China’s annual GDP growth falls to 6.8%. How much worse can it get?
中国年度GDP增长跌至6.8%。这一数据还能更糟吗?
THE beast which gives its name to the Chinese new year that begins on January 26th is meant to symbolise prosperity through fortitude and hard work, offering hope that China will soon regain its economic vigour. But an ox is often a castrated bull—which may be an apt description of China’s economic pain. New figures show that China’s GDP growth fell to 6.8% in the year to the fourth quarter, down from 9% in the third quarter and half its 13% pace in 2007. Growth of 6.8% may still sound pretty robust, but it implies that growth was virtually zero on a seasonally adjusted basis in the fourth quarter.
Industrial production has slowed even more sharply, growing by only 5.7% in the 12 months to December, compared with an 18% pace in late 2007. Thousands of factories have closed and millions of migrant workers have already lost their jobs. But there could be worse to come. Chinese exports are likely to drop further in coming months as world demand shrinks. Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC, forecasts that exports in the first quarter could be 19% lower than a year ago. 2009 may well see the first full-year decline in exports in more than a quarter of a century.
Economists have become gloomier about China’s prospects, with many now predicting GDP growth of only 5-6% in 2009, the lowest for almost two decades. The most dismal view comes from Albert Edwards, at Société Générale, a French bank, who thinks China may be sliding into outright recession. He points to a fall in electricity output of 6% in the year to the fourth quarter, down from average annual growth of 15% over the previous five years.
In the past, the growth in GDP and electricity use have tended to move together (see chart). Mr Edwards reckons that a decline in electricity output may mean that GDP is falling, no matter what the official figures say. Equally worrying is the OECD’s leading indicator of economic activity in China, which has plunged to its lowest level in its 26-year history, lower even than during the slump in 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
This makes for a compelling story. But the relationship between GDP and electricity consumption has been distorted by the uneven nature of this slowdown. Energy-guzzling heavy industries, such as steel and cement, bore the brunt of China’s downturn late last year. So it is not surprising that electricity use slumped.
Moreover, too much weight may be given to the declining exports, because it is often wrongly assumed that the slump in China’s growth has been caused mainly by a collapse in its exports to America and other rich economies. Yet in 2008 the fall in net exports (exports minus imports) accounted for less than half of its slowdown. More important was a collapse in housing construction, caused by the government’s efforts to deflate a potential bubble. This, in turn, reduced the demand for materials such as steel. So by the fourth quarter there had been a huge build-up in stocks, exacerbating the fall in production: steel output was 12% lower than a year earlier.
GDP growth is likely to continue to fall during the first half of 2009, sounding alarm bells among those who repeat the official mantra that China needs to grow by at least 8% a year to avoid social unrest (even though that number has no sound economic basis). But there is good reason to hope that by midyear the economy will perk up as destocking comes to an end and the government’s fiscal stimulus kicks in.
China’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) package of infrastructure spending, subsidies and tax cuts for businesses has been trashed by many commentators as another “Chinese fake”. Most of it is not new money, they claim, and the central government will finance less than one-third of the planned spending; most of the rest will have to come from banks, which in the current climate may be reluctant to lend.
It is true that some of the extra spending had already been announced, but what matters for economic growth is how much spending will actually increase this year. The answer is a lot. For example, JPMorgan forecasts that transport investment will expand by an impressive 70% in 2009. HSBC estimates a total spending boost of 6-7% of GDP over this year and next.
Since the November package, the government has introduced other measures to support the economy. On January 21st it announced extra spending of 850 billion yuan over three years to improve health care. From February rural residents will get a 13% rebate on purchases of goods such as refrigerators, TVs and washing machines. Consumer spending will be dented by job losses and smaller wage rises but has so far remained strong, with retail sales up by 18% in real terms in the year to December. Interest rates have also been cut five times since September and, much more important, controls on bank lending have been scrapped. To help the property sector, minimum down-payments have been reduced from 30-40% of a home’s value to 20%, the transaction tax has been waived for properties held for at least two years, and more public housing is to be built.
Chris Wood, at CLSA, a brokerage, says the effectiveness of the stimulus hinges on the extent to which China is now a capitalist economy. The more “capitalist” it is, the deeper the downturn now; the more it is still a command economy, the better the chance of recovery in 2009. State-controlled firms, which account for one-third of industrial output and almost half of all investment, have been “asked” not to cut jobs and capital spending. All the big banks are state-owned and their chairmen are appointed by the government. If they get a phone call telling them to lend more, they are likely to do so.
