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April 15 C/S 与 B/S 区别 Client/Server是建立在局域网的基础上的,Browser/Server是建立在广域网的基础上的。 (1)、硬件环境不同: C/S 一般建立在专用的网络上, 小范围里的网络环境, 局域网之间再通过专门服务器提供连接和数据交换服务。 B/S 建立在广域网之上的, 不必是专门的网络硬件环境,例如电话上网, 租用设备, 信息自己管理, 有比C/S更强的适应范围, 一般只要有操作系统和浏览器就行。 (2)、对安全要求不同 C/S 一般面向相对固定的用户群, 对信息安全的控制能力很强。 一般高度机密的信息系统采用C/S 结构适宜,可以通过B/S发布部分可公开信息。 B/S 建立在广域网之上, 对安全的控制能力相对弱, 面向是不可知的用户群。 (3)、对程序架构不同 C/S 程序可以更加注重流程,可以对权限多层次校验,对系统运行速度可以较少考虑。 B/S 对安全以及访问速度的多重的考虑, 建立在需要更加优化的基础之上。 比C/S有更高的要求,B/S结构的程序架构是发展的趋势,从MS的.Net系列的BizTalk 2000 Exchange 2000等,全面支持网络的构件搭建的系统。SUN和IBM推的JavaBean构件技术等,使B/S更加成熟。 (4)、软件重用不同 C/S 程序可以不可避免的整体性考虑, 构件的重用性不如在B/S要求下的构件的重用性好。 B/S 对的多重结构,要求构件相对独立的功能。 能够相对较好的重用。就如买来的餐桌可以再利用,而不是做在墙上的石头桌子。 (5)、系统维护不同 系统维护是软件生存周期中,开销大,相当重要 C/S 程序由于整体性,必须整体考察,处理出现的问题以及系统升级难, 可能是再做一个全新的系统。 B/S 构件组成方面构件个别的更换,实现系统的无缝升级。 系统维护开销减到最小,用户从网上自己下载安装就可以实现升级。 (6)、处理问题不同 C/S 程序可以处理用户面固定,并且在相同区域, 安全要求高的需求,与操作系统相关, 应该都是相同的系统。 B/S 建立在广域网上, 面向不同的用户群,分散地域, 这是C/S无法作到的,与操作系统平台关系最小。 (7)、用户接口不同 C/S 多是建立在Window平台上,表现方法有限,对程序员普遍要求较高。 B/S 建立在浏览器上, 有更加丰富和生动的表现方式与用户交流, 并且大部分难度减低,降低开发成本。 (8)、信息流不同 C/S 程序一般是典型的中央集权的机械式处理,交互性相对低。 B/S 信息流向可变化, B-B、 B-C、 B-G等信息流向的变化, 更象交易中心 参考资料:http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/12962713.html 使用myeclipse集成struts,hibernate,spring的一个示例程序(2008-04-14 16:17:27) 标签:it 在java 企业应用领域,ejb的功能强大同ejb的配置复杂,难于学习一样出名。但在以前我们又有什么办法呢?只有硬着头皮来学ejb。真有点“明知山有虎,偏向虎山行”的精神。现在形式有了乐观的变化,java开源的持续走红,使得开发java企业级应用不再局限于ejb领域。这里我主要介绍一下怎样采用开源的 Spring,Hibernate以及Struts构建一个轻量级的架构。 一、整体架构介绍 在软件工程领域,为了降低模块耦合度,提高模块的可重用性,分层一直是广为采纳的一个方法。其实分层还可以使开发人员专注于某一层进行开发,使得软件开发的分工变细,提高生产效率(这一点上堪比福特发明的流水线生产汽车的做法,各个工人负责特定部件的生产,最后组装)。 一个企业级的java应用,通常分为以下几层:UI层,业务逻辑层,数据持久层,域对象层。下面对这几层分别作简要介绍: 1. UI层:负责与用户交互,包括:接受用户的请求,把处理结果返回给用户。这里我们采用struts来UI层,虽然比起Tapestry以及JSF这些事件驱动的表现层技术而言,Struts的设计显得有些老土,但它目前仍是表现层事实上的标准,所以我们还是选用它。 2.业务逻辑层:主要负责具体的业务处理。通过Spring的IOC以及AOP实现各个功能的耦合相连 3.数据持久层:主要负责与底层的数据库打交道。这里我们采用Spring封装的Hibernate操作来简化实际的编码。主要的操作为CRUD(create ,read,update,delete) 4.域对象层:具体的实体类,如老师,学生等等这些具体的类(注意:需要与数据库中的某一标对应)。 以上只是简单介绍了各个层的划分以及各层所对应的开源框架,要详细了解各层的具层信息,需要访问 struts,hibernate,spring的官方网站。 二、实例分析 实例说明:一个网站登录的例子,比较简单,但能说明各层是如何协调工作的。 工具:jdk1.5,eclipse3.2,myeclipse5.0GA,mysql5.0,tomcat5.5,至于这几个工具到底该怎么装这里我就不多说了,大家不清楚的可以到网上搜搜。下面是具体操作步骤: 预备工作:用mysql创建一个test数据库,再创建一个user表,再创建两个字段username和password。脚本如下 DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS `test`; CREATE DATABASE `test` USE `test`; CREATE TABLE `user` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, `username` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '', `password` varchar(30) default '', PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=gb2312; 打开myeclipse的database explore透视图
右键单击左侧的空白区域 ,点击 new 按钮
单击“configure database driver”来配置数据库的驱动,你必须有mysql的jdbc驱动,没有的到mysql的官方网站上下载。
测试数据库配置是否成功。 1. 新建一个myeclipse的web工程
2. 引入Spring包 右键工程名
注意:这里为了省得以后再添加spring的相关包,所以一次性的选中了所有的包。选中Copy选项,它会把这些包拷贝到/WebRoot/WEB-INF/lib目录下,方便以后的实际部署。 3.添加hibernate包
系统会检测到该工程已经添加了Spring包,选择使用Spring的配置文件
点击 next
点击 next
点击 next
最后点击Finish按钮即可。 4切换到database explore视图,右键 点击 user 表的“Hibrnate Reverse Engineering”
弹出如下窗口
点击 “next”
再单击finish 在包视图中 可以看到 src下多了一个名为vo的package以及该包下的四个文件
为了更加直观地显示分层,我另建了一个名为dao的package,并把UserDAO.java移到dao中
同时注意在applicationContext.xml中把对UserDAO的引用部分也作相应修改。 5. 建立业务逻辑层代码 新建一个名为service的包,再在里面建立一个Service类,代码如下 package service; import java.util.List; import vo.User; import dao.UserDAO; public class Service { private UserDAO userDao; public UserDAO getUserDao() { return userDao; } public void setUserDao(UserDAO userDao) { this.userDao = userDao; } public boolean isValid(User user) {//判断用户是否合法 List result = userDao.findByExample(user); if (result.size() > 0) return true; else return false; } } 同时在applicationContext.xml中添加如下配置 <bean id="service" class="service.Service" singleton="false"> <property name="userDao"> <ref bean="userDao" /> </property> </bean> 6.配置UI层 添加struts包,方法同添加spring一样
配置struts-config.xml文件,在空白区域右键单击 new 一个 action ,actionForm ,jsp
