VOA标准英语2008年-Analysts Say Economic Crisis Started with Bad H

The economic crisis has spread into many areas of the U.S. economy--banks, investment firms, insurance companies, and even the oil markets. But as VOA's Kent Klein reports from Washington, experts seem to agree that the trouble started with bad loans in the housing industry, and grew into a widespread crisis of confidence.

Gus Faucher, the Director of Macroeconomics at the economic website Moody's Economy.com, is one of many experts who say the crisis began in the U.S. housing market. He says prices rose unrealistically high and credit was given too easily. "We had people who, in retrospect², were given mortgage loans but should not have been given mortgage loans because they really could not afford them. So now we are seeing the effects of that," he said.

International economist³ Robert Scott, at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, blames the Federal Reserve--the U.S. central bank--for allowing housing prices to rise too high. "For the last seven or eight years, until just the last year or so, Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that the housing market was sound, that there was nothing wrong with the rise in housing prices, (which) many, many economists⁴ were saying was unsustainable. So he let that bubble build up, he did nothing about it, and he bears a lot of responsibility for this crisis," Scott said.

But that may not be the whole reason. Ted¹ Truman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says while the financial woes⁵ started in the mortgage lending industry, the causes of those problems have been afflicting⁶ other financial markets. "Everybody calls it a subprime crisis, in the sense that if no subprime mortgages had ever been made, we would not have had a crisis. And even the thought that it is all about housing, I think, is an exaggeration. It is about easy credit, and financial engineering that went wild, and people who thought that the good times would never come to an end and were planning accordingly," Truman said.

According to Faucher, the bad loans that were handed out by mortgage lenders are still causing trouble for consumers and for financial institutions. "There are simply a lot of bad housing-related securities out there. Those are falling in value. The problem is, we are not sure who is holding all of those. And as we find out about institutions that are holding them, those institutions start to fail, and that is causing problems throughout the entire financial system."

Faucher says banks are reluctant to lend to one another, because they are not sure which institutions are holding bad debt. He says the banks are also reluctant to make loans, so the entire system is coming to a halt. According to Faucher, worries that one failing financial institution could drag down others led the U.S. government to buy out most of the huge insurance company A.I.G.

"The Federal Reserve and the Treasury⁷ Department were concerned that A.I.G. is involved in many different financial markets. And they were concerned that if A.I.G. failed, that would bring down the entire financial system. So therefore, they decided⁸ to step in and have, essentially⁹, the federal government take over the firm."

Many economists, including Scott, believe tighter regulation could have prevented the crisis. "Mistake number one was failing to regulate the financial sector¹⁰. We should have required them to hold much greater reserves. They are not required to hold any reserves now. Secondly¹¹, we should have limited which they can invest in these high-risk assets," Scott said.

Robert Reich, who was Labor¹² Secretary under President Bill Clinton, says the troubles have worsened to this point because there was not enough regulation of the financial industry between 2002 and 2006, when the economy was strong.

"Wall Street increased its borrowing dramatically. Our financial institutions increased borrowing much faster than economic growth. Individuals increased their borrowing, also, much faster than economic growth. But nobody was minding the store. Our regulators were not overseeing the system to make sure that there was adequate disclosure (and) capital requirements, so that information could get to the right people at the right time. The system was no longer transparent¹³," he said.

Reich says America's financial markets need to adhere to the same standards that the U.S. encourages in other countries. "The United States continues to tell developing nations, as the I.M.F. and World Bank continue to tell developing nations, that they have to have a transparent capital market before capital will be attracted to them. Well, the same principle applies to the United States. Unless our markets are transparent, capital, at some point, is going to be afraid and start stampeding out of those markets, and that is exactly what has happened," he said.

In recent days, both U.S. presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat¹⁴ Barack Obama, have advocated tighter regulation of financial institutions. And U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is said to be considering creating an institution to deal with troubled banks and investments.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 retrospect   

n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯

参考例句：

• One's school life seems happier in retrospect than in reality.学校生活回忆起来显得比实际上要快乐。
• In retrospect,it's easy to see why we were wrong.回顾过去就很容易明白我们的错处了。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

6 afflicting   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• Violent crime is only one of the maladies afflicting modern society. 暴力犯罪仅仅是困扰现代社会的严重问题之一。
• Violent crime is only one of the maladies afflicting modern society. 暴力犯罪仅仅是危害社会的弊病之一。

7 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

8 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。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

11 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

12 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。

13 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

14 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。