Banks already seem to be following Beijing’s orders: total lending surged by 19% in the year to December. China is one of the few large economies whose banking system has not been crippled by the global credit crunch. Andy Rothman, also at CLSA, argues that “in China, there is only a credit crunch when the political leadership wants one”. He believes the economy will revive by midyear and achieve GDP growth of close to 8% for 2009 as a whole.
The obvious concern is that although heavy-handed government meddling may be more effective than market-based tools to pull an economy out of a deep downturn, it comes at a cost. Public investment will inevitably include some wasteful spending, and politically directed lending could add to excess capacity in some sectors and create new bad loans for banks. This may hobble the bull in the future. But first it needs to regain its virility.
Martian Methane Reveals the Red Planet is not a Dead Planet
Mars today is a world of cold and lonely deserts, apparently without life of any kind, at least on the surface. Worse still, it looks like Mars has been cold and dry for billions of years, with an atmosphere so thin, any liquid water on the surface quickly boils away while the sun's ultraviolet radiation scorches the ground.
But there is evidence of a warmer and wetter past -- features resembling dry riverbeds and minerals that form in the presence of water indicate water once flowed through Martian sands. Since liquid water is required for all known forms of life, scientists wonder if life could have risen on Mars, and if it did, what became of it as the Martian climate changed.
New research reveals there is hope for Mars yet. The first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars indicates the planet is still alive, in either a biologic or geologic sense, according to a team of NASA and university scientists.
"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," said Dr. Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "At northern mid-summer, methane is released at a rate comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, Calif."
Methane -- four atoms of hydrogen bound to a carbon atom -- is the main component of natural gas on Earth. It's of interest to astrobiologists because organisms release much of Earth's methane as they digest nutrients. However, other purely geological processes, like oxidation of iron, also release methane. "Right now, we don’t have enough information to tell if biology or geology -- or both -- is producing the methane on Mars," said Mumma. "But it does tell us that the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It's as if Mars is challenging us, saying, hey, find out what this means." Mumma is lead author of a paper on this research appearing in Science Express Jan. 15.
If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it likely resides far below the surface, where it's still warm enough for liquid water to exist. Liquid water, as well as energy sources and a supply of carbon, are necessary for all known forms of life.
"On Earth, microorganisms thrive 2 to 3 kilometers (about 1.2 to 1.9 miles) beneath the Witwatersrand basin of South Africa, where natural radioactivity splits water molecules into molecular hydrogen (H2) and oxygen. The organisms use the hydrogen for energy. It might be possible for similar organisms to survive for billions of years below the permafrost layer on Mars, where water is liquid, radiation supplies energy, and carbon dioxide provides carbon," said Mumma.
"Gases, like methane, accumulated in such underground zones might be released into the atmosphere if pores or fissures open during the warm seasons, connecting the deep zones to the atmosphere at crater walls or canyons," said Mumma.
"Microbes that produced methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide were one of the earliest forms of life on Earth," noted Dr. Carl Pilcher, Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute which partially supported the research. "If life ever existed on Mars, it's reasonable to think that its metabolism might have involved making methane from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide."
However, it is possible a geologic process produced the Martian methane, either now or eons ago. On Earth, the conversion of iron oxide (rust) into the serpentine group of minerals creates methane, and on Mars this process could proceed using water, carbon dioxide, and the planet's internal heat. Although we don’t have evidence on Mars of active volcanoes today, ancient methane trapped in ice "cages" called clathrates might now be released.
The team found methane in the atmosphere of Mars by carefully observing the planet over several Mars years (and all Martian seasons) with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, run by the University of Hawaii, and the W. M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
The team used spectrometer instruments attached to the telescopes to make the detection. Spectrometers spread light into its component colors, like a prism separates white light into a rainbow. The team looked for dark areas in specific places along the rainbow (light spectrum) where methane was absorbing sunlight reflected from the Martian surface. They found three such areas, called absorption lines, which together are a definitive signature of methane, according to the team. They were able to distinguish lines from Martian methane from the methane in Earth's atmosphere because the motion of the Red Planet shifted the position of the Martian lines, much as a speeding ambulance causes its siren to change pitch as it passes by.