下一步 对forward作设置,增加succeed转到welcome.jsp,fail转到login.jsp 在WebRoot目录下建立一个welcome.jsp文件,显示用户登录成功后的欢迎信息。 6. 把struts和spring连接起来 6.1修改struts-config.xml注意红色字体部分 <action attribute="loginForm" input="/login.jsp" name="loginForm" path="/login" scope="request" type="org.springframework.web.struts.DelegatingActionProxy"> <forward name="fail" path="/login.jsp" /> <forward name="succeed" path="/welcome.jsp" /> </action> 再在strut-config.xml中添加如下代码 <plug-in className="org.springframework.web.struts.ContextLoaderPlugIn"> <set-property property="contextConfigLocation" value="/WEB-INF/classes/applicationContext.xml" /> </plug-in>> 6.2修改applicationContext,增加以下内容 <bean name="/login" class="web.action.LoginAction" singleton="false"> <property name="service"> <ref bean="service" /> </property> </bean> 6.3修改LoginAction.java部分代码,增加一个service变量,以及其 get/set方法(主要用于Spring IOC)。代码如下: package web.action; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; import org.apache.struts.action.Action; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping; import web.form.LoginForm; import service.Service; import vo.User; public class LoginAction extends Action { private Service service; public void setService(Service service) { this.service = service; } public Service getService() { return service; } public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) { LoginForm loginForm = (LoginForm) form;// TODO Auto-generated method // stub User user = new User(); user.setPassword(loginForm.getPassword()); user.setUsername(loginForm.getUserName()); if (service.isValid(user)) return mapping.findForward("succeed"); else return mapping.findForward("fail"); } } 至此一个简单的登录已经做成。剩下的工作就是打包并发布你的应用了。 二、实例分析 实例说明:一个网站登录的例子,比较简单,但能说明各层是如何协调工作的。 工具:jdk1.5,eclipse3.2,myeclipse5.0GA,mysql5.0,tomcat5.5,至于这几个工具到底该怎么装这里我就不多说了,大家不清楚的可以到网上搜搜。下面是具体操作步骤: 预备工作:用mysql创建一个test数据库,再创建一个user表,再创建两个字段username和password。脚本如下 DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS `test`; CREATE DATABASE `test` USE `test`; CREATE TABLE `user` ( `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, `username` varchar(30) NOT NULL default '', `password` varchar(30) default '', PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=gb2312; 打开myeclipse的database explore透视图
 右键单击左侧的空白区域 ,点击 new 按钮
 单击“configure database driver”来配置数据库的驱动,你必须有mysql的jdbc驱动,没有的到mysql的官方网站上下载。
 测试数据库配置是否成功。 1. 新建一个myeclipse的web工程
 2. 引入Spring包 右键工程名

 注意:这里为了省得以后再添加spring的相关包,所以一次性的选中了所有的包。选中 Copy选项,它会把这些包拷贝到/WebRoot/WEB-INF/lib目录下,方便以后的实际部署。 3.添加hibernate包
 系统会检测到该工程已经添加了Spring包,选择使用Spring的配置文件
 点击 next
 点击 next
 点击 next
 最后点击Finish按钮即可。 4切换到database explore视图,右键 点击 user 表的“Hibrnate Reverse Engineering”
 弹出如下窗口
 点击 “next”
 再单击finish 在包视图中 可以看到 src下多了一个名为vo的package以及该包下的四个文件
 为了更加直观地显示分层,我另建了一个名为dao的package,并把UserDAO.java移到dao中
 同时注意在applicationContext.xml中把对UserDAO的引用部分也作相应修改。 5. 建立业务逻辑层代码 新建一个名为service的包,再在里面建立一个Service类,代码如下
package service; import java.util.List; import vo.User; import dao.UserDAO; public class Service { private UserDAO userDao; public UserDAO getUserDao() { return userDao; } public void setUserDao(UserDAO userDao) { this.userDao = userDao; } public boolean isValid(User user) {//判断用户是否合法 List result = userDao.findByExample(user); if (result.size() > 0) return true; else return false; } }
同时在applicationContext.xml中添加如下配置 <bean id="service" class="service.Service" singleton="false"> <property name="userDao"> <ref bean="userDao" /> </property> </bean> 6.配置UI层 添加struts包,方法同添加spring一样
 配置struts-config.xml文件,在空白区域右键单击 new 一个 action ,actionForm ,jsp


 下一步 对forward作设置,增加succeed转到welcome.jsp,fail转到login.jsp 在WebRoot目录下建立一个welcome.jsp文件,显示用户登录成功后的欢迎信息。
6. 把struts和spring连接起来 6.1修改struts-config.xml注意红色字体部分
<action attribute="loginForm" input="/login.jsp" name="loginForm" path="/login" scope="request" type="org.springframework.web.struts.DelegatingActionProxy"> <forward name="fail" path="/login.jsp" /> <forward name="succeed" path="/welcome.jsp" /> </action>
再在strut-config.xml中添加如下代码
<plug-in className="org.springframework.web.struts.ContextLoaderPlugIn"> <set-property property="contextConfigLocation" value="/WEB-INF/classes/applicationContext.xml" /> </plug-in>> 6.2修改applicationContext,增加以下内容 <bean name="/login" class="web.action.LoginAction" singleton="false"> <property name="service"> <ref bean="service" /> </property> </bean>
6.3修改LoginAction.java部分代码,增加一个service变量,以及其 get/set方法(主要用于Spring IOC)。代码如下:
