kristy

And, although analysts have speculated for months that the bank would need to raise new capital, he has brusquely brushed aside their concerns. On February 28th when he presented the bank’s annual results, he unequivocally told analysts that he had “no plans for any inorganic capital raisings or anything of the sort.”
Rival bankers, however, are advised to keep their Schadenfreude in check. On Friday Citigroup posted a $5.1 billion loss for the first quarter and said it plans to cut 9,000 more jobs. And in Britain, analysts expect other banks to follow in Royal Bank’s footsteps in beating a path to shareholders’ doors. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase, an investment bank, reckon British banks need to raise about £37 billion. Among the worst affected are HBOS, which they reckon may need to raise as much as £11 billion, and Barclays, which could be short of about £8 billion. Self delusion may be dying hard among Britain’s banks, yet the sooner they face facts, the sooner they can move on.

stark        adj. 1 僵硬的, 光秃秃的, 荒凉的 2 完全的, 全然的         
cavalier        
n. 1 对女人彬彬有礼的绅士, 对女人献殷勤的男子 2 骑士, 骑手 3 英内战时查理一世的支持者, 保皇党成员
adj. 随便的, 傲慢的, 草率的        
write down        1 写下, 记下 2 视为 3 贬低(地位、重要性等)         
dodgy        adj. 冒险的; 危险的        
mortgage loan        抵押借款        
frantic        adj. 1 发疯似的, 发狂的 2 匆忙的, 紧张的, 混乱的         
blithely        adv. 愉快地, 快乐地        
At issue        在审议〔争论〕中        
cap in hand        恭敬地, 谦恭地        
bailout        n. (公司所受的)紧急援助        
hubris        n. 骄傲自大, 自恃        
moniker        n. 名字, 绰号        
libel        
n. 1 诽谤性文字 2 发表诽谤性文字 3 有损某人[某物]名誉的事物
vt. 〈律〉(发表文字等)诽谤, 中伤        
swanky        adj. 奢华的; 豪华的; 时髦的        
spate        n. 大量, 许多        
contentious adj. 容易引起争论的, 好争论的        
derivative        n. 派生物, 引出物adj. 模仿他人的; 衍生的; 派生的        
brusque        adj. 粗鲁的, 无准备的        
unequivocal        adj. 不含糊的        
inorganic        adj. 1 无机的 2 无组织结构的 3 体外的         

心得：
发现阅读速度有点加快了，因为读打印出来的要相对快一点，刚开始还有点不习惯在电脑上一次读这么多
还是需要把握全文意思

不知道为什么，到in the...那个地方就不再显示了，
我分开发也不行，所以in the 那一段不是显示了全部内容，没办法.....

kristy

Paraguay's elections
Liberation politics
Apr 19th 2008 | ASUNCIÓN
From The Economist print edition
After 61 years, Paraguay may finally see a change of government

