VOA标准英语2009年-G20 Leaders Wrap Up Their Economic Summit

By Jim Randle
Pittsburgh
26 September 2009

 
G20 leaders meet during the second plenary session at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh
Group of 20 leaders wrapped up their summit Friday with agreements intended to prevent future economic meltdowns, and giving key emerging nations a larger voice in international economic issues. 

U.S. President Barack Obama said the G20 leaders agreed on concrete steps to prevent another financial meltdown like the current one that has pushed millions of people into unemployment and cost trillions of dollars in lost wealth.

"Never again let the schemes a reckless few put the world's financial system and our peoples' wellbeing at risk," he said.

He said the agreement generally increases regulation of the financial system, and calls for banks to keep larger reserves to cover losses from bad loans and failed investments.

He said the leaders crafted procedures to cope with the failure of major financial firms in an orderly way that minimizes damage to the financial system and the public treasury¹.
 
And he said there will be new rules governing the way bankers get paid.

"We will tie executive pay to long-term performance so that sound decisions are rewarded instead of short-term greed. In short our financial system will be far more secure than the one that failed so dramatically last year," he said.

European leaders wanted specific limits on the huge bonuses that critics said encouraged bankers to take reckless risks in pursuit of short term profits.
 
The agreement stops short of that, but calls for complex rules intended to restrain bonus payments.

Mr. Obama said the economic picture has improved, but there is a long way to go before recovery is complete.

Many G20 members have been trying to bolster² their economies by cutting interest rates and raising spending on public works. The leaders said the fledgling recovery still needs help, and pledged to continue stimulus³ efforts for a while.

And leaders of the world's wealthiest nations, including Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the heads of key emerging economies agreed to use the G20 as a forum⁴ to debate and decide international economic issues. "The G20 will now be seen as the premier⁵ economic organization for dealing⁶ with issues of economic management around the world," he said.

That is a change from the tradition of putting such issues before the G8, made up of mostly wealthy western countries.

The change recognizes that develolping nations like India and China are a large and growing share of the world's economic output. Carnegie Mellon University Economics Professor Lester Lave says the economic crisis made the change urgent.

"Your people and your economy are being put at risk by nations that are not necessarily thinking about you or their good, so you would want to have more of a say in what is going on," he said.

The two day summit in Pittsburgh is the third meeting of G20 leaders in less than a year as nations struggle to ease the recession.

Their efforts did not impress the thousands of protesters who complained that the global economic system is unfair, and that G20 nations do too little to help the poor. Police made some arrests and used tear gas to cope with some of the demonstrations⁷.

1 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。

2 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

3 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

4 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

5 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

6 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

7 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。