package web.action; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; import org.apache.struts.action.Action; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping; import web.form.LoginForm; import service.Service; import vo.User; public class LoginAction extends Action { private Service service; public void setService(Service service) { this.service = service; } public Service getService() { return service; } public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) { LoginForm loginForm = (LoginForm) form;// TODO Auto-generated method // stub User user = new User(); user.setPassword(loginForm.getPassword()); user.setUsername(loginForm.getUserName()); if (service.isValid(user)) return mapping.findForward("succeed"); else return mapping.findForward("fail"); } }
至此一个简单的登录已经做成。剩下的工作就是打包并发布你的应用了
SSH框架 最近在弄j2ee,发现还是学到了很多东西,心情happy啊!昨天看到了一个文章是关于ssh的,就弄下来了,后面加点自己的东西,很感谢网上的各位前辈的总结。一个spring2.5+hibernate3.2+struts2.0组合框架,使用spring的IoC来管理应用的所有bean,包括struts2的action,充分发挥了spring轻量级框架的优势。 摘 要:针对当前Web应用程序开发面临的问题,结合目前比较流行的开源框架Spring、Struts和Hibernate,提出了一种开发J2EE Web应用的轻量级解决方案,以帮助开发人员在短期内搭建结构清晰、可复用性好、维护方便的Web应用程序。并且,通过案例具体说明了如何将这一方案应用到实际项目中。 关键词:J2EE MVC Struts Spring Hibernate 大型企业级Web应用系统的开发通常要求有一个良好的软件架构、便于协作开发和扩展升级,而传统的开发模式不能很好地满足这些要求。本文针对当前Web应用程序开发面临的问题,结合目前比较流行的开源框架SSH(Spring、Struts、Hibernate),提出一种开发J2EE 企业级Web应用的轻量级解决方案,并通过案例具体说明如何将这一方案应用到实际项目中。 1 框架技术 著名的软件大师Ralph Johnson对框架(Framework)进行了如下的定义: 框架是整个系统或系统的一部分的可重用设计,由一组抽象的类及其实例间的相互作用方式组成[1]。 框架一般具有即插即用的可重用性、成熟的稳定性以及良好的团队协作性。J2EE复杂的多层结构决定了大型的J2EE项目需要运用框架和设计模式来控制软件质量。目前,市场上出现了一些商业的、开源的基于J2EE的应用框架,其中主流的框架技术有:基于MVC模式的Struts框架和基于IoC模式的Spring框架以及对象/关系映射框架Hibernate等。 1.1 表示层框架Struts Struts是一个在JSP Model2基础上实现的MVC框架,主要分为模型(Model)、视图(Viewer)和控制器(Controller)三部分,其主要的设计理念是通过控制器将表现逻辑和业务逻辑解耦,以提高系统的可维护性、可扩展性和可重用性[2]。Struts框架的体系结构如图1所示。
 下面就图1所示的体系结构图分析Struts框架中的MVC组件。 (1)视图:视图部分主要由JSP页面组成,其中没有流程逻辑、业务逻辑和模型信息,只有标记。Struts自身包含了一组标记库(TagLib),这也是Struts的精华之一,灵活运用它们可以简化JSP页面的代码,提高开发效率。 (2)控制器:Struts中的Controller主要是其自身提供的ActionServlet。ActionServlet接收所有来自客户端的请求并根据配置文件(struts-config.xml)中的定义将控制转移到适当的Action对象。 (3)模型:Struts没有定义具体Model层的实现,Model层通常是和业务逻辑紧密相关的,有持续化的要求。目前在商业领域和开源世界,都有一些优秀的工具可以为Model层的开发提供便利。 1.2 业务逻辑层框架Spring Spring是一个解决了许多J2EE开发中常见问题并能够替代EJB技术的强大的轻量级框架。这里所说的轻量级指的是Spring框架本身,而不是指Spring只能用于轻量级的应用开发。Spring的轻盈体现在其框架本身的基础结构以及对其他应用工具的支持和装配能力。与EJB这种庞然大物相比,Spring可使程序研发人员把各个技术层次之间的风险降低。 Spring框架的核心是控制翻转IoC(Inversion of Control)/依赖注入DI(Dependence Injection)机制。IoC是指由容器中控制组件之间的关系(这里,容器是指为组件提供特定服务和技术支持的一个标准化的运行时的环境)而非传统实现中由程序代码直接操控,这种将控制权由程序代码到外部容器的转移,称为“翻转”[3]。DI是对IoC更形象的解释,即由容器在运行期间动态地将依赖关系(如构造参数、构造对象或接口)注入到组件之中[3]。Spring采用设值注入(使用Setter方法实现依赖)和构造子注入(在构造方法中实现依赖)的机制,通过配置文件管理组建的协作对象,创建可以构造组件的IoC容器。这样,不需要编写工厂模式、单例模式或者其他构造的方法,就可以通过容器直接获取所需的业务组件。Spring框架的结构如图2所示。
 Spring框架由七个定义明确的模块组成,且每个模块或组件都可以单独存在,或者与其他一个或多个模块联合实现。Spring Core Container是一个用来管理业务组件的IoC容器,是Spring应用的核心;Spring DAO和Spring ORM不仅提供数据访问的抽象模块,还集成了对Hibernate、JDO和iBatis等流行的对象关系映射框架的支持模块,并且提供了缓冲连接池、事务处理等重要的服务功能,保证了系统的性能和数据的完整性;Sprnig Web模块提供了Web应用的一些抽象封装,可以将Struts、Webwork等Web框架与Spring整合成为适用于自己的解决方案。 Spring框架可以成为企业级应用程序一站式的解决方案,同时它也是模块化的框架,允许开发人员自由地挑选适合自己应用的模块进行开发。Spring框架式是一个松耦合的框架,框架的部分耦合度被设计为最小,在各个层次上具体选用哪个框架取决于开发者的需要。 1.3 数据持久层框架Hibernate O/R mapping技术是为了解决关系型数据库和面向对象的程序设计之间不匹配的矛盾而产生的。Hibernate是目前最为流行的O/R mapping框架,它在关系型数据库和Java对象之间做了一个自动映射,使得程序员可以以非常简单的方式实现对数据库的操作。Hibernate工作原理如图3所示。
 Hibernate通过对JDBC的封装,向程序员屏蔽了底层的数据库操作,使程序员专注于OO程序的开发,有助于提高开发效率。程序员访问数据库所需要做的就是为持久化对象编制xml映射文件[4]。 底层数据库的改变只需要简单地更改初始化配置文件(hibernate.cfg.xml或者hibernate.properties)即可,不会对应用程序产生影响。 Hibernate有自己的面向对象的查询语言HQL,HQL功能强大,支持目前大部分主流的数据库,如Oracle、DB2、MySQL、Microsoft SQL Server等,是目前应用最广泛的O/R映射工具。Hibernate为快速开发应用程序提供了底层的支持。 2 基于SSH组合框架的Web应用模型设计与实现 2.1 集成SSH的新型J2EE框架 前面分析了基于J2EE的三种框架技术,下面通过集成以上三种框架技术来对传统的J2EE Web开发模型加以改进,以形成一种新的、轻量型的J2EE架构。 集成SSH框架的系统框架图如图4所示,系统从职责上分为四层:表示层、业务逻辑层、数据持久层和域模块层。其中使用Struts作为系统的整体基础架构,负责MVC的分离,在Struts框架的模型部分,利用Hibernate框架对持久层提供支持,业务层用Spring支持。具体做法是:用面向对象的分析方法根据需求提出一些模型,将这些模型实现为基本的Java对象,然后编写基本的DAO接口,并给出Hibernate的DAO实现,采用Hibernate架构实现的DAO类来实现Java类与数据库之间的转换和访问,最后由Spring完成业务逻辑。