AFP
IF THE poll numbers hold, the world's longest-ruling political party will be dismissed by Paraguay's voters on Sunday April 20th. The Colorado Party, which came to power two years before China's Communist Party, has governed for so long that Paraguay sometimes feels like a run-down country club that exists purely for the benefit of party members. Yet despite fielding a good candidate, the Colorados could well lose to a complete political novice.
Their main opponent is Fernando Lugo, a Catholic bishop who gave up his job preaching liberation theology to the poor in order to stand for office. In person, he is rather less charismatic than his story suggests. But since being chosen as the figurehead for a coalition of the biggest opposition parties, he has turned into a formidable candidate. Those close to him say he has struggled to switch from officiating at mass to talking confidently about fixing Paraguay. But he has cut his hair, had his teeth polished and embodies a fresh start—unlike his two main rivals.
For in addition to the Colorado candidate, Mr Lugo faces Lino Oviedo, a former general accused of planning a coup in 1996 and of being involved in the assassination of Paraguay's vice-president in 1999. After two spells in jail and five years in exile (in Argentina and Brazil), Mr Oviedo, a Colorado presidential candidate in 1998, re-emerged last September as another champion of the poor. Now candidate of the National Union of Ethical Citizens, he looks set to do well, though the presidency is probably beyond his grasp.
Meanwhile, the Colorados are wondering where they went wrong. Their candidate, Blanca Ovelar, a former teacher, education minister and basketball player, is reckoned to be the best they have produced for a long time. She has a powerful party machine behind her. And Paraguay's economy grew by 5.5% last year, its best rate for over a decade. Yet the party has not capitalised on its good fortune. This is partly due to the strange behaviour of the outgoing president, Nicanor Duarte Frutos. His attacks on the press for perceived bias, and on agri-business for making too much money, have sounded bitter. Some of his outbursts have just been plain odd: at one recent event, he mentioned the word “masturbation” seven times.
As the election draws closer, worries about fraud are increasing. Juan Carlos Cabezudo, a Patria Querida Party candidate for Congress, says his party has so far identified 25,000 people on the electoral register who are either dead, in jail, in the army or living abroad, and who therefore should be disqualified from voting. The electoral tribunal that oversees elections is dominated by the Colorado Party.
If Mr Lugo does win, he will seek to renegotiate the revenues Paraguay receives from Itaipu, a big hydro-electric dam built jointly with Brazil. Under the terms of the contract, Paraguay has to sell any unused electricity to Brazil at a fraction of the current market price. Unsurprisingly, Brazil has no plans to renegotiate it. Behind the scenes, Mr Lugo's team are therefore working on a subtler approach that involves presenting their man as a disciple of Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who would spend increased revenues from the dam on the kind of social measures that Brazil has already implemented.
A President Lugo would find himself pulled in different directions by ruthless political operators on the one hand and small far-left parties on the other. When combined with his lack of experience, this could be a disastrous mixture. The Liberal Party, the dominant partner in his coalition, hopes to save him from doing anything too rash. But perhaps a little rashness is just what Paraguay needs if it is ever to get rid of the Colorados.

生词：
n. 巴拉圭(南美洲中部国家), 巴拉圭茶        
novice        n. 1 新手, 初学者 2 见习修道士[修女]         
figurehead        n. 挂名的首脑; 傀儡        
officiate        v. 行使        
coup        n. 〈法〉意外而成功的行动        
set to        1 〈非正〉开始努力干 2 大吃起来 3 打起来, 吵起来 4 把脸转向…
agribusiness        n. 农业综合企业        
masturbation        n. 手淫,自淫        
tribunal        n. 审理委员会, 特别法庭        
disciple        n. 信徒, 门徒        
心得：
整个文章容易理解，还是要把握全篇意思
有一点就是我前段时间记得单词有的又忘了，开始好好复习！！

kristy

The coming days
The week ahead
Apr 20th 2008
From Economist.com
The Pennsylvania primary, and other news

AFP
• DEMOCRATS in Pennsylvania have their say about who the party's presidential candidate should be when the state holds its primary election on Tuesday April 22nd. In the six weeks since the last contest in Mississippi Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have made gaffes over Bosnian snipers and free-trade agreements (Mrs Clinton) and race-baiting pastors and “bitter” voters (Mr Obama). Mrs Clinton is expected to win the vote on Tuesday. If not, it will spell the end of her campaign.
For background see article
• THE Olympic flame continues its troubled journey around the world on its way towards Beijing. On Tuesday April 22nd it arrives in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, and two days later it alights in Canberra. Australia, in particular, could prove a flashpoint for protests. The route in the capital has already been shortened in the hope of avoiding the type of protest that blighted the torch's early progress. A big Chinese population might mean a crowd sympathetic to Beijing to rival any pro-Tibetan demonstrators.
For background see article
• THE Gulf Co-operation Council and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Iran as well as Condoleezza Rice, America's secretary of state, will meet in Kuwait on Tuesday April 22nd to discuss Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The next day the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is in Washington, DC, to meet George Bush for more talks aimed at reviving the foundering peace process. But with renewed fighting in Gaza, Mr Abbas as weak as ever and Mr Bush a lame duck, it is unlikely that these meetings will produce much of substance.
For background see article
• THE Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain's second-largest bank, is expected to announce a big share sale at its annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday April 23rd. The bank desperately needs to rebuild its capital reserves, which have been stretched by its leading role in the bid for a Dutch bank, ABN AMRO. Analysts say it may have to raise more than £10 billion ($19.9 billion). The bank's chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, may be forced to quit.
For background see article
To listen to a discussion of the news in the coming week click here


