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I want your money
我要用的就是你的钱
No government bail-out of the banking system was ever going to be pretty. This one deserves support
政府对银行系统的救助永远不可能完美，但当下的这个理应得到支持。
SAVING the world is a thankless task. The only thing beyond dispute in the $700 billion plan of Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, to stem the financial crisis is that everyone can find something in it to dislike. The left accuses it of ripping off taxpayers to save Wall Street, the right damns it as socialism; economists disparage its technicalities, political scientists its sweeping powers. The administration gave ground to Congress, George Bush delivered a televised appeal and Barack Obama and John McCain suspended the presidential campaign. Even so, as The Economist went to press, the differences remained. There was a chance that Congress would say no.
拯救世界是一个费力不讨好的任务。财长鲍尔森和联储主席伯南克为了阻止金融危机而主张了7000亿美元救助计划，其中只有一点是毋庸置疑的：每个人都能从该计划中挑出些毛病来（不可能让每个人都满意—）。左翼势力控诉该计划无异于抢劫纳税人的钱财去救助华尔街，右翼势力谴责该计划为社会主义运动；经济学家鄙视计划的学术性，政治科学家崇拜它横扫一切的强大威力。执政当局向国会进行了妥协：布什发出了电视呼吁，奥巴马和麦凯恩也暂停了竞选大战。即使如此，经济学人杂志在付印时分歧仍在（还是保留了异见）。国会曾经是有机会拒绝该计划的。
Spending a sum of money that could buy you a war in Iraq should not come easily; and the notion of any bail-out is deeply troubling to any self-respecting capitalist. Against that stand two overriding arguments. First this is a plan that could work (see article). And, second, the potential costs of producing nothing, or too little too slowly, include a financial collapse and a deep recession spilling across the world: those far outweigh any plausible estimate of the bail-out’s cost.
花掉相当于伊战军费规模的一大笔银子不应该如此轻松，况且救助的理念令任何一个有自尊心的资本家都感到非常不安。但针对上述论调有两大主要反对观点：第 一，这是一个可能行之有效的方案；第二，那些毫无效果或者收效甚微的潜在支出已经大大超过了救援计划合理的成本预测，上述支出包括蔓延全球的金融崩溃和经 济萎缩所招致的损失。
Mr Market goes to Congress
让国会来判决市场
America’s financial system has two ailments: it owns a huge amount of toxic securities linked to falling house prices. And it is burdened by losses that leave it short of capital (although the world has capital, not enough has been available to the banks). For over a year, since August 2007, central bankers, principally Mr Bernanke, have been trying to make this toxic debt liquid. But by September 17th, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the nationalisation of American International Group earlier that week, the problem started to become one of the system’s solvency too. The market lost faith in a strategy that saved finance one institution at a time. The economy is not healing itself. If credit markets stay blocked, consumers and firms will enter a vicious spiral.
美国金融体系微恙有二：过量持有与狂跌房价相关的有毒债券；损失的负担致使体系内呈现出资本短缺（尽管全球拥有很多资本，但是银行可用部分确严重不足）。 自2007年8月以来的一年时间里，以伯南克为主要代表的央行一直致力于有毒债务的清偿。但截止到9月17日，紧随雷曼兄弟的破产和美国国际集团的国有 化，该难题发展成了金融体系清偿能力的麻烦之一。市场对于采取逐个机构救助的方法来挽救金融体系的策略已经失去了信心，美国经济不可能实现自救。如果信贷 市场依然一片僵局，消费者和公司必将卷入更为凶残的漩涡。
Mr Paulson’s plan relies on buying vast amounts of toxic securities. The theory is that in any auction a huge buyer like the federal government would end up paying more than today’s prices, temporarily depressed by the scarcity of buyers, and still buy the loans cheaply enough to reflect the high chance of a default. That would help recapitalise some banks—which could also set less capital aside against a cleaner balance sheet. And by creating credible, transparent prices, it would at last encourage investors to come in and repair the financial system: this week Warren Buffett and Japan’s Mitsubishi-UFJ agreed to buy stakes in Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Some banks would still not have enough capital, but under Mr Paulson’s original plan, the state could put equity in them, or, if they become insolvent, take them over and run them down.
鲍尔森先生的计划依赖于大量购买有毒债券，其理论依据在于：在任何竞价中，买家数量匮乏会造成价格的暂时性压低，虽然像联邦政府这样的大买家所付出的成交 价格很可能高于现值，但仍然会以易于形成违约的便宜价格购买贷款。此举不仅可以调整一些银行的资本，还可以减少为了调整资产负债比例而搁置的资本。建立可 靠透明的价格将会最终鼓励投资者们重新进入市场并且修复金融体系：本周巴菲特和日本三菱UFJ银行同意购买高盛和摩根斯坦利的股份。一些银行还处于资本不足的状态，但是根据鲍尔森计划的原意，国家可以向银行注资，如果他们出现了清偿问题，政府可以接管银行并阻止其继续恶化。
