Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Tuesday implored members of the Senate Banking Committee to quickly enact legislation that would permit the government to buy up bad housing-related loans that have negatively impacted credit markets.
美联储主席伯南克和财政部长保尔森星期二恳求参议院银行委员会的成员尽快制定议案，允许政府收购严重影响信贷市场的房屋贷款坏帐。
Bernanke said quick action is required to stabilize financial markets and combat the threat of economic slowdown. He said markets wildly gyrated last week and dire consequences loomed as the government scrambled to come up with a plan to shore up bad housing related loans.
伯南克说，必须尽快采取行动，以稳定金融市场，抵御经济放缓的威胁。他说，上星期市场剧烈波动，可怕的后果赫然成形，政府匆忙拿出这份收购房屋贷款坏帐的方案。
Treasury Secretary Paulson told skeptical lawmakers that the two-year long slump in the U.S. housing market is the cause of the crisis.
财政部长保尔森对持怀疑态度的国会议员们表示，美国房地产市场持续两年的下滑是这场危机的根源。
"The root cause is the housing correction [price declines], as you have all pointed out, that has resulted in illiquid mortgage assets choking off the flow of credit, which is so vitally important to our economy," said Paulson.
他说：“根本原因是房地产市场的调整，正像你们所有人指出得那样，房屋价格下滑导致了无法兑现的房贷资产，窒息了对我们的经济至关重要的信贷流动。”
Bernanke defended recent actions by the government to deal with the problem. Those measures since September 7, included taking over the two government sponsored entities most involved in home finance, allowing the Lehman Brothers investment bank to fail, taking over AIG - the world's biggest insurer, and then announcing Friday a $700-billion rescue plan that must be approved by Congress.
伯南克为政府最近处理危机所采取的行动做辩护。这些措施包括，接管两家政府赞助的房屋贷款融资公司，允许投资银行雷曼兄弟公司申请破产保护，接管全球最大的保险公司美国国际集团，然后于上星期五宣布了7千亿美元的救援方案，这个方案必须得到国会的批准。
Bernanke denied that the government has been too generous to the shareholders and managers of failing institutions.
伯南克否定有关政府对于那些陷于困境的金融机构的股东和主管人员过于慷慨的说法。
"We have insisted on bringing the shareholder value down close to zero, imposing tough terms and so on. But the firms we are dealing with now [with the proposed legislation] are not necessarily failing," he said. "They are contracting, de-leveraging and pulling back. And they will be unwilling to make credit available as long as market conditions are as they are now."
他说：“我们一直坚持把这些股东们持有的资产价值降到几乎为零，并设定严厉条件和采取其他措施。但是我们现在所要挽救的公司是那些并不见得会倒闭的金融机构，它们正在采取紧缩措施，减少杠杆投资和紧缩开支。然而只要它们目前所处的市场条件不改变，它们就不会情愿发放贷款。”
Lawmakers were insistent that bankers not be rescued at the expense of ordinary homeowners and consumers. Both Bernanke and Paulson agreed, but said without a comprehensive bailout all consumers will suffer.
国会议员们坚持认为，政府不应当以牺牲普通房主和消费者的利益来挽救银行家。伯南克和保尔森对此表示认同，但是他们强调，如果不实行全面的收购计划，所有的消费者都将受到伤害。
Paulson, who was a top executive of the Goldman Sachs investment bank before coming to Washington, blamed weak regulation for the abuses in mortgage finance.
在华盛顿任职之前曾担任高盛投资银行总裁的保尔森把滥发房屋贷款的原因归咎于监管不利。
"I was shocked, absolutely shocked [when I arrived in DC two years ago], to find that it was not deregulation or too much regulation or too little regulation, it was just a flawed regulatory structure built for a different model," said Paulson.
他说：“(两年前当我到华盛顿任职的时候)，我就感到非常震惊，因为我发现问题并不是放松监管、监管太多、或管理不够，而是监管结构有缺陷，那个监管结构是为另一种不同的模式建立的。”
In 1999 Congress gave increased freedoms to the financial service industry, but failed to create a comprehensive regulatory structure.
1999年，美国国会扩大了金融服务产业的自由度，但是却没有建立起一个新的全面的监管机制。
President Bush, speaking at the United Nations in New York, said he is acting decisively to contain the financial crisis. The administration wants Congress to approve the rescue legislation before its scheduled adjournment on Friday, but there is no clear indication that that timetable will hold.
布什总统在纽约联合国大会上表示，他正在采取坚定的行动来控制金融危机。布什政府希望国会在星期五国会休会之前批准这项救助立法。但是目前还没有明确迹象显示国会将按照这个时间表如期完成有关的立法程序。 |