生词：
gaffe        n. 过失, 出丑, 失态        
bait        n. (钓鱼等用的)饵, 诱饵vt. 1 装饵于 2 故意激怒         
spell        vt. 招致, 带来(不好的结果)
alight vi. 飞落
blight        n. 1 凋萎病, 虫害 2 坏因素, 阴影 vt. 使凋萎, 摧残        
心得：
这是一周新闻的很多内容，比一篇讲一个内容理解容易很多
生词也很少

kristy

Pennsylvania primary
The push in Pennsylvania
Apr 21st 2008
From Economist.com
Hillary Clinton must beat Barack Obama convincingly if she is to stay in the race

AFP
THE Democratic primary season, which has provided such a riveting race between Barack Obama (leading in votes and delegates) and Hillary Clinton (winner of the bigger states), springs back to life with the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday April 22nd. It is seven weeks since the last big contest and the two candidates have ground out their campaigns in Pennsylvania. The contest had drifted, in the final days at least, towards the dreary sort of politics that risks turning voters off.
The campaign was not enlivened by local conditions. Pennsylvania, rich with delegates, suffered as America shed heavy-manufacturing jobs in recent years. Thus the candidates competed to see who could bash trade the harder. Both looked opportunistic. Mrs Clinton is a centrist who backed Bill Clinton’s support for NAFTA in the 1990s, and Mr Obama has supported other trade deals.
Matters grew ugly after Mr Obama made some ill-chosen comments at a fundraiser in San Francisco. When he said that small-town Americans who had lost their jobs “cling” to religion, guns or immigrant-bashing, he was criticised as elitist. The competition to see who was most in touch with America’s small towns and heartland values heated up in a debate last Wednesday, when Mr Obama was asked “do you believe in the flag?”. Perhaps as a result, Mr Obama's popularity has been slipping. A recent nationwide poll for Gallup suggests that Mr Obama’s lead over Mrs Clinton, which had been as high as 11-points on April 15th had all but disappeared within five days.
He tried to shake off the debate with jokes just after the debate (his supporters were riled up by the tone of the questions, which could lift their turnout on primary day). Last Philadelphia’s main newspaper, the Inquirer, endorsed him, completing his run of almost all the big papers in the state. He began running a barrage of television adverts, where he has an advantage thanks to his prodigious fundraising. And on Friday he held the biggest rally yet of his campaign, in Philadelphia. Some 35,000 supporters attended.
Nor did Mrs Clinton let up for a moment. A series of attack adverts against Mr Obama forced him to respond in kind. His campaign calls her a “slash-and-burn” operator, representing the sort of old politics that he wants to change. But many voters will simply see conventional political point-scoring, which dulls Mr Obama’s edge as a new type of politician.
The party’s nervousness about the long, drawn-out battle is increasing. Both Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama have seen their “negative” opinion-poll ratings go up, while John McCain is able to campaign almost unmolested. The two Democrats do take the occasional shot, but Mrs Clinton, in particular, is more focused on her party rival. Howard Dean, the party chairman, showed his anxiety last week when he said that undecided “superdelegates” need to commit “starting now”.
What effect will Pennsylvania have? If Mr Obama should defy polls—which on average show his opponent ahead by five to six points—and win, Mrs Clinton will almost certainly drop out of the race. If she wins narrowly, or only by that margin of five or six points, superdelegates may look at the delegate maths and a smiling Mr McCain, and heed Mr Dean’s command to start committing. But if Mrs Clinton wins handsomely—near double-digits or more—she will keep the campaign going, and many superdelegates may want to hear her out. So the long primary season could continue until the last vote, on June 3rd.