 系统的基本业务流程是: 在表示层中,首先通过JSP页面实现交互界面,负责传送请求(Request)和接收响应(Response),然后Struts根据配置文件(struts-config.xml)将ActionServlet接收到的Request委派给相应的Action处理。在业务层中,管理服务组件的Spring IoC容器负责向Action提供业务模型(Model)组件和该组件的协作对象数据处理(DAO)组件完成业务逻辑,并提供事务处理、缓冲池等容器组件以提升系统性能和保证数据的完整性。而在持久层中,则依赖于Hibernate的对象化映射和数据库交互,处理DAO组件请求的数据,并返回处理结果。 采用上述开发模型,不仅实现了视图、控制器与模型的彻底分离,而且还实现了业务逻辑层与持久层的分离。这样无论前端如何变化,模型层只需很少的改动,并且数据库的变化也不会对前端有所影响,大大提高了系统的可复用性。而且由于不同层之间耦合度小,有利于团队成员并行工作,大大提高了开发效率。 2.2 基于SSH框架的Web应用系统的实现 下面将通过一个实际的系统来展示如何进行基于SSH框架的Web应用开发。该系统是为某通信公司运营部开发的一个问答式系统,功能类似于百度知道和新浪爱问。由于系统的模块较多,下面就以一个用户管理模块为例来说明系统的开发实现过程,并将按照数据持久层、业务逻辑层、表示层的顺序说明系统构建过程。 (1)数据持久层 数据持久层由Java对象持久化类和数据访问对象(DAO)组成。每个数据库表都对应着一个持久化对象,这样就给予了开发者使用OO思想设计和开发的便利,同时也屏蔽了具体的数据库和具体的数据表、字段,消除了对数据库操作的硬编码在重用性上的弊端。用户信息表的部分结构如表1所示。
 Hibernate通过映射(Mapping)文件将对象(Object)与关系型数据(Relational)相关联,因此需要编写和数据库表相对应的Java持久化类以及对应的映射文件。有了Java持久化类后就可以在此基础上实现数据访问类。在Spring框架中,数据访问类可以从辅助类HibernateDaoSupport继承,这极大地方便了Hibernate框架在Spring中的使用,相应的部分代码如下: public class UserDao extends HibernateDaoSupport { public int add(User user) { return Integer.ParseInt(this.getHibernateTemplate().save(user).toString()); } public List findAll() { return this.getHibernateTemplate().loadAll(User.class); } } 具体的Hibernate数据源、session工厂、事务管理、缓冲连接池等功能都由业务层的Spring容器提供。 (2)业务逻辑层 业务逻辑层由Spring框架支持,提供了处理业务逻辑的服务组件。开发者需要对业务对象建模,抽象出业务模型并封装在Model组件中。由于数据持久层实现了Java持久化类并且封装了数据访问对象(DAO),因此可以在Model组件中方便地调用DAO组件来存取数据。Spring的IoC容器负责统一管理Model组件和DAO组件以及Spring所提供的事务处理、缓冲连接池等服务组件。 在用户管理模块中,通过业务建模创建了用户模型UserService类,封装了对用户的权限管理以及积分管理等功能。UserService类通过调用数据访问类UserDao实现对用户数据的操作。这些组件的关系将通过配置Spring框架的applicationContext.xml联系起来,配置文件的主要内容如下:
 (3)表示层 表示层结合JSP和Struts的TagLib库处理显示功能,利用ActionServlet将请求(*.do)映射到相应的Action,并由Action调用业务逻辑的服务组件,然后根据处理结果跳转到Forword对象指定的响应页面。 业务流程的部署由struts-config.xml完成。下面以一个显示所有用户信息的请求(ListUser.do)为例来说明配置文件的使用。
 基于J2EE的Web应用以其层次性、平台无关性的优势已经逐渐成为了电子商务、电子政务主要的解决方案。本文针对传统的J2EE Web应用开发的弊端,提出了一种利用轻量级框架来快速搭建Web应用的解决方案,并且通过其在实际项目中的应用,证明了采用此方案可以帮助开发人员在短时间内建立结构清晰、可重用性好、维护扩展方便的Web应用程序。 参考文献 [1] GAMMA E, HELM R, JOHNSON R, et al. Design patterns:Elements of reusable object-oriented software[m]. Addison Wesley, 1994. [2] 孙卫琴.精通Struts:基于MVC的Java Web设计与开发[m]. 北京:电子工业出版社,2004. [3] JOHNSON R, HOELLER J, ARENDSEN A, et al. Java/J2EE application framework reference document. V1.1. 2004. [4] 徐长盛,戴超.一种快速开发Web应用程序方法的研究[J]. 计算机工程与设计,2004,(12):2237-2239. [5] 夏昕,曹晓钢,唐勇.深入浅出Hibernate[m]. 北京:电子工业出版社,2005. [6] JOHNSON R.Expert one-on-one J2EE design and development[m]. 魏海萍译.北京:电子工业出版社,2003. 在用ssh开发web应用时,需要对生成的各个类文件进行组织,下面就对一个可行的目录方案进行介绍: 譬如应用中有一个用户管理模块,则在公共包下建立一个user包,如该公共包可以为com.simon.oa, 在user包下包括如下子包 1、controler包 该包放置各种struts的action。 2、dao包 该包放置各类dao(data access object),也就是放置对数据库访问的实现类,在用myeclipse中的“Hibernate Reverse Engineering”进行反向操作时在某一个目录中就会生成对应某个表的DAO,生成后可将该DAO拖到dao包中。在某些应用中将DAO作为接口,在该接口中包括所有对数据库的操作方法,然后在dao包建立一个hibernate包,在hibernate包中放置对DAO接口的实现,譬如:UserDAO接口有一个实现类为UserDaoImpl,将该类放置到hibernate包中,实际的开发倾向于后一种方式,因为对这个DAO接口可以实现spring的IoC操作。(不知道myeclipse对此是怎么考虑的,这个问题让我纠缠了很久,误将DAO理解成一个能够进行实际操作的类,而不是一个接口,以后开发要注意) 3、model包 该包中放置hibernate反向工程生成的bean和该bean对应的.hbm.xml文件。 4、service包 该包放置业务操作类,譬如用户服务类,一般情况将该用户操作类提取一个接口,然后在service包下生成一个impl包,在impl包中才放置用户操作接口的实现类。该用户接口实现类中调用DAO接口对数据库进行操作,而调用该实现类的方法在struts的action中。 5、vo包(value object) vo包中的中包括struts中使用的POJO及actionform等信息。 VO: Value Object DTO: Data Transfer Object 个人理解VO和DTO是类似的东西,原则上VO和DTO只有Public Fields,主要用于进程之间数据传递的问题,VO和DTO不会传递到表示层,在业务层就会被吸收。但看到很多人在建立VO和DTO时,也含有Setter,Getter属性和一些其它的辅助方法,这也无可厚非,我自己也不能确定这对不对。 转载:http://hi.baidu.com/ashinehan/blog/item/ac42af0ba15eb336b0351d37.html March 27 China and Tibet 中国和西藏 Rejoice, damn you 欢庆,去你妈的 Mar 25th 2009 | BEIJING From The Economist print edition China prepares to mark a dangerous anniversary in Tibet, amid claims of thuggery last year 这是去年中国在西藏举行了一次危险的周年纪念活动,暴行充斥。 IT’S official: “Tibet has moved from darkness to light, poverty to affluence, dictatorship to democracy and seclusion to opening up.” So proclaims the notice at an exhibition in Beijing marking the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s “democratic reforms”. To celebrate, officials in Tibet have designated Saturday March 28th as Serf Liberation Day. Lest anyone not share the mood of rejoicing, security will be tightened, dissidents kept behind bars and foreigners firmly steered away from the region. 官方声称:”西藏已经从黑暗走向光明,从贫穷走向富足,从独裁走向民主,从与世隔绝走向开放。”这项声明来自在北京举行的西藏“民主改革”50周年展览会上。为了表示庆祝,西藏的官员将3月28日设定为解放日。为了防止有人不参与到这样的欢庆活动中来,安全措施被加强了,反对者被监禁在狱中,外国人坚决的避退出了这片区域。 