2016考研英語最新時文精讀精析：股市泡沫

考研英語來源：文都教育 2015-07-22　

本文來自2015年7月18日的《經濟學人》，本季度的中國股市經歷了大起大落，作為全球經濟的重要分子，中國股市的震蕩自然會對全球經濟產生重大影響。老師提醒大家，這也是我們復習考研英語需要重點了解的話題，有了對背景知識的了解，之后再讀類似題材的文章就會順利很多。

對此次股市暴跌，政府采取了財政措施試圖控制其殺傷力(the government tried frantically to limit the damage)。但我們并不是第一個由于擔心崩盤可能對經濟造成傷害而試圖去提振股價的國家。格林斯潘在擔任美聯儲主席期間，就曾經通過給予投資者他會降息來阻止股市潰敗的印象這種方式，創造出了著名的“格林斯潘對策”。China was hardly the first country to try to bolster stock prices for fear of the economic harm a crash could bring. Alan Greenspan, as chairman of the Federal Reserve, famously created the “Greenspan put” by giving investors the impression he would cut interest rates to stop stockmarket routs.

殊不知，這些介入背后的原理是一種直到最近都很少受到關注的思想，即股市泡沫對經濟有著極大的殺傷力。其實，好像并不是所有的泡沫都一樣壞。The underlying rationale for these interventions is an idea that until recently received surprisingly little scrutiny—namely, that stockmarket busts are very damaging for the economy. Not all bubbles, it would appear, are equally bad.

據兩份最新論文，區分相對無害的瘋狂與災難性瘋狂的關鍵變量是債務。在許多案例中，股市狂熱屬于較不令人擔憂的一類。According to two new papers, the crucial variable that separates relatively harmless frenzies from disastrous ones is debt. In many cases, stockmarket manias fall into the less worrying category.

在為國民經濟調查局撰寫的論文中，經濟學家梳理了過去140年里的房地產和股票市場的泡沫。他們的結論是，最危險的是由信貸繁榮催生的房地產泡沫，最不令人煩惱的是不依賴于債務的股市泡沫。Writing for the National Bureau of Economic Research, scientists examine bubbles in housing and equity markets over the past 140 years. The most dangerous, they conclude, are housing bubbles fuelled by credit booms. The least troublesome are equity bubbles that do not rely on debt.

那么，股市暴跌Stockmarket routs到底是如何影響經濟的呢?股市暴跌一般是通過“財富效應”來傷害經濟的。在人們看到自己資產比以前大幅減少時，他們會減少開支，導致需求走軟，最終引發投資疲軟。債務能夠使這種情況變得更壞。Stockmarket routs typically harm the economy via the “wealth effect”. When people see that their assets are worth substantially less than before, they spend less, leading to weaker demand and, ultimately, weaker investment. Debt can make this worse.

這次中國的股市泡沫正是伴隨著大量債務而來(accompanied by lots of debt)，并會對經濟造成嚴重的破壞(can cause severe economic damage)，如果任其破裂而不施以任何援手也是一個不好的選項，所以政府的救市還是及時并且是必要的。提醒廣大考生，在研究考研英語真題的基礎上，也要同步做一些泛讀，豐富文化背景知識儲備。祝大家考研英語復習順利，為夢想加油!