生词：
Riveting adj. 饶有趣味的, 非常精彩的, 引人入胜的        
spring back        弹回        
enliven        vt. 使(某人或某物)更活跃或更愉快        
bash        vt. 痛击, 猛击        
heat up        1 变热 2 加〔煮〕热… 3 沸腾, 使变得激烈         
all but        几乎, 差不多 2 除了…之外(都)         
shake off        1逃脱, 摆脱  2 摆脱(麻烦、烦恼等)         
Be riled up 十分生气，恼火
turnout        n. 一项活动的到场人数        
lift         vi. 消散
prodigious        adj. 异常的, 惊人的, 奇异的; 巨大的        
let up        1 让(某人)上到某处 2 放松; 减少〔弱〕         
Dull  v.使迟钝，使不活泼
drawn-out        adj. 延长的,持续很久的        
rating        n. (船上人员的)等级, 类别         
molest        vt. 1 骚扰, 干扰 2 调戏; 猥亵, 对…性骚扰         
narrowly         adv. 勉强地, 精细地        
heed        vt. 听某人的劝告, 听从        
handsomely        adv. 1 大方地, 慷慨地 2 精致地, 优美地
心得：
总体感觉最近是好多了
读完了心里能把整篇文章大概想起来
但好像如果要我说的话，可能和心里想就完全不一样了

miffy

很不错~^_^ 给你发了份邮件~记得查收~ 那个幻灯片是怎么弄得？

kristy

点“上传图片”然后“保存并发帖”就好了

但我觉得那样挺慢的，也不方便，打开网页很慢，所以就不那么做了

kristy

Zimbabwe
A bloody crackdown
Apr 22nd 2008 | JOHANNESBURG
From Economist.com
Worsening repression inside Zimbabwe provokes only a feeble response from African neighbours

AFP
THE situation in Zimbabwe is akin to war, says the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It is certainly looking ever more brutal. Violence and repression have escalated dramatically over the past few days. Pro-government militias roam the countryside, terrorising and beating suspected opposition supporters. The police remain idle or, in some cases, join in with the beatings. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, a local outfit, has treated over 240 cases of injury, including broken limbs, resulting from organised violence since parliamentary and presidential elections just over three weeks ago.
Human Rights Watch, an international group, says that ZANU-PF, the ruling party of President Robert Mugabe, has set up torture camps across the country as part of a systematic campaign to intimidate the opposition, which won the parliamentary elections and, it claims, the presidential vote too. Victims are taken to the camps at night and beaten for hours with thick sticks, bars and army batons. Huts and houses have been torched. An unofficial curfew is in force in the poor suburbs of Harare, the capital. The MDC says that ten of its supporters have been killed, some shot dead. The opposition also says that some 3,000 families have had to flee their homes, 500 people have been put in hospital and over 400 opposition activists have been arrested.
     No one doubts that Mr Mugabe is seeking to assert his control through violence as the country waits, still, for the results of the presidential election to be declared. Rather than make such an announcement, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has instead started recounting votes in 23 constituencies, in what looks like an attempt to overturn the opposition’s control of parliament. A reversal of nine seats would be enough to hand ZANU-PF a majority once again. The MDC calls the recount illegal and is boycotting the exercise, but lost a court case which would have blocked it. The opposition and observers say that ballot boxes have been tampered with since the election.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, has been touring the region trying to persuade African leaders to intervene in Zimbabwe. So far, the response from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional club of 14 countries, has been muted. SADC said it was happy with the election before any results were announced. It has sent a team to observe the parliamentary recount and has called for a potential presidential run-off to be “secure”, which means transparent and fair.
Mr Tsvangirai wants South Africa’s ineffectual president, Thabo Mbeki, to be relieved of his duties attempting to mediate in Zimbabwe. Mr Mbeki's government refused to block a shipment of Chinese weaponry that was destined for Zimbabwe and was scheduled to be unloaded in South African docks earlier this week. Dockers took the initiative instead and the ship was eventually turned away. Zambia's government is now calling on all countries in the region to refuse to let the ship unload its cargo. A Chinese official has suggested that the ship may now return to Asia.
Mr Tsvangirai suggests that a regional team should set up camp in Harare, just as African leaders did in Kenya earlier this year, to help to bring an end to post-election violence and find a political solution. But SADC leaders, for now, are sticking with Mr Mbeki.
Not everyone is so feeble in response to the repression. Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial power, has criticised the parliamentary recount as a “charade of democracy” and accuses Mr Mugabe of trying to steal the elections. The former secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has met an MDC representative and may be willing to mediate as he did in Kenya. Mr Tsvangirai is travelling to west Africa to meet the current secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and regional leaders. Both the SADC and African Union have at least called for the presidential results to be announced as soon as possible. Kenya’s new prime minister, Raila Odinga, and Mr Annan have called on the region to do more over Zimbabwe. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has said it would initiate its own mediation effort.
But unless the MDC manages to convince African governments to adopt a tougher stance against Mr Mugabe, it is unlikely that the results of the election will be respected. Zimbabwe's crafty president is determined to stay in power through violence and the opposition does not appear to have any plan if the diplomatic offensive fails. After changing tacks several times, it is again saying it will boycott any run-off election. No wonder that even more Zimbabweans are now making their way to the borders.