With grim determination the authorities are trying to manufacture joy. The streets of Lhasa, Tibet's capital, have been bedecked with floral displays. The official media are replete with stories of happy Tibetans. In Beijing, the Tibet exhibition aims to show how the region has flourished since coming under Communist rule in 1959 after “centuries of slavery and suppression”. Pride of place goes to a diorama showing former serfs merrily chucking “feudal documents” into a crackling fire. 当权者以其令人不快的决心试图营造欢乐的气氛。西藏首都,拉萨街头被花朵装饰一新。官方的媒体充斥着对幸福西藏人的报道。在北京,西藏展目力图展示自1959年接受共产党统治后这一地区结束了“几个世纪的奴役和镇压”发展得繁荣昌盛。展览最为得意之处在于一副描绘了从前的农奴欢欣鼓舞的将“封建统治的凭证”投入到火中烧掉的透视画。 Chinese officials say 90% of more than 1m people living in Tibet were “serfs” until China dissolved the pro-Dalai Lama Tibetan government on March 28th 1959, and began handing out aristocratic and monastic land to farmers and nomads. The exhibition includes instruments supposedly used to torture serfs before the uprising was crushed. The Indian-based Tibetan government-in-exile calls China’s description of the brutality and abject poverty of Tibetan serfdom a “big lie”. 中国官方声称在1959年3月28日解散前达赖喇嘛西藏政府并将贵族和寺院占有的土地分发给农民和流浪真之前西藏的一千多万人中有90%的人是“农奴”。展览包括了在在暴动镇压前在想象中对农奴施以酷刑的器具。在印度建立的西藏流亡政府将中国对残酷和极度贫困的农奴制的形容称之为“一个大的谎言”。 Just in case, back in Lhasa, troops are still patrolling the streets following an outbreak of rioting in March last year. They are also on full alert across the Tibetan plateau amid fears that Tibetans might stage their own commemorations. Many associate March 1959 not with liberation but with Tibet’s failed uprising against China and the flight of the Dalai Lama to India. Dozens of Tibetan monks have been detained in Ragya, a remote town in neighbouring Qinghai province, after violent protests there on March 21st triggered by the disappearance of a colleague who had raised a pro-independence flag. 在拉萨,为以防万一,自去年三月发生的暴动以来军队一直维持巡街。他们同样对西藏平原保持高度警惕,唯恐西藏人举行自己的纪念活动。许多人并不把1959年三月的事件同解放相联系,而是西藏对抗中国起义的失败和达赖喇嘛抗争出走印度的失败。在武装抗争被一位举旗后消失不见的同僚挑起后几十个西藏的僧侣被扣押在青海省一个僻远的小镇Ragya里。 As the anniversary approaches, China is in no mood to take chances. Alarmed by last year’s widespread unrest in Tibetan-inhabited areas, the government is waging offensives on all fronts. Chinese pressure prompted the South African government to deny a visa to the Dalai Lama who had been due to take part in a conference of fellow Nobel peace prize winners in Johannesburg. The organisers—South Africa’s football authorities—responded by postponing the event indefinitely. 当周年纪念来临之际,中国无意去冒险。受到去年在藏民居住地广泛传播的动荡的警示,政府与各方面的进攻势力斗争。中国强迫南非政府拒签达赖喇嘛为的是使达赖不能出席在Johannesburg举行的诺贝尔奖获得者集会。举办者-南非足球部门-答复将这一事件无限期推延。 YouTube, an internet video-sharing site, also looks like a possible victim. Access to it has been blocked in China since shortly after the Tibetan government-in-exile released video (see the image above) purporting to show Tibetan protesters being beaten by Chinese police. No such slur is permitted in Beijing. Officials say that the images and voices in the video were pieced together from a variety of sources, and thus it is “a lie”. The cause of human rights in Tibet, says an exhibition brochure, has made “remarkable progress”. YouTube,一个英特网视频共享网站,同样被视为一个潜在的危害。在西藏流亡政府发布了一个关于西藏抗议者被中国警察殴打的视频后立刻被屏蔽。在北京这样的诋毁是不允许的。官方声称视频中的图像和声音是从许多地方截取并拼接在一起的,因此这是“一个谎言”。在一本展览会的小册子中这样提到,西藏人权已经有了”显著进步“。 March 21 The new world order 世界新次序 How China sees the world 中国怎么看世界 Mar 19th 2009 From The Economist print edition And how the world should see China 与此同时,世界应当怎样看待中国 IT IS an ill wind that blows no one any good. For many in China even the buffeting by the gale that has hit the global economy has a bracing message. The rise of China over the past three decades has been astonishing. But it has lacked the one feature it needed fully to satisfy the ultranationalist fringe: an accompanying decline of the West. Now capitalism is in a funk in its heartlands. Europe and Japan, embroiled in the deepest post-war recession, are barely worth consideration as rivals. America, the superpower, has passed its peak. Although in public China’s leaders eschew triumphalism, there is a sense in Beijing that the reassertion of the Middle Kingdom’s global ascendancy is at hand (see article). 这是一阵让任何人都感到不适的恶风。