America’s Treasury asks Congress for $700 billion to stabilise the markets
美国财政部请求国会拨款7000亿美元以稳定市场
UNTIL this week America’s authorities clung to the hope that they could tide over the financial system with a few loans until home prices stabilised and all the bad debts were accounted for. But the destruction visited on Wall Street in the past week has dashed those aspirations and forced policymakers to consider a more sweeping response. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and AIG’s federal takeover have triggered a wholesale flight to safety that could turn illiquid institutions insolvent. Healthy corporations can no longer issue bonds. Banks can barely borrow from each other.
在本周以前，美国当局还一直坚信他们用一些贷款就能稳住金融系统直到房屋价格企稳并且所有的坏账都得以解决。但是本周对于华尔街毁灭性的打击使得他们原来的梦想破灭，迫使这些政策制定者不得不考虑更加全面的应对方法。雷曼的破产和AIG被政府接管迫使资金都流入安全港避难，从而使得那些流动性匮乏的机构濒临倒闭。现在，就连运转良好的公司也不再发行债券，银行间的同业拆解更是凤毛麟角。
The federal government, having lent hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and investment banks and AIG, now thinks it must put permanent capital into the financial system to restore confidence and stop the vicious spiral. Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, met Congressional leaders towards the end of the week. And on Saturday September 20th Mr Paulson sent a preliminary plan under which the federal government would be authorised to purchase up to $700 billion of “residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages” originated or issued on or before Wednesday. It could buy them from any financial institution headquartered in the United States.
已经给予商业银行、投行以及AIG数千亿美元的美国联邦政府认为，必须给金融系统注入永久资金来重塑信心并且停止恶性循环。财长保尔森和美联储主席伯南克将在本周末会见国会领袖。在周六(9月20日)，保尔森会做出一份初步计划。这份计划要求美国联邦政府授权购入多达7000亿美元的，本周三及其以前创立的或者发行的”住房和商业抵押贷款，证券和债券以及其它基于住房抵押的或者与住房抵押有关的票据”。这将会从任何总部位于美国的金融机构买入。
America’s financial regulators had already taken some steps to restore order to the markets. On Friday it followed the example set by their British counterparts and temporarily banned the short-selling of shares in financial institutions. Short-sellers have taken the blame for some of the instability. The Treasury also announced that it would provide guarantees of $50 billion to money-market funds, where cracks are also appearing.
美国金融监管者在重整市场秩序上已经采取一些措施了。周五，美国监管者循其英国同行的先例，暂时关闭金融机构的卖空行为。有人指责卖空行为是导致市场不稳的原因之一。财政部也发表声明表示会给货币市场基金提供500亿美元的担保。货币市场基金的裂痕已经开始显现。
At the same time, the Federal Reserve announced two measures aimed at easing strains in money markets. It will buy short-term debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from primary dealers. In a sign of the acute stress in markets this week, this paper has been trading at spreads of almost three precentage points above government debt of comparable maturity despite the de facto nationalisation of the mortgage agencies two weeks ago. The Fed will also extend loans to banks to buy asset-backed commercial paper from money-market funds that face redemptions.
与此同时，美联储发布两项措施以放松货币市场的限制。美联储将会从一级交易商那里购入两房发行的短期债。在本周已经出现异常巨大压力迹象的市场，尽管两房实际上已经在两周前就被”国有化”了，但是他们发行的短期债却比与之相当的要到期的政府债券的息差要高出近三个百分点。美联储也会从货币市场买入面临赎回的有资产背景的商业票据，这相当于美联储扩大贷款范畴到银行业。
The authorities are considering two broad approaches to shore up the financial system. One is to create an institution to provide capital to weakened institutions. A proposal floated on Thursday by Charles Schumer, a Democratic senator, would recreate the Depression-era Reconstruction Finance Corporation to “provide capital to struggling financial institutions in exchange for an equity stake.” The banks would have to let judges write down delinquent mortgages to levels homeowners could afford. Such an institution could conceivably relieve the Fed of its politically compromising loans to Bear Stearns and AIG.
美国当局正在考虑两个全面支持金融系统的方法。一种方法是建立一家新的机构给那些陷入困境的公司提供资金。这个建议由民主党参议员Charles Schumer于周二提出。这个建议会使得经济大萧条时期的复兴银行公司重现江湖。这家公司是”以换取股权的方式给陷入困境的金融机构提供资金。”这样银行就会允许被评定并减记未偿付的抵押贷款，从而使得房屋拥有者可以承受。这样一个机构可以减轻美联储的压力，美联储用于政治上的压力不得不贷款给贝尔斯登以及AIG。
The problem is that such an approach might not have much impact until bad debts drove many institutions to the brink of failure and they had nowhere else to turn. By that point, the economy would be in dire straits and the financial system in chaos. Moreover, the Bush administration has opposed forcing lenders to write down their mortgages.
（责任编辑:allen）