Worsening        恶化        
feeble        adj. 虚弱的, 衰弱的, 无力的        
akin        adj. 相似的        
outfit        n. 集体; 组织         
curfew        n. 宵禁, 戒严        
tamper with        损害, 篡改, 贿赂, 影响, 瞎搞        
mute        vt. 消除(声音), 减轻(声音)        
relieve of         免除(某人)的(职务、麻烦等)         
weaponry        n. (总称)武器        
charade        n. 1 伪装 2 猜字游戏         
initiate        vt.  开始, 着手        
tack        航向, 换向; 方法         


放慢了读的速度理解也加强了，但是花的时间也多了
今天突然想，这么每天读一篇，而且不是精度，目的是什么
而且我喜欢政治方面的，好像每天的都是政治新闻

kristy

4-24

Business and human rights

Beyond the “genocide Olympics”

Apr 24th 2008 | NEW YORK
From Economist.com

Firms are increasingly expected to take a lead in promoting in human rights

EPA

BY THE standards of any previous boss of Coca-Cola, Neville Isdell is remarkably enlightened. Under his leadership, the soft-drinks giant has adopted a strategy of extending access to water supplies in the developing world, especially in Africa, where Mr Isdell spent 26 years. It is an active member of several organisations committed to promoting human rights, including the United Nations Global Compact. Even so, Mr Isdell now finds himself accused by human-rights activists of “complicity” with one of the world’s most prominent human-rights abusers—the government of China.

No doubt sponsoring this summer’s Beijing Olympics once seemed like a good idea to Coca-Cola and a gaggle of other big companies such as General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, McDonald’s and Samsung. The marketing benefits of the Olympics are believed to be huge, which is why Coca-Cola has been doing it continuously for 80 years.

Yet by branding the Beijing games the “genocide Olympics”, after the Chinese government turned a blind eye to the Sudanese government’s atrocities in Darfur, human-rights activists are threatening to lay waste to the $1 billion or so that sponsors have paid—and turn what they hoped would be an association with a joyous celebration of sport into a tricky exercise in reputational damage limitation. Firms that criticise China publicly over human rights risk antagonising not just its government, but also its people—a billion-odd potential customers. Recent protests in China against Carrefour, a French retailer, in response to pro-Tibet demonstrations in France, highlight the dangers.

Coca-Cola is doing some good things in Darfur, from providing immediate relief on the ground to meeting “stakeholders” to try to figure out solutions to the crisis. But is this enough to buy Coca-Cola the right to remain silent in public about China? As Mr Isdell puts it, “rather than make public statements, we have chosen a more direct and, in our view, more effective route to help address the staggering human suffering in Darfur.” Not good enough, retorts Human Rights Watch, along with other campaigning NGOs.

It is tempting to dismiss this as another example of the old divide between political activists who favour protest and business realists who favour “constructive engagement”, which has cropped up dozens of times—not least during the debate over sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Yet the battle over the Olympics paints a false picture of the current relationship between business and human-rights activists. What is striking today is how often activists, big firms and governments are in agreement about the importance of human rights, and are working together to advance them.