在中国许多被这伤及全球经济的风暴所撼动的人得到一个鼓舞人心的消息。中国在过去三十年的崛起令人惊讶。但是它缺乏一个很必须的特征去满足民族极端主义:与西方世界相伴的衰退。现在资本主义在它的核心地带感到畏缩害怕。被卷入最深的战前危机欧洲和日本,勉强有价值被称为竞争对手。拥有超级实力的美国已经过了它的顶峰。尽管在公众面前中国领导人避免去提到中国必胜,但在北京能感受到中华帝国再掌全球霸权的主张。 China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, no longer sticks to the script that China is a humble player in world affairs that wants to focus on its own economic development. He talks of China as a “great power” and worries about America’s profligate spending endangering his $1 trillion nest egg there. Incautious remarks by the new American treasury secretary about China manipulating its currency were dismissed as ridiculous; a duly penitent Hillary Clinton was welcomed in Beijing, but as an equal. This month saw an apparent attempt to engineer a low-level naval confrontation with an American spy ship in the South China Sea. Yet at least the Americans get noticed. Europe, that speck on the horizon, is ignored: an EU summit was cancelled and France is still blacklisted because Nicolas Sarkozy dared to meet the Dalai Lama. 中国国家总理温家宝不再坚持中国并不擅长世界事务而仅仅只注重于自己的经济发展。他现在称中国为“强国”并担心美国花销太大会危及他在那一万亿的储备金。新的美国财政部部长无意的提及的中国已经解除对货币操纵的言论被认为是荒谬的;有些悔过的希拉里克林顿被欢迎到北京去,但是是作为对手的身份。在本月中国明显策划了一起在中国南海区域与美国间谍船的低等级海军军事对抗。这至少引起了美国的关注。欧洲,地平线上的斑点,被忽略了:一次欧盟高级会议被取消,并且法国因为尼古拉斯萨科奇大胆访问达赖喇嘛仍在黑名单之列。 Already a big idea has spread far beyond China: that geopolitics is now a bipolar affair, with America and China the only two that matter. Thus in London next month the real business will not be the G20 meeting but the “G2” summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao. This not only worries the Europeans, who, having got rid of George Bush’s unipolar politics, have no wish to see it replaced by a Pacific duopoly, and the Japanese, who have long been paranoid about their rivals in Asia. It also seems to be having an effect in Washington, where Congress’s fascination with America’s nearest rival risks acquiring a protectionist edge. 现在一个伟大的构想已经在遥远的中国传播开来:地缘政治现在已经两极化,只有美国和中国。因此下月在伦敦真正的交易将不是20国既集团会议而是而是胡锦涛和奥巴马的两人高级会议。这不仅让对布什的单极主义做好准备的欧洲感到担忧,他们不愿看到单极主义的政策被一个横越太平洋的双头寡头所取代,同样担忧的还有长期对它在亚洲的对手持有妄想态度的日本。这似乎对华盛顿也产生影响,在那里议会着迷于与美国实力接近的竞争对手要冒着遭受贸易保护主意的风险。 Reds under the bed 床下的赤色革命 Before panic spreads, it is worth noting that China’s new assertiveness reflects weakness as well as strength. This remains a poor country facing, in Mr Wen’s words, its most difficult year of the new century. The latest wild guess at how many jobs have already been lost—20m—hints at the scale of the problem. The World Bank has cut its forecast for China’s growth this year to 6.5%. That is robust compared with almost anywhere else, but to many Chinese, used to double-digit rates, it will feel like a recession. Already there are tens of thousands of protests each year: from those robbed of their land for development; from laid-off workers; from those suffering the side-effects of environmental despoliation. 在恐慌传播之前,值得一提的是中国新的自信在表现出其力量的同时也显示出了它的弱点。在温总理的话语中中国依然是一个贫穷的国家并且面对着新世纪以来最困难的一年。最新的对中国工作情况的猜测表明有两千万的岗位被缩减,这暗示中国目前问题的级别。世界银行已经将中国今年的经济增长预测调低到6.5%与大部分其他地区相比这是一个强健的增长,但对增长速度通常处于两位数的许多中国人来说,这感觉像是一个衰退。每年都会出现数以万计的抗议:来自土地被强征用作开发的人们,来自被解雇的工人,来自遭受环境受到掠夺后副作用的人们。 Even if China magically achieves its official 8% target, the grievances will worsen. Far from oozing self-confidence, China is witnessing a fierce debate both about its economic system and the sort of great power it wants to be—and it is a debate the government does not like. This year the regime curtailed even the perfunctory annual meeting of its parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), preferring to confine discussion to back-rooms and obscure internet forums. Liberals calling for greater openness are being dealt with in the time-honoured repressive fashion. But China’s leaders also face rumblings of discontent from leftist nationalists, who see the downturn as a chance to halt marketoriented reforms at home, and for China to assert itself more stridently abroad. An angry China can veer into xenophobia, but not all the nationalist left’s causes are so dangerous: one is for the better public services and social-safety net the country sorely needs. 即使中国奇迹般的达到了官方宣称的8%的经济增长率,抱怨和不满将变本加厉。在显露出的自信的另一端,中国正经历着一场激烈的关于其经济系统和它应具备何种力量的讨论,这种讨论是政府不喜看到的。