VOA慢速英语2009年-Economics Report - Looking Back: Wall Stre

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

One year ago, the United States financial system was in danger of collapse¹. One of Wall Street's oldest investment houses had just sought protection from its creditors². The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy³ on September fifteenth was a shock to the system, but not the only one.
　
Lehman Brothers' headquarters in New York City on the day the company filed for bankruptcy

A week earlier, the government had seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These companies help finance most American housing loans. And one day after Lehman's failure, the government decided⁴ that the huge insurer A.I.G. was too big to fail. The Federal Reserve rescued the American International Group with an eighty-five billion dollar loan.

But soon, credit markets around the world slowed to a halt on fears about the health of banks. By early October, Congress passed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a rescue plan for the financial system.

Banks and other financial companies have received more than two hundred billion dollars. But ten banks agreed in June to repay almost seventy billion of that. And so far, the government has earned about four billion on its investments.

But taxpayers⁵ still own almost eighty percent of A.I.G. They also hold big shares of Citigroup and a number of other banks, as well as sixty percent of General Motors.

On Monday, the anniversary of the Lehman collapse, President Obama renewed his call for reform of financial supervision⁶. He said in a speech on Wall Street that some of the "old ways" that led to the crisis have already returned.

BARRACK OBAMA: "That's why we need strong rules of the road to guard against the kind of systemic risks we have seen. And we have a responsibility to write and enforce these rules to protect consumers of financial products, taxpayers, and our economy as a whole."

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that the recession "is very likely over at this point." But he said the labor⁷ market could remain weak through next year.

Next week, leaders of the world's largest economies will meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They will discuss economic policies and ways to strengthen financial regulation after the crisis. But the Group of Twenty summit also comes as the United States and China face a growing trade dispute.

Last week the Obama administration placed high import taxes on Chinese tires. The aim is to stop what American officials call a "harmful" increase in tire imports. China, in turn, said this week that it will investigate imports of American chicken products and auto⁸ parts. China also asked the World Trade Organization to intervene, to avoid a trade war.

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

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

6 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

7 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。

8 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。