This new consensus is reflected by the lack of serious opposition to a new report by John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Human Rights, which proposes a new framework that states clearly that firms have a responsibility actively to respect human rights. If this is adopted by the Human Rights Council in June, as seems likely, it will be the first time that the UN human-rights machinery has taken a substantive position on companies’ responsibilities. Mr Ruggie hopes for greater clarity over the duties of firms and governments, and a better balance between protecting the legitimate interests of investors with the needs of host states to discharge their human-rights obligations.

The adoption of a UN standard is likely to trigger a new spurt of activity in defining best practice, much of it involving collaboration between businesses and NGOs. This will build on work in recent years, which began after Royal Dutch Shell, an oil giant, was embroiled in scandal surrounding the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian activist and writer, in 1995. Among other things, a campaign by Global Witness, an NGO, resulted in the Kimberley Process, which attempts to keep “conflict diamonds” off the market; another collaboration led to a code of practice requiring firms to oversee the human-rights compliance of those responsible for ensuring their security in dangerous places, including government soldiers.

The Global Compact, which obliges signatories to uphold certain basic standards, has also been popular. Over 3,000 companies have signed up, including several in China. Though weakly policed, the compact has some teeth: 335 firms were struck off its list of signatories in 2006.

Chinese firms are slowly becoming more sensitive to human rights, says Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of Anglo American, a mining giant. Rather than criticism, says Sir Mark, Chinese bosses respond far better to patient explanations that older multinationals became supporters of human rights because they learnt to their cost that when those rights are ignored, bad things happen. Despite the Chinese government’s many failings, its promotion of the “harmonious society” is taken seriously by Chinese bosses, says Sir Mark. Invoke this term, he says, and they get the message.

complicity
n. 合谋, 串通

gaggle
n. 1 (鹅)群 2 散乱的一群, 缺乏组织的团体

atrocity
n. 邪恶, 暴行

lay waste
v. 损毁

trickyadj. 1 (形势、工作等)复杂的, 棘手的 2 狡猾的, 诡计多端的

antagonise
vt. 使成为敌人; 引起…敌对[对抗]

Human Rights Watch人权观察是一个非政府的国际组织,总部设在美国纽约,以调查、促进人权问题为主旨。

tempting
adj. 吸引人的, 诱人的

crop up
1 (尤指石头)裸露在地面各处 2 突然发生; 意外地发现 3 犯错误
not least尤其是, 特别是

embroil
vt. 使(自己或他人)卷入纠纷

conflict diamonds

冲突钻石——非洲交战团体将采自当地的钻石拿到国际市场销售来挹注战争经费。另一名称是 blood diamonds (血腥钻石)。

to one's cost
吃了苦头之后才…

看了文章很是气愤……

不过文章差不多懂了

Economist是要精读还是泛读？我有点盲目……

昨天发错了，给发到听力翻译里面了，现在才发现......

kristy

UBS

Wealth mismanagement

Apr 23rd 2008 | BASEL AND ZURICH

From Economist.com

A candid account of what went wron

AFP

HOW did UBS, a Swiss bank whose core business is the staid one of wealth management, manage to lose $38 billion betting on American mortgage-backed assets, battering its core capital and share price in the process? Shareholders, out in force at the bank’s annual meeting on Wednesday April 23rd in Basel, asked just that question.

The mystery is being resolved. On Monday the bank released a summary of an internal investigation into the causes of the write-downs that had been demanded by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission. The 400-page report is now being chewed over by the regulator. Rivals should read it too. The report gives three broad explanations for the bank’s woes. The investment-banking arm’s preoccupation with growth, the reliance of the control team on flawed measures of risk and the culture of the bank.

Start with those growth plans. Many had assumed that Dillon Read Capital Management (DRCM), a hedge fund set up by UBS in 2005 and closed in 2007, was the primary culprit for the write-downs; in fact its contribution was modest. The more pernicious effect of DRCM was to deprive UBS of some of its most experienced people and to distract its senior management at a time when the investment bank was pursuing a strategy of rapid expansion.

