voa标准英语2008-US Stocks Plummet Monday, Experts Confirm Recess

Stock prices plummeted¹ in New York on Monday. And a recession was declared as of a year ago. VOA's Barry Wood has more.
　

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, 01 Dec. 2008

On Wall Street, it was the fourth biggest daily point decline on record. Amid mounting pessimism² about a decelerating global economy, the Dow Jones Industrials lost 680 points to close at 8,149. All 30 stocks in the Dow index were down, with financials and technology stocks being hardest hit. The decline wiped out half of the gains posted in last week. Stocks have fallen more than 40 percent from their record highs set in October 2007.

A committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the U.S. economy fell into recession last December.

"When we're looking at dating a recession, we're looking primarily at measures of economic activity," said James Poterba, chairman of the Bureau. "That means production, employment, the level of gross domestic product and income measures. We focus on everything measured in constant dollars."

While not a government agency, the NBER is considered the official arbiter³ of dating U.S. recessions. It does not predict how long recessions or economic downturns will last. But this recession has surpassed the ten-month average length of recessions in the post-World War II period. The last U.S. recession, in 2001, was relatively⁴ short and mild.
　

Ben Bernanke (file)

Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board - the nation's central bank - was asked Monday about the parallels between the current economic downturn and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"There is no comparison. There is an order of magnitude difference between being in the slow-down and financial distress⁵ we're experiencing in this economy and what happened in the 1930s," he said. "In the 1930s, there was a worldwide depression that lasted about 12 years and was only ended by a world war. During that time, the unemployment rate went to 25 percent, at least, based on the data we have. The real gross domestic product fell by one-third. About a third of all the banks failed. The stock market fell by 90 percent."

Despite Monday's recession announcement, Bernanke said it would be difficult to cut key interest rates much more to boost the economy.

Meanwhile, the price of oil fell by more than $5 to a little more than $49 a barrel. Gold fell $42 to $777 an ounce.

1 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 pessimism   

n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者

参考例句：

• He displayed his usual pessimism.他流露出惯有的悲观。
• There is the note of pessimism in his writings.他的著作带有悲观色彩。

3 arbiter   

n.仲裁人，公断人

参考例句：

• Andrew was the arbiter of the disagreement.安德鲁是那场纠纷的仲裁人。
• Experiment is the final arbiter in science.实验是科学的最后仲裁者。

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。