"We observed and mapped multiple plumes of methane on Mars, one of which released about 19,000 metric tons of methane," said Dr. Geronimo Villanueva of the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. Villanueva is stationed at NASA Goddard and is co-author of the paper. "The plumes were emitted during the warmer seasons -- spring and summer -- perhaps because the permafrost blocking cracks and fissures vaporized, allowing methane to seep into the Martian air. Curiously, some plumes had water vapor while others did not," said Villanueva.
According to the team, the plumes were seen over areas that show evidence of ancient ground ice or flowing water. For example, plumes appeared over northern hemisphere regions such as east of Arabia Terra, the Nili Fossae region, and the south-east quadrant of Syrtis Major, an ancient volcano 1,200 kilometers (about 745 miles) across.
It will take future missions, like NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, to discover the origin of the Martian methane. One way to tell if life is the source of the gas is by measuring isotope ratios. Isotopes are heavier versions of an element; for example, deuterium is a heavier version of hydrogen. In molecules that contain hydrogen, like water and methane, the rare deuterium occasionally replaces a hydrogen atom. Since life prefers to use the lighter isotopes, if the methane has less deuterium than the water released with it on Mars, it's a sign that life is producing the methane. The research was funded by NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
人物简介 查理·路易·孟德斯鸠(Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu)(1689—1755),出生于法国波尔多附近的拉伯烈德庄园的贵族世家。法国伟大的启蒙思想家、法学家。孟德斯鸠不仅是18世纪法国启蒙时代的著名思想家,也是近代欧洲国家比较早的系统研究古代东方社会与法律文化的学者之一。他的著述虽然不多,但其影响却相当广泛,尤其是《论法的精神》这部集大成的著作,奠定了近代西方政治与法律理论发展的基础,也在很大程度上影响了欧洲人对东方政治与法律文化的看法。
Israel was provoked, but as in Lebanon in 2006 it may find this war a hard one to end, or to justify 盛怒的以色列发动了新一轮巴以战争,但一如2006年的黎以战争:最难的问题在于如何收场或者为战争辩解。
THE scale and ferocity of the onslaught on Gaza have been shocking, and the television images of civilian suffering wrench the heart. But however deplorable, Israel’s resort to military means to silence the rockets of Hamas should have been no surprise. This war has been a long time in the making. 目前加沙战争的残暴程度令人震惊,电视新闻上满是令人心悸的苦难平民形象。尽管以色列的决定令人遗憾,但其动用武力让哈马斯火箭弹销声匿迹的方式却也在意料之中。长期以来巴以战争一直没有间断。
Since Israel evacuated its soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip three years ago, Palestinian groups in Gaza have fired thousands of rudimentary rockets and mortar bombs across the border, killing very few people but disrupting normal life in a swathe of southern Israel. They fired almost 300 between December 19th, when Hamas ignored Egypt’s entreaties and decided not to renew a six-month truce, and December 27th, when Israel started its bombing campaign (see article). To that extent, Israel is right to say it was provoked. 自从3年前以色列从加沙地带撤走了军队和定居者后,该地区的巴勒斯坦组织已经向边境的另一边发射了数以千计的自制火箭弹和迫击炮;虽然没有造成过多的人员伤亡,不过却极度干扰了以色列南部地区本已很紧张的正常生活。12月19日,哈马斯对埃及的请求视而不见,拒绝续签为期60天的停火协议;从那时开始到12月27日以色列开始空袭以前,巴勒斯坦几乎发射了超过300枚火箭弹。从这个角度来说,以色列理所应当被激怒。
Of provocation and proportion 挑衅与平衡
