VOA慢速英语 2007 1012a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

 
 
Weak or strong. Which is better? If the question is about the American dollar, the answer depends on whom you ask.

The dollar has been weakening against several major currencies. One euro is currently worth about one dollar forty cents. A British pound is worth over two dollars.

Many widely traded products are bought and sold in dollars. These commodities include oil, soybeans and metals like copper¹. A weak dollar can mean a better deal for foreign buyers. But for oil producers and countries that tie the value of their own money to the dollar, weakness reduces their purchasing power.

A weak dollar, though, may help reduce the American trade deficit² because it makes American exports less costly³. But in the United States it can raise the cost of imports. An exception is imports from China.

The Chinese government sets the value of the yuan on foreign exchanges. This year the yuan has increased less than four percent against the weakening dollar. This has kept the prices of Chinese imports low.

In other cases, however, a weak dollar hurts American businesses that deal in imported goods. They may have to raise prices or sacrifice profits. Many companies do not want to raise their prices for fear that they may lose market share.

The Federal Reserve has said that inflation remains⁴ under control. But the Fed says it is prepared to take action if inflationary pressures increase.

Last month the central bank cut short-term interest rates by half a point. It did so to help keep problems in the housing and credit markets from harming the wider economy and causing a recession.

But some economic worries appeared to ease after the latest jobs report last Friday. The Labor⁵ Department said employment increased by one hundred ten thousand jobs in September. Also, new numbers for August showed a gain of close to ninety thousand jobs.

The department had earlier reported that the economy lost four thousand jobs in August, the first report of job losses in four years.

Still, critics warn of dangers from a weaker dollar and lower interest rates, which reduce the returns on dollar-based investments. A New York Times commentary, for example, said dollar weakness is rooted in the borrow-and-spend behavior of the government and the public. It said foreign lenders will be less and less likely to want to invest in dollars, and that will only make things a lot worse.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Jim Tedder

1 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

2 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。