VOA慢速英语 2008 0201a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. 

Last week, France's second largest bank, Societe Generale, announced that a single, middle-level trader had caused the bank to lose over seven billion dollars.  It was the largest trading loss by an individual in banking¹ history. 

 
 
Jerome Kerviel reportedly made trades in European stock index derivatives².  These complex investments are bets that stock indexes will rise or fall.  Mister Kerviel's job was to place bets that indexes would both rise and fall.  Doing this limits the risk of losing a lot.  But it also limits gains.  Mister Kerviel worked in a part of the bank that was supposed to take on little risk.  The bank said Mister Kerviel took measures to avoid its risk controls.  

Reports say Mister Kerviel found a way to hide the fact that he bet only on stock prices rising.  He also hid the huge amounts of his bets from bank supervisors³.  When stock prices dropped, his financial positions, worth an estimated seventy-three billion dollars, had to be closed at a huge loss. 

French government lawyers brought charges against the thirty-one-year-old trader on Monday. Mister Kerviel was charged with breach⁴ of trust and illegal computer activity.  However, he was not charged with financial wrongdoing or false signing of documents.  Mister Kerviel has denied that he tried to profit from his activities.  His lawyer says he is being unfairly charged.  

The bank said it only discovered Mister Kerviel's activities on January twentieth.  But a government lawyer said exchange officials had warned the bank about the trader's deals late last year. The lawyer said Mister Kerviel told him he had started his activities at the end of two thousand five.

Many in the French government are pressuring the bank's chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton to resign. Mister Bouton has offered to resign twice but both times the bank's board did not accept his resignation.

Some experts believe efforts by Societe Generale to close out Mister Kerviel's financial positions played a part in driving down European stock prices early last week.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate for the second time in eight days. On Wednesday, the central bank cut the important interest rate by half a percentage point to three percent. The Fed said it is now more concerned about the slowing economy than about inflation. 

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.  I'm Steve Ember.

 

1 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

2 derivatives   

n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数

参考例句：

• Many English words are derivatives of Latin words. 许多英语词来自拉丁语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These compounds are nitrosohydroxylamine derivatives. 这类合成物是亚硝基羟胺衍生物。 来自辞典例句

3 supervisors   

n.监督者，管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
• Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句

4 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。