It is easy to point out from afar that barely a dozen Israelis had been killed by Palestinian rockets since the Gaza withdrawal. But few governments facing an election, as Israel’s is, would let their towns be peppered every day with rockets, no matter how ineffective. As Barack Obama said on a visit to one Israeli town in July, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” In recent months, moreover, Hamas has smuggled far more lethal rockets into its Gaza enclave, some of which are now landing in Israeli cities that were previously out of range. On its border with Lebanon, Israel already faces one radical non-state actor, Hizbullah, that is formally dedicated to Israel’s destruction and has a powerful arsenal of Iranian-supplied missiles at its disposal. The Israelis are understandably reluctant to let a similar danger grow in Gaza. 自以色列从加沙地区撤离后,一个事实显而易见:死于巴勒斯坦火箭弹袭击的以色列人超不过一打。目前以色列正面临选举,尽管哈马斯的袭击效率低下,在这种情况下没有任何政府会让自己的城池每天都受到火箭弹的连续打击。就像奥巴马7月份访问以色列一个小镇时说的那样“如果有人胆敢在我两个女儿熟睡的时候往我家里发射火箭弹,我会竭尽所能制止他。我希望以色列方面会有同样的想法。”最近数月间,哈马斯向加沙飞地偷运了更多的大杀伤力火箭弹,其中的一些可以突破以前袭击的射程,落在以色列腹地的城镇。在黎以边境,以色列正面对着黎巴嫩真主党这个激进的无政府组织;该组织致力于摧毁以色列,并且拥有强大的军火库,装备了伊朗提供的导弹。以色列人当然不希望同样的危险也发生在加沙地区。
And yet Israel should not be surprised by the torrent of indignation it has aroused from around the world. This is not just because people seldom back the side with the F-16s. In general, a war must pass three tests to be justified. A country must first have exhausted all other means of defending itself. The attack should be proportionate to the objective. And it must stand a reasonable chance of achieving its goal. On all three of these tests Israel is on shakier ground than it cares to admit. 以色列在全球范围内引发了大量责难,当然它自己不会觉得意外:世人很少会支持拥有F16战机的一方。总体来说,一场战争需要符合三个标准才能被证明合法:首先,一个国家必须悉数使用了所有其他的自卫手段;其次,袭击的力度要与防卫目的成比例;第三,战争的实施必须有达到防卫目的的可能性。用这三个标准来衡量巴以战争的话,以色列方面的根据并不象他们之前宣称的那样有利。
It is true that Israel has put up with the rockets from Gaza for a long time. But it may have been able to stop the rockets another way. For it is not quite true that Israel’s only demand in respect of Gaza has been for quiet along the border. Israel has also been trying to undermine Hamas by clamping an economic blockade on Gaza, while boosting the economy of the West Bank, where the Palestinians’ more pliant secular movement, Fatah, holds sway. Even during the now-lapsed truce, Israel prevented all but a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering the strip. So although Israel was provoked, Hamas can claim that it was provoked too. If Israel had ended the blockade, Hamas may have renewed the truce. Indeed, on one reading of its motives, Hamas resumed fire to force Israel into a new truce on terms that would include opening the border. 长久以来,以色列对来自加沙地区的火箭弹袭击确实采取了容忍态度,不过应该可以找到其他方式来阻止火箭弹袭击。以色列对加沙地区的诉求不光是边境线的安宁,在推动河西岸经济的同时还试图通过封锁的方式来削弱哈马斯在加沙地区的实力,而在河西岸地区掌舵的是巴勒斯坦的温和运动派——法塔赫。即使在目前的停火阶段,以色列方面还是保持着对加沙地区的封锁,仅为人道救援保留了必要的通道。所以虽然以色列宣布自己被激怒,哈马斯方面可以表达同样的态度。如果以色列方面可以终止封锁,哈马斯也许可以续签停火协议。实际上没有人了解到哈马斯的动机,该组织重新发动袭击,意图迫使以色列在同意开放边境的条件下进入新一轮的停火协议。
On proportionality, the numbers speak for themselves—up to a point. After the first three days, some 350 Palestinians had been killed and only four Israelis. Neither common sense nor the laws of war require Israel to deviate from the usual rule, which is to kill as many enemies as you can and avoid casualties on your own side. Hamas was foolish to pick this uneven fight. But of the Palestinian dead, several score were civilians, and many others were policemen rather than combatants. Although both Western armies and their foes have killed far more civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel’s interest should be to minimise the killing. The Palestinians it is bombing today will be its neighbours for ever. 在平衡性方面,数字在某种程度上说明了一切。大约350个巴勒斯坦人死于最初3天的空袭;而以色列方面只有4人死亡。无论战争法还是常识都不希望以色列方面背离通用规则:在避免己方死伤的情况下尽可能多的杀伤敌人。哈马斯接招这场不对等的战争无疑是非常愚蠢的;但是在巴勒斯坦的死亡人数中,除部分平民外,其余的多数是警察,而不是战斗人员。虽然西方军队和他们的敌人在阿富汗和伊拉克杀害了更多的平民;但是为了自己的利益以色列也应该减少杀戮,今天轰炸的巴勒斯坦人将会是他永远的邻居。
