英文原版对话1000个:962 Financial Crisis

Hanna: OK, so we were talking about finance¹, so we're just going to talk a little bit about the financial crisis². What do you think about it?

Diego: I think the financial crisis is a huge mess and a lot of people don't really understand how it happened or why it happened, so I think it's important to talk about the general background of the whole thing, so basically in my own personal opinion, I think it is that credits got out of hand and they were given to people who were not able to repay³ those credits and the whole system collapsed⁵.

Hanna: But at the same time, if you are taking out a loan and you have a look at the details and realize that you might not be able to pay it out, maybe you should be thinking a little more, a little bit more carefully about whether you actually can afford to take out this loan or not.

Diego: You do have a point but I think it has to do with culture in a way because I am from Mexico and we Mexicans see Americans, that they never ... that they're always taking out loans for everything, right? So they buy a house, they take out a loan. If they buy a car, they take out a loan. So there's this common expression that Americans are always in debt, so that's the whole thing, that people were taking out loans to buy a million dollar house, a 750,000 dollar houses, when they were only able to afford 500 ... 300,000 dollar houses, but they knew they weren't going to be able to pay looking at their income statements and all that, and regardless of all of that, they still gave out those loans.

Hanna: That's true but at the same time, I think you are the person signing the contract if you're taking out the loan. I don't think being in debt is a bad thing, but I think that if you are going to take out a loan, you have to do it responsibly, so you do have to read all the fine print, and you do have get a second opinion about whether you will actually be able to keep going with this loan. I mean, as you said, if you're taking out a loan that's, you know, or mortgage⁶, that's 750,000 grand, I mean, you're gonna be paying that for a long time, and you want to know that twenty years into the future you're not gonna end up losing your house.

Diego: Well, that's the thing, like, the banks in a way ... it's all about the social contract, right, and that social contract was broken from both sides, but the banks knew that the these people we're going to lose their houses in twenty years due to their ... you know, because they weren't going to be able to pay out these loans?

Hanna: Really?

Diego: Yes, they knew that, like I'm pretty sure, because it doesn't take a rocket scientist. If you look at their income statements and you do the math for twenty years at the interest rates they were charging, like I don't .... I think it was just taking advantage of the people in a way.

Hanna: I think the banks have been a little bit irresponsible in this matter, but in the end it is the person taking out the loan who signs the contract, so they also have to bear some of the burden.

Diego: Yes, but this is not the first time that this has happened. It happened back, I don't when ... with the Asian crisis in Thailand, and it was a huge collapse⁴ around the world economy, and it happened in the States before, so it's not the first time that it has happened, so it makes you wonder why do we allow these huge financial institutions and big government to allow these things to happen.

 

1 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

2 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

3 repay   

v.偿还，报答，还钱给

参考例句：

• I feel honor bound to repay the money I borrowed.我觉得有责任归还我借的钱。
• I must repay her for her kindness.我必须报答她的恩惠。

4 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

5 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

6 mortgage   

n.抵押，抵押贷款；vt.抵押

参考例句：

• He's having a lot of trouble paying his mortgage every month.他付每月的抵押借款利息有很大的困难。
• The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.银行拒绝接受任何土地抵押。