The growth was focused on fixed income, an area where UBS particularly lagged competitors. The goal was to drive itself up the league tables by expanding in areas such as structured credit and commodities. The effect, says the report, was to grow too fast and emphasise revenue

at the expense of risk. The end result: a desk that numbered just 35-40 people at its peak was responsible for write-downs of some $12 billion in 2007, two-thirds of the total.

If the bank’s risk takers overlooked risk, its risk controllers miscalculated it. Probing questions could and should have revealed the scale of the risks that UBS was taking. Concerns were raised at various times in 2006 and 2007. The bank’s top executives were sufficiently attuned to the deterioration in the American housing market to have raised it in September 2006. But the report says that they were fobbed off by assurances from executives at the investment bank that all was well. The investment bank’s bosses only realised the depth of the hole they were in by late July by which time it was too late to do much about it.

There is no suggestion that anything untoward was going on. Assurances that risks were being properly managed were given in good faith, says Rupert Jolley, who led the investigation. But there was also a clear incentive to set aside any doubts so long as revenues were rising.

The report only deals with write-downs up to the end of last year. Nonetheless it asks some awkward questions of the bank now. If the culture of the bank was at fault, then can an insider such as Peter Kurer, plucked from the position of general counsel to replace Marcel Ospel, the former chairman, fix it? One large shareholder describes the combination of Mr Kurer and Marcel Rohner, the chief executive, as “terrifyingly weak”.

The report also notes that the issue of subprime exposures jostled unsuccessfully with several other items on the agenda of group-level meetings (leveraged finance got plenty of attention, by contrast): that will reinforce the doubts of those who think that the bank has become too complicated to manage. Perhaps most worrying of all for battered shareholders is the implication of the investigation’s findings for UBS’s sizeable remaining exposures to the American housing market, including $16 billion-worth of Alt-A positions that were still on the balance sheet at the end of March. There is scant reason to assume that these positions were researched or hedged more effectively than their subprime sisters.

The rest of the industry can hardly rest easy either. UBS got more things wrong than most but the traps it fell into will be familiar to its peers. Lots of other investment banks measure their status via league tables and seek to bulk up where they are weakest. Compensation and funding structures that fail to distinguish “alpha”, or skill, from simple carry trades are widespread. The flaws in measuring risk, and the emphasis on net rather than notional exposures, are also known hazards. The investigation found no evidence to suggest that regulators criticised the way UBS managed its risks. The banking commission sits in judgement now; it might usefully have done so earlier.

staid
adj. 古板的, 保守的, 一本正经的

culprit
n. 犯过错者, 罪犯

pernicious adj. 很有害的; 恶性的

league table
n.
〈体〉比赛成绩表，比赛名次表

attune
vt. 1 协调 2 调音

deterioration
n. 变坏, 退化, 堕落

fob off
搪塞, (用诡计, 借口)把...对付掉

untoward
adj. 意外的, 不顺利的, 不幸的

at the expense of
在损失〔损坏〕某事物的情况下

in good faith
真诚地, 诚意地

at fault
有错, 有责任

insider
n. 1 (组织等)内部的人 2 知情人

pluck vt. 1 采; 摘; 拔 2 弹, 拔

jostle
vt. 挤; 推; 撞

文章有点难懂，主要不在于句子结构，在于文章的背景知识欠缺

所以整篇的理解不是很好

kristy

Nuclear proliferation

A curious case of nuclear intrigue

Apr 25th 2008 | NEW YORK
From Economist.com

Did North Korea help to build a nuclear facility in Syria, that Israel then blew up?

AFP

WHAT did Israel bomb in Syria last year? What did the Israelis know, and how did they know it? And why did American administration officials present Israel’s intelligence to members of Congress in a closed-door briefing on Thursday April 24th? As many questions swirl around the politics of the moment as around the facts of the Israeli attack.

About all that is certain is that on September 6th Israeli jets destroyed a target near the town of Deir ez-Zor in Syria. The Syrians protested, but initially said that the bombs had fallen on farmland or on unimportant military buildings. Israel and America, at first, maintained a smug silence but it gradually emerged that the Israelis believed they had destroyed a partially built nuclear reactor and, moreover, one that North Korea was helping to construct. The Syrians have since acted guiltily, building over the site and preventing international inspectors from visiting.