今年政府甚至简化了它敷衍草率的年度会议,十七届全国人民代表大会,将讨论限制在密室进行,并互联网论坛的讨论含糊对待。呼吁开放透明的自由主义者被处以一种由来已久的镇压的方式。但中国的领导人同样面对了来自左翼民族主义者的大量不满,他们视目前的经济低迷期为停止对内自由市场化改革并对外显示中国强硬的机会。一个愤怒的中国会变得仇视外国,但并不是所有的左翼民族主义者都这么危险:一项建议是建立更好的公共服务和这个国家强烈需要的社会安全网。 So China is in a more precarious situation than many Westerners think. The world is not bipolar and may never become so. The EU, for all its faults, is the world’s biggest economy. India’s population will overtake China’s. But that does not obscure the fact that China’s relative power is plainly growing—and both the West and China itself need to adjust to this. 所以很多西方人认为中国处于一个不稳定的状况。世界不是两极的,并且永远也不会是。欧盟,尽管有缺点,是世界上最大的经济体。印度的人口将会超过中国。但中国相对力量明显增长的事实不容忽视,西方和中国自己都需要去适应这一点。 For Mr Obama, this means pulling off a difficult balancing act. In the longer term, if he has not managed to seduce China (and for that matter India and Brazil) more firmly into the liberal multilateral system by the time he leaves office, then historians may judge him a failure. In the short term he needs to hold China to its promises and to scold it for its lapses: Mrs Clinton should have taken it to task over Tibet and human rights when she was there. The Bush administration made much of the idea of welcoming China as a “responsible stakeholder” in the international system. The G20 is a chance to give China a bigger stake in global decision-making than was available in the small clubs of the G7 and G8. But it is also a chance for China to show it can exercise its new influence responsibly. 对奥巴马而言,这意味着要努力实现一个困难的平衡。在更长的一段时间里,如果他离任之前没能诱使中国(同样还有印度和巴西)坚定地加入自由多边主义,历史将判定他是个失败者。短期内他需要让中国信守诺言同时责备它的过失,克林顿夫人应当已经将西藏和人权问题排入她的中国行程任务里。布什政府为将中国作为一个“责任重大的利益相关者”迎入国际系统做出了许多努力。20国峰是一个给中国下更大赌注的机会,让中国参与比G7或G8那样的小俱乐部做出的更为有用的全球决议。但它同样也是一个中国展示它能负责任的行使它的新影响力的机会。 The bill for the great Chinese takeaway 中式外卖的账单 China’s record as a citizen of the world is strikingly threadbare. On a host of issues from Iran to Sudan, it has used its main geopolitical asset, its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, to obstruct progress, hiding behind the excuse that it does not want to intervene in other countries’ affairs. That, sadly, will take time to change. But on the more immediate issue at hand, the world economy, there is room for action. 中国最为世界成员的记录是显目的不堪。在从伊朗到苏丹的一系列争端中,中国运用它主要的地缘政治资本,在联合国安全理事会的议席,躲在它不想干涉别国事态的理由后面阻碍解决进程。这一点,很悲哀,当然需要时间去改变。但在当前更为迫切的问题上,世界经济,中国有更多的空间去行动。 Over the past quarter-century no country has gained more from globalisation than China. Hundreds of millions of its people have been dragged out of subsistence into the middle class. China has been a grumpy taker in this process. It helped derail the latest round of world trade talks. The G20 meeting offers it a chance to show a change of heart. In particular, it is being asked to bolster the IMF’s resources so that the fund can rescue crisis-hit countries in places like eastern Europe. Some in Beijing would prefer to ignore the IMF, since it might help ex-communist countries that have developed “an anti-China mentality”. Rising above such cavilling and paying up would be a small step in itself. But it would be a sign that the Middle Kingdom has understood what it is to be a great power. 在过去的四分之一个世纪里,没有国家比中国在全球化的进程中得到更多的好处。它数亿的人民从仅能生存的状态进入到中产阶级。中国在全球化的过程中是一个坏脾气的索取者。它让最新一轮的全球贸易和谈泡了汤。20国峰会给了中国一个从心改变的机会。尤其是它被要求支援国际货币基金组织,以便基金能拯救那些被危机所伤及的西欧国家。北京的一些人可能会忽视世界基金组织,因为它可能会用于帮助前共产主义国家会助长“反华力量”。 超越这样的看法并为世界基金组织付清款项对中国来说将只是一小步。但这将成为一个中华帝国已经明白如何做一个世界强国的标志。 March 16 How to stop the drug wars
如何停止毒品战争 Mar 5th 2009 From The Economist print edition Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution
禁令的方式失败了,立法成了最后也是最不坏的解决方式 A HUNDRED years ago a group of foreign diplomats gathered in Shanghai for the first-ever international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug. On February 26th 1909 they agreed to set up the International Opium Commission—just a few decades after Britain had fought a war with China to assert its right to peddle the stuff. Many other bans of mood-altering drugs have followed. In 1998 the UN General Assembly committed member countries to achieving a “drug-free world” and to “eliminating or significantly reducing” the production of opium, cocaine and cannabis by 2008.
