2019年经济学人 一周要闻 美国去年GDP不达标 美国食药监局局长辞职 日产前董事长意外获保释（在线收听）

The world this week

本周要闻

Business

商业

Carlos Ghosn was released from detention in Tokyo after posting bail of ￥1bn ($9m). The sacked chairman of Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault had been held in custody since mid-November on charges of financial wrongdoing at Nissan, which he denies. Under strict bail conditions, Mr Ghosn will stay at a house under 24-hour camera surveillance. He is not allowed to communicate with people over the internet.

卡洛斯·戈恩（Carlos Ghosn）在东京缴纳10亿日元(约900万美元)后获得保释。这位被解职的日产、三菱和雷诺董事长自去年11月中旬以来一直被拘留，他被控在日产存在财务违规行为，但他否认了这一指控。在严格的保释条件下，戈恩将呆在一所24小时被监控的房间内。他被禁止上网与任何人联络。

For personal reasons

个人原因

In an announcement that took Washington by surprise, Scott Gottlieb said he would resign as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Mr Gottlieb had worked to speed up the approval of new drugs, but he was greatly disliked by the tobacco industry for his forceful attempt to halt the epidemic of teen vaping and proposal to ban menthol cigarettes. Before his resignation, conservative groups had been trying to halt his efforts to crack down on the vaping industry. Biotech stocks sank on the news, whereas tobacco stocks rose.

斯科特·戈特利布(Scott Gottlieb)在一份声明中表示，他将辞去美国食品和药物管理局(FDA)局长一职，这令华盛顿颇感意外。戈特利布曾努力推进新药物的批准流程，但他也因限制青少年吸电子烟而做出的强有力措施，以及提议禁止薄荷香烟受到烟草业的反感。在他辞职前，保守派组织一直试图阻止他打击电子烟行业的措施。受此消息影响，生物科技股下跌，而烟草股上涨。

The chief executive of Vale stepped down. Prosecutors had asked for his “temporary” suspension after the collapse of a dam in Brazil that held waste from one of Vale’s iron-ore mines, killing at least 186 people. Scores are still missing.

淡水河谷首席执行官辞职。巴西淡水河谷(Vale)一座铁矿的废料坝发生坍塌，造成至少186人死亡。在此之后，检察官曾要求对他进行“暂时”停职。仍有多人失踪。

Chevron and ExxonMobil significantly increased their production targets for shale oil in the Permian Basin, underlining how bigger oil companies are putting pressure on smaller independent firms that operate in the region. Chevron’s boss remarked that “the shale game has become a scale game.”

雪佛龙(Chevron)和埃克森美孚(ExxonMobil)大幅提高了二叠纪盆地页岩油的产量目标，此举突显出大型石油公司正对该地区运营的小型独立企业施压。雪佛龙的老板称:“页岩油开采已然成为一个规模游戏。”

The American economy grew by 2.9% in 2018, its best performance in three years. The surge in growth in the middle of the year, thanks in part to tax cuts, was offset by decelerating consumer spending towards the end of the year.

2018年美国经济增长2.9%，是三年来最好的表现。一定程度上得益于减税政策，该国的经济在年中实现大幅增长，但接近年底时消费者支出的放缓，抵消了这一增长势头。

A slowdown in the fourth quarter hit South Africa’s economy, which grew by just 0.8% last year, well below the roughly 5% that is needed to make a dent in an unemployment rate of 27%.

第四季度的经济放缓使南非经济受到打击，南非经济去年仅增长了0.8%，远低于降低27%的失业率所需的大约5%。

Mizuho, one of Japan’s biggest banks, booked a ￥680bn ($6.1bn) write-down. That was mostly because of restructuring costs, though Mizuho also lost money trading in foreign bonds, which many Japanese banks turned to in search of higher yields when interest rates turned negative at home.

作为日本最大的银行之一的瑞穗银行减记6800亿日元(61亿美元)。这主要是因为重组成本，不过瑞穗银行在外国债券交易中也出现了亏损。许多日本银行会在国内利率变为负值时，转向海外债券以寻求更高的收益率。