2019年经济学人 Wirecard:迁怒于人 (1)

 

Those who profit from the misery¹ of others are not often popular.

那些从别人的苦难中获益的人通都不受欢迎。

Short-sellers, who try to make money by selling borrowed shares and buying them back later at a lower price, have long been viewed with suspicion.

通过出售借入股票并以更低价买回的卖空型投资者一直以来都有嫌疑。

They are blamed for exacerbating² price falls so that they can reap bigger returns. In times of market stress authorities often ban them.

人们指责他们加剧价格下跌以便获得更大的回报。在市场饱受压力的时期，官方经常会明令禁止卖空。

In 1610 regulators in Amsterdam forbade short-selling, blaming it for a fall in the value of the Dutch East India Company.

1610年，阿姆斯特丹监管者禁止卖空，指责这种行为导致荷兰东印度公司市值下跌。

Two centuries later Napoleon prohibited it as an act of treason.

两百年后，拿破仑将其作为一种叛国行为并明令禁止。

On February 18th BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, banned investors³ from taking new net short positions in Wirecard,

2月18日，德国金融监管者，德国联邦金融监管局禁止投资者对Wirecard建立新的空头头寸，

a German digital-payments firm, after its share price fell by over 40% in under three weeks.

这是一家德国数字支付公司，此前该公司股票价格在不到三周内下跌超过40%。

The crash marked a swift change in its fortunes.

此次暴跌标志着其市值的骤变。

In 2018 Wirecard displaced Commerzbank, a 149-year-old lender, in the DAX 30, an index of Germany's biggest firms.

2018年，Wirecard在德国DAX30指数（德国最大公司的指数）中取代了149年的贷款方Commerzbank。

Wirecard was worth 20.7bn euro ($23.6bn) on January 29th, just before the Financial Times reported that Edo Kurniawan,

1月29日，Wirecard市值为207亿欧元（236美元），此前《金融时报》刚刚报道称该公司新加坡办公室的

a senior executive in the company's Singapore office, was suspected of using fraudulent accounting⁴ techniques to inflate⁵ reported revenues.

一名高管Edo Kurniawan涉嫌利用欺骗性账目手段抬高报告收入。

The share price slid. On February 1st it fell further when the same newspaper reported

公司股价下滑。2月1日，股价进一步下跌，当时该报还报道称

that Rajah & Tann, a law firm commissioned by Wirecard to investigate the allegations,

受Wirecard委托调查这些指控的法律公司Rajah & Tann

had presented preliminary evidence to senior management in May 2018 suggesting the offences were a part of a pattern of book-padding.

在2018年5月就向高级管理层提交了初步证据，这表明这些违规行为只是账目填充模式的一部分。

On February 8th, as Wirecard's Singapore office was visited by the police, its market value fell to 11.7bn euro.

2月8日，警察来访Wirecard新加坡办公室，公司市值下跌至117亿欧元。

The firm refutes the reports, claiming that the Financial Times has acted unethically.

公司驳斥该报的报道，称《金融时报》的行为不道德。

Its management says an internal investigation⁶ is ongoing⁷, and that a second,

其管理层表示，正在进行内部调查，

external investigation by Rajah & Tann is still under way and has produced "no conclusive⁸ evidence of criminal misconduct".

Rajah & Tann的第二次外部调查仍在进行当中并且“没有证据表明存在犯罪行为”。

The firm says it is working closely with the police in Singapore. It says it plans to take legal action against the Financial Times.

1 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

2 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

3 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

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

8 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。