This last point speaks to the test of effectiveness. Israel said at first that, much as it would like to topple Hamas, its present operation has the more limited aim of “changing reality” so that Hamas stops firing across the border. But as Israel learnt in Lebanon in 2006, this is far from easy. As with Hizbullah, Hamas’s “resistance” to Israel has made it popular and delivered it to power. It is most unlikely to bend the knee. Like Hizbullah, it will probably prefer to keep on firing no matter how hard it is hit, daring Israel to send its ground forces into a messy street fight in Gaza’s congested cities and refugee camps. 最后的这点是针对效能实验说的。以色列最初表示希望推翻哈马斯,同时也认为用军事行动阻止哈马斯向边界对面发射火箭弹,力图“改变现状”的效果非常有限。不过根据以色列从2006年黎巴嫩战争中的到教训来看,这绝不是易事。在对待黎巴嫩真主党的问题上,哈马斯对以色列的“抵抗”让该组织变得久负盛名并且威力无穷;绝不会屈膝低头。哈马斯的态度像黎巴嫩真主党一样:只要以色列敢于向加沙地区拥挤的城镇和难民营派出地面部队,发动棘手的巷战,该组织应该会不计后果坚持战斗。
Now cease fire 现在就停火吧!
Can Israel have forgotten the lesson of Lebanon so soon? Hardly. If anything, its campaign against Hamas now is intended to compensate for its relative failure against Hizbullah then. With Iran’s nuclear threat on the horizon, and Iranian influence growing in both Lebanon and Gaza, Israel is keen to remind its enemies that the Jewish state can still fight and still win. Precisely for that reason, despite its talk of a long campaign, it may be more receptive than it is letting on to an immediate ceasefire. Its aircraft have already pummelled almost every target in Gaza. Further military gains will be harder. A truce now, if Hamas really did stop its fire, could be presented to voters as the successful rehabilitation of Israeli deterrence. 以色列能这么快的忘记黎以战争的教训吗?只要以色列企图用此次的巴以战争来弥补黎以战争时的失败,就难以忘记。借助核武器的威胁,伊朗在加沙地区和以色列的影响力与日俱增;而以色列却热切的希望提醒对手注意到犹太国家依然善战并将取胜。就是因为这个原因,与急刹车似的停火相比,以色列把长期战争挂在嘴边的态度反而更加令人接受。以色列战机几乎数次袭击了加沙地区的每一个目标,不过进一步的军事意图已经很难实现。如果哈马斯可以真正停止袭击,那么当前真正意义上的停火将让选民看到以色列威慑力的成功复苏。
But a ceasefire needs a mediator. Mr Obama is not yet president, and George Bush has so far hung back, just as he did in 2006 while waiting for an Israeli knockout blow that did not come. This time, he and everyone else with influence should pile in at once. To bring Hamas on board, a ceasefire would need to include an end to Israel’s blockade, but that would be a good thing in itself, relieving the suffering in Gaza and removing one of the reasons Hamas gives for fighting. 不过停火需要一个斡旋人。奥巴马目前还没有入住白宫,而布什却表现出退却;一如他在2006年表现处得那样,那时他在期待这以色列可以重拳出击,但却迟迟没有出现。此次,他和每一个有影响力的人应该适时出现。为了让哈马斯响应这次停火,以色列需要停止对巴勒斯坦的封锁;而这本身对以色列也是一件好事情,因为可以减轻加沙地区的痛苦并且减少哈马斯发动袭击的接口。