Many facts remain contested. White House officials told Congress that the reactor had “striking similarities” to North Korea’s facility at Yongbyon. Footage presented to Congress is said to show Korean faces at the Syrian site. But David Albright and Paul Brannan, in an analysis for the Institute for Science and International Security, an American think-tank, note that evidence is missing for a Syrian weaponisation programme or for plutonium-separation facilities. The North Koreans may well have helped to build the site, but they say more evidence is needed to be sure that Syria had a bomb programme.

The target of Thursday’s hearing was not Syria in the main. The Bush administration is divided over North Korea. Years of efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme have been driven both by the American government and by six-party talks that involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, North Korea and America. Last year North Korea agreed to dismantle the Yongbyon facility, as part of a deal agreed in 2005 that requires it to declare and dismantle all of its nuclear programmes. However progress was stalled several times, including after a row over the release of funds claimed by North Korea.

A smooth-talking American diplomat, Christopher Hill, was deployed to persuade North Korea to take the steps needed to move ahead with the deal. North Korea has publicly acknowledged its plutonium-making but is reluctant to own up publicly to efforts to import equipment for producing uranium and about nuclear help to Syria. Mr Hill has been working on a deal that would let North Korea acknowledge America's concerns about both these activities, while pushing ahead with dismantling its plutonium-making reactor at Yongbyon. But hawks in the administration, and outside critics, dislike the idea of any concessions to North Korea and want to ensure that the country is compelled to account for and dismantle the parallel uranium programme, such as it was.

Congress began threatening to cut off funding for Mr Hill’s efforts unless the administration produced all the information it had about North Korea’s proliferation activity. This resulted in the hearings on Thursday. Some conspiracy theorists think that the briefing was designed to embarrass the North Koreans and to provoke them to flounce out of the deal, pleasing the hawkish types who never liked it.

But it comes at a curious time on several fronts. Another American diplomat was in North Korea as the briefing took place, and the country's news agency reported that talks were held “in a sincere and constructive manner”. Jamie Metzl, a Korea expert at the Asia Society in New York (and a former National Security Council staffer under Bill Clinton), notes that the agreement with North Korea essentially forgives past sins and focuses on disarming North Korea in the future. Thus the North Koreans have an incentive to confess and get this behind them, in order to get promised aid and other concessions.

The deal also comes at an intriguing time for Middle East peace efforts. The Syrian ambassador in Washington, DC, angrily denied the nuclear accusation, calling it a “fantasy” and pointing to the inaccurate American intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. Also this week, a Syrian cabinet minister said that Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, had quietly floated the idea of returning the entire Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace. Israel did not deny it.

It will be hard to craft diplomacy to avoid upsetting two delicate situations, on the Korean peninsula and in the Levant. Hardliners in the Bush administration will accept little less than a full admission and contrition from both countries involved. The North Koreans and Syrians will both struggle to avoid a loss of face.

proliferation
n. 增殖, 分芽繁殖

intrigue
vi. 搞阴谋诡计vt. 激起…的好奇心
smug
adj. 自满的, 沾沾自喜的

striking
adj. 1 显著的, 突出的 2 引人注目的; 容貌出众的

Footage
n. 1 以英尺表示的长度或距离 2 (电影或电视的)片段

plutonium
n. (尤指用于生产原子能的)钚

stall
vt. & vi. (使)熄火, (使)停止转动
row
n. 争吵, 吵闹vi. 争吵, 吵闹

own up
完全〔坦白〕供认

push ahead with
v. 推动, 推进

hawk
n. 1 鹰 2 鹰派人物, 主战派人物 vt. 沿街叫卖

flounce
vi. 暴跳, 怒气冲冲地走动

flounce out
v. 突然离开

intriguing
adj. 引起好奇心的; 令人感兴趣的; 有迷惑力的

float
vt. 提出, 提请考虑

无论怎样一定要坚持，保证每天完成单词记忆
逐步提高篇章的理解力