took him prisoner. He was tortured and held for more than five years. He returned home a hero. During the presidential campaign, he spoke often about his experience as a prisoner of war. His campaign message was, "Country First."

今年是总统选举年，候选人在美国历史上是最具多样性的人选。共和党提名亚利桑那州72岁的参议员约翰·麦凯恩，他将成为美国出任第一任期年龄最大的总统。“所以，我的朋友们，请与我为伴，为美国、为她的力量，她的理想和她的未来而战。今晚角逐开始！”约翰·麦凯恩在越战期间曾是一名海军飞行员。1967年，北越人击落了他的飞机，将其俘虏，并进行了五年多的折磨。他回家时，人们把他当作一位英雄。在总统竞选期间，他经常谈到自己作为战俘的经历。他的竞选口号是“国家优先”。

Senator McCain quickly secured the Republican nomination to succeed George Bush. The Democrats needed more time to choose a nominee. The race settled on two leading candidates. One of them was Hillary Clinton. Her husband was former president Bill Clinton. They spent eight years living in the White House. As first lady she held an unusually public role in her husband's administration. Later she was twice elected as a senator from New York. Now she was trying to return to the White House -- this time as the first woman president of the United States. "So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl!" The other leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination would also make history if elected. He was a first-term United States senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

参议员麦凯恩很快获得共和党提名，接替乔治·布什。民主党需要更多的时间来选择提名人，角逐的结果选出两位领先的候选人。其中一位就是希拉里·克林顿，其丈夫是前总统比尔·克林顿，他们在白宫居住八年。作为第一夫人，她在丈夫的政府中扮演着不同寻常的公众角色。后来，她两次担任纽约州选参议员。现在，她正试图重返白宫，这次是要做美国第一位女总统。“所以，如果你想要一个知道如何与他们较量的胜利者，我就是你们要的那个女孩！”民主党提名的另一位主要候选人如果当选，也将创造历史。他是来自伊利诺伊州出任第一任期的美国参议员，名叫巴拉克奥巴马。

He was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. If he won, he would be America's first black president. Blacks in the United States had been slaves until eighteen sixty-three. They were not permitted to vote until eighteen seventy. Women in the United States did not have a constitutional right to vote until nineteen twenty. And not until the nineteen sixties did federal civil rights laws bar discrimination against either group. During the nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a lot of discussion and debate in America about gender and race. Some talked about the problems that women still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a woman as president. Others talked about the problems that blacks still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a black man as president.

他出生于夏威夷，母亲是堪萨斯州的白人，父亲是肯尼亚黑人。如果他获胜，将成为美国第一位黑人总统。美国的黑人在1863年以前一直是奴隶，他们直到1870年才经允许进行投票。美国女性直到1920年才享有宪法赋予的投票权。到20世纪60年代，联邦民权法才禁止歧视这两个群体。在希拉里·克林顿和巴拉克·奥巴马的提名之争中，美国就性别和种族问题展开了大量的讨论和辩论。一些人谈到女性在社会上仍然面临的问题，并怀疑美国人是否能接受女性担任总统。另一些人则谈到黑人在社会上仍然面临的问题，他们想知道美国人是否能接受黑人当总统。