2019年经济学人 一周要闻 日产大规模裁员 特朗普再批美联储 福特叫板特斯拉

 

South Africa’s finance minister laid out plans to provide Eskom, which generates most of the country’s electricity, with another rescue, this time worth 59bn rand ($4.2bn). Moody’s, a credit-rating agency, said that because the embattled utility is ever more dependent on bail-outs it would regard Eskom’s debt as part of the government’s.

南非财政部长提出了向Eskom提供另一项援助的计划，这次的援助价值590亿兰特(合42亿美元)。Eskom为南非提供了大部分电力。信用评级机构穆迪表示，由于这家陷入困境的国有企业越来越依赖纾困，它将把Eskom的债务视为政府债务的一部分。

The Federal Reserve took the unusual step of qualifying the remarks of a senior official to reassure¹ markets that they had not been made in relation to the central bank’s forthcoming decision on interest rates. Speculation² that the Fed might cut its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, rather than a quarter, mounted after John Williams, who heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that he supports aggressive easing. Donald Trump³, a critic of the Fed’s recent monetary⁴ tightening⁵, seized on the remarks, saying they underlined its “faulty thought process”.

美联储(FED)采取了不同寻常的措施，对一位高级官员的言论进行了限定，以安抚市场，并称这些言论并非针对美联储即将做出的利率决定。纽约联邦储备银行行长约翰·威廉姆斯(John Williams)表示支持激进的宽松政策后，有关美联储可能将基准利率下调0.5个而不是0.25个百分点的猜测迅速升温。批评美联储最近收紧货币政策的特朗普(Donald Trump)利用这番言论做文章，称其凸显出美联储“错误的思维过程”。

Costs related to the overhaul⁶ of its business pushed Deutsche Bank to a 3.2bn euros ($3.5bn) net loss in the second quarter, its biggest quarterly loss in four years. The German bank booked about half of a restructuring charge it will take as it retreats from trading and slashes⁷ 18,000 jobs over the next three years.

受业务重组相关成本的拖累，德意志银行第二季度净亏损32亿欧元(合35亿美元)，为4年来最大的季度亏损。这家德国银行计入了约一半的重组费用。未来三年，该行将退出交易业务，并裁减1.8万个岗位。

Nissan confirmed it would cut 12,500 jobs worldwide, or 10% of its workforce⁸, by 2022, as it curtails⁹ capacity. The Japanese carmaker has struggled in recent years. Profit in the latest quarter fell by 95% compared with the same three months last year, to ￥6.4bn ($58m).

日产证实，由于削减产能，到2022年，该公司将在全球裁员1.25万人，占员工总数的10%。这家日本汽车制造商近年来举步维艰。其最近一个季度的盈利较去年同期下降了95%，仅64亿日元(约5800万美元)。

General Motors delayed the large-scale roll-out of its autonomous-car ride-hailing service, which it has developed in collaboration¹⁰ with Cruise, its self-driving-car unit. It had hoped to deploy¹¹ a fleet of robotaxis on the roads of San Francisco by the end of this year, but the launch has been delayed indefinitely. GM, like its competitors, is still dealing¹² with technical obstacles and unresolved regulatory questions.

通用汽车推迟了其自主汽车叫车服务的大规模推出计划。该服务是通用汽车与其自动驾驶汽车子公司克鲁斯(Cruise)合作开发的。该公司曾希望于今年年底前在旧金山的道路上布置一支机器人出租车队，但这一计划被无限期推迟。与竞争对手一样，通用汽车仍在应对技术障碍和尚未解决的监管问题。

In the week when Tesla dismayed investors¹³ with another disappointing quarterly earnings¹⁴ report, Ford¹⁵ unveiled an electric-powered prototype of its f-150 pickup¹⁶ truck in response to a claim by Elon Musk¹⁷ that Tesla’s rival model would have better “functionality”. Ford’s f-series pickups are the best-selling cars in America. In a show of strength, its prototype pulled a freight train for 1,000 feet, a direct challenge to Mr Musk’s boast about the better performance of his new vehicle.

上周，特斯拉(Tesla)发布了又一份令人失望的季度业绩报告，令投资者大失所望。福特(Ford)发布了一款f-150皮卡电动原型车，来回应对埃隆·马斯克声称特斯拉的竞争款车型将拥有更好的“性能”。福特的f系列皮卡是美国最畅销的汽车。为了彰显自身实力，福特的这辆原型车拉着一列货运列车行驶了1000英尺(约合4300米)，“隔空叫板”马斯克，后者曾吹嘘其新车性能更佳。

1 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

2 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

5 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

6 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

7 slashes   

n.（用刀等）砍( slash的名词复数 )；（长而窄的）伤口；斜杠；撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• They report substantial slashes in this year's defense outlays. 他们报道今年度国防经费的大量削减。 来自辞典例句
• Inmates suffered injuries ranging from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma. 囚犯们有的被刺伤，有的被砍伤，而有的头部首创，伤势不一而足。 来自互联网

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

9 curtails   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The obsequious brush curtails truth deference to the canvas which is narrow. 谄媚的画笔依从狭窄的画布把真理打了折扣。 来自互联网
• The obsequious brush curtails truth in deference to the canvas which is narrow. 阿谀的画笔顺从目光短浅的画布，真理因而被削弱。 来自互联网

10 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

11 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

12 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。

13 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

14 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

15 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

16 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

17 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。