After that, Mr Obama will have to gather up what is left of diplomacy in the Middle East. It is not all hopeless. Until this week, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, was talking to Israel about how to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But Mr Abbas presides over the West Bank only, and little progress is possible so long as half of Palestine’s people support an organisation that can still not bring itself to renounce armed struggle or recognise Israel’s right to exist. Since Hamas is not going to disappear, some way must be found to change its mind. Bombs alone will never do that. 在此之后,奥巴马将必须号召解决中东地区问题全部的外交可能,而且似乎还有一线希望。直到本周,巴勒斯坦总统阿巴斯一直在和以色列方面就在河西岸和加沙地区建国的事情进行谈判。但是阿巴斯只对河西岸负责,只要超过一半的巴勒斯坦人还支持哈马斯,就基本上不存在取得进步的可能;因为该组织无法放放弃军事斗争或者承认以色列的生存权利。鉴于哈马斯不会消失,必须设法改变他的想法;而单靠炸弹则永远不会实现这个目的。
Like mould, Madoffs flourish in the darkness 麦道夫在暗箱操作中悄然走向繁荣,就像霉菌的滋生一样。
WRITING about one of the great swindles of the 1930s, J.K. Galbraith pointed to three traits of any financial community that he believed put it at risk of fraud. There was the tendency, he wrote in 1961, to confuse good manners and good tailoring with integrity and intelligence. There was the sometimes “disastrous interdependence” between the honest man and the crook. And there was the “dangerous cliché that in the financial world everything depends on confidence. One could better argue the importance of unremitting suspicion.” 加尔布雷斯在对上世纪30年代最大的一次欺诈进行描述时指出:有三个特性致使金融界存在欺诈风险。在1961年的著作中他还谈及了一种趋势:将良好品德、技术与刚正、智慧混为一谈。正人君子和骗子之间存在着间歇式的势不两立;同时金融界有句老话“业内的一切都建立在信心上,坚持不懈的怀疑是非常重要的。”
The case of Bernard Madoff, a New York financier who has allegedly confessed to running a pyramid scheme that destroyed up to $50 billion of his clients’ money, has all three traits (see article). The former chairman of NASDAQ was as well known to insiders on Wall Street as he was in the posh Palm Beach Country Club in Florida, where he was a pillar of Jewish philanthropy. His clients were fiercely loyal; they had to be or he would cut them out of his hallowed investment circle and month-after-month returns of metronomic regularity. And he thrived in an era of cheap credit, when greed and gullibility became far more powerful than fear and suspicion. 当下的麦道夫案件就具备这三个特征,而这个纽约金融家已经承认使用金字塔骗术欺骗了客户500亿美元。前纳斯达克主席麦道夫之所以在华尔街人那里很知名,因为在佛罗里达豪华的棕榈滩乡村俱乐部中,他是犹太慈善家中的台柱。(背景说明:在美国,豪华俱乐部是很多银行家活动、社交、发现生意的重要平台,棕榈滩乡村俱乐部之所以有名,多年来都是因为神奇的麦道夫在那里出没,很多人交昂贵的入会费就是为了和麦道夫结识。2.华尔街大商号的创始人超过一半是犹太人或者有犹太血统)麦道夫的客户极度的忠诚,而且他们也必须如此;否则麦道夫就会切断此人同投资循环的关联,并失去月复一月的收益。麦道夫成功于低信贷成本的年代:在那样的日子里,贪婪和欺骗比恐惧怀疑更占上风。
What marks Mr Madoff’s case out, however, is the calibre of investor he suckered. It is not the first time that wealthy people have been swindled out of huge sums of money, nor will it be the last. But never have so many big financial institutions—the oxymoronic “smart money”—been so bilked by an individual. It is here that investors, as well as the authorities, should tighten the thumbscrews and demand more transparency. 麦道夫案的显著之处在于他吸纳的高品质投资者。这不是富人的首次被骗,也不会是最后一次。但是从没有如此多的金融机构被某个人如此的愚弄,尽管他们号称自己“精明理财”。其实投资者和有关当局应该在这些地方加强管理,并强调更高的透明度。
Oxymorons 矛盾重重
Tragicomically, a handful of global banks that had fared well during the financial meltdown of the past 18 months are on the list of those caught out. HSBC, a British bank, Santander of Spain, and BNP Paribas of France: all bear a share of losses that add up to $33 billion, according to a Bloomberg tally. So were the suave private bankers of Switzerland and Singapore. 悲喜相交的是,在过去18个月的金融衰退中,不少国际性银行与被迫出局的相比还算走运。根据布隆伯格的记录,英国的汇丰银行、西班牙桑坦德银行、法国巴黎银行总共承担了高达330亿美元的损失。瑞士和新加坡的私人银行同样蒙受损失。
It is, however, the reputation of the big funds of hedge funds—some belonging to the banks, others at firms like Britain’s Man Group and America’s Tremont Capital Management—that have been most damaged. They charge whopping fees, say 1.5% of assets, largely on the basis of their ability to pick out clever people to manage their clients’ money. Their business has flourished partly because the hedge-fund industry is so opaque: if investors could dig out more information for themselves, they would not have to pay others to penetrate the veil for them. They are also the largest investors in hedge funds, accounting for about half the investment in the industry, or $800 billion at the end of last year. 然而声誉真正受到损毁的是属于银行以及其它一些公司的大型对冲基金,比如英国曼氏集团和美国特利蒙特资本管理公司。这些公司收取相当于资产1.5%的高额费用,用于招揽精英人才对客户的资金进行管理运作;他们兴旺发达的部分原因是对冲基金产业的不透明性:如果投资者自己也能得到充足的信息,就不会雇用他人去揭开神秘的面纱。这些公司本身也是对冲基金的主要投资者,在行业中的占比达到50%,于去年底达到了8000亿美元。
Yet for all their insights and access, some of them missed red flags billowing over Mr Madoff’s business, such as the way he kept custody over his clients’ accounts, handled the trades himself and employed an obscure accounting firm. They ignored warnings from lesser mortals, such as one in 2001 from MAR/Hedge, a diligent trade journal. They never wondered why, though the sums he managed were vast, he rarely caused a ripple in the markets. Their argument that enlightened self-interest is a reason to leave the hedge-fund industry largely unscrutinised and unregulated looks ever harder to sustain. 尽管他们具有专业的洞察力和了解内幕的渠道,这些公司依然没有注意到麦道夫公司上空密布的危险信号:比如该公司对客户账户的管理方式、独资进行交易处理以及雇用名不见经传的会计公司。这些公司失误的另一个原因是对一些非主流意见的忽视,比如2001年对冲基金行业杂志MAR/Hedge就提出过疑问。尽管麦道夫运作资本的数量巨大,但从未在市场上显山露水,客户对此也从未提出质疑。他们认为监管部门受到利己主义的蒙蔽,对冲基金一直处于缺乏监管和彻查的状态,甚至到了让人无法忍耐的程度。
The investors were not the only dullards. The regulators, too, were taken for a ride. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Wall Street’s regulator in chief, overlooked Mr Madoff’s investment-advisory business, even though it had assets under management of $17.1 billion at the start of 2008. The outgoing head of the SEC has admitted the commission made a hash of the Madoff case, failing to act on warnings made nearly a decade ago. 犯傻的不光是投资者,监管者同样吃了瓜落儿。作为华尔街的最高立法者,证券交易委员会对麦道夫的投资咨询公司一直比较放任,尽管该公司管理的资产在2008年初就高达171亿美元。即将离任的委员会主席表示要严肃处理麦道夫案件,但他应该在10年前就发出警示。
Not even the best of regulators (and the SEC is not that) can be sure of stopping a determined fraudster. The authorities can, however, help investors make better judgments by requiring more disclosure from hedge funds and other high-fee asset managers. It would have been particularly useful to know how much of their clients’ money they were investing in inscrutable people and illiquid assets—even if, at the time, few investors may have cared. 别说证券交易委员会不是最好的监管机构,就算是最好的也无法阻止一个蓄谋已久的诈骗犯。但是有关当局可以要求对冲基金和其它高费用资产管理公司披露更多的信息,通过这种方式帮助投资者进行有益的调整;特别是可以帮助投资者了解到资金的去向:有多少流向了了神秘人物和不良资产。不过即使有了这样的信息,很少有投资者在那个时间会在乎这个。
The industry has made a fetish of keeping its clients—and competitors—in the dark about its holdings. But the credit crunch has revealed how few original ideas most of them held. Like sheep, many of them flocked to borrow money to enhance returns, parlaying this as genius. Some also turned to money managers like Mr Madoff, where they were mercilessly fleeced. Let the light shine in. 对冲基金行业信封的规则是不让客户及竞争对手知道资金的投向,但是信贷危机暴露了他们少的可怜的资金持有数量。很对冲基金成群的举债来提高回报率,天才一样的进行豪赌。一些对冲基金向麦道夫这样的理财公司举债,但同时他们被无情的进行敲诈。让这个行业大白于天下吧!