在一百年前,一群外交家聚集在上海为禁运尼古拉做出着史无前例的国际性努力。在1909年2月26日他们同意建立一个国际鸦片委员会-仅仅在中英鸦片战争过去几十年后。许多其它针对改变情绪药物(如吗啡)的禁令也随之颁布。在1998年联合国委员会成员国达成了一项关于在2008年实现“无毒世界”和“停止或显著减少”鸦片,可卡因和大麻的生产。 That is the kind of promise politicians love to make. It assuages the sense of moral panic that has been the handmaiden of prohibition for a century. It is intended to reassure the parents of teenagers across the world. Yet it is a hugely irresponsible promise, because it cannot be fulfilled. Next week ministers from around the world gather in Vienna to set international drug policy for the next decade. Like first-world-war generals, many will claim that all that is needed is more of the same. In fact the war on drugs has been a disaster, creating failed states in the developing world even as addiction has flourished in the rich world. By any sensible measure, this 100-year struggle has been illiberal,murderous and pointless. That is why The Economist continues to believe that the least bad policy is to legalise drugs.
这是一种政治家乐意做出的承诺。它缓和了与禁令伴随长达一个世纪的道德恐慌感。它意在打消全世界范围内青少年父母的顾虑。然而这是一个相当不负责任的承诺,因为它不能可实现。下周来自世界各地的部长们将聚集在维也纳为下一个十年制定世界毒品政策。就像一战时出生的那一代人一样,许多人会宣称所需的只是对原有的重复。事实上有关于毒品的战争已经演变成一场灾难,正如毒品在富裕国家里吸食成瘾,第三世界有的国家也因此而衰落。从任何明智的角度来看,这100年来的斗争都是很狭隘,残忍和无意义的。这就是为什么经济学家一直相信合法化毒品是最不糟糕的政策。
“Least bad” does not mean good. Legalisation, though clearly better for producer countries, would bring (different) risks to consumer countries. As we outline below, many vulnerable drug-takers would suffer. But in our view, more would gain.
“最不坏”并不意味着好。合法化,这当然很明显的对生产国有好处,它将带给消费国(不同的)风险。就像我们下面概括的,许多脆弱的毒品接受者将受到损害。但在我们的观点中,更多人将因此收益。 The evidence of failure
失败的证据 Nowadays the UN Office on Drugs and Crime no longer talks about a drug-free world. Its boast is that the drug market has “stabilised”, meaning that more than 200m people, or almost 5% of the world’s adult population, still take illegal drugs—roughly the same proportion as a decade ago. (Like most purported drug facts, this one is just an educated guess: evidential rigour is another casualty of illegality.) The production of cocaine and opium is probably about the same as it was a decade ago; that of cannabis is higher. Consumption of cocaine has declined gradually in the United States from its peak in the early 1980s, but the path is uneven (it remains higher than in the mid-1990s), and it is rising in many places, including Europe.
现在,联合国毒品和犯罪办公室不再谈论关于无毒世界的话题了。它们以毒品市场已经稳定为自豪,这意味着有多于两千万人,或者说世界上近5%的成年人口仍然在吸食非法毒品-和十年前的比例几乎一样。(像许多谣传的毒品事实,这个也仅仅是个个有根据的推测:准确的证明是另一项违法事故)。可卡因和鸦片的生产很可能和十年前一样;但大麻的产量变高了。可卡因的消耗量在美国正从80年代早期的最高峰逐年递减,但道路是不平坦的(在90年代中期消耗量依然很高),并且在许多地区这个数字在增加,包括欧洲。
This is not for want of effort. The United States alone spends some $40 billion each year on trying to eliminate the supply of drugs. It arrests 1.5m of its citizens each year for drug offences, locking up half a million of them; tougher drug laws are the main reason why one in five black American men spend some time behind bars. In the developing world blood is being shed at an astonishing rate. In Mexico more than 800 policemen and soldiers have been killed since December 2006 (and the annual overall death toll is running at over 6,000). This week yet another leader of a troubled drug-ridden country—Guinea Bissau—was assassinated.
这不是因为缺少努力的愿望。美国每年单独花费400亿试图消除毒品供应。它每年因毒品犯罪逮捕150万美国国民,关押50万人;严格的毒品法律是造成五分之一的美国黑人被关押在监狱的首要原因。在第三世界流血事件的发生处在一个惊人的比率。在墨西哥起至2006年十二月已有超过800个警察和士兵被杀。本周,另一个为毒品问题所困的国家几内亚比绍共和国领导人遇刺。 Yet prohibition itself vitiates the efforts of the drug warriors. The price of an illegal substance is determined more by the cost of distribution than of production. Take cocaine: the mark-up between coca field and consumer is more than a hundredfold. Even if dumping weedkiller on the crops of peasant farmers quadruples the local price of coca leaves, this tends to have little impact on the street price, which is set mainly by the risk of getting cocaine into Europe or the United States.
然而禁令本身也损害禁毒战争的效果。非法物品的价格更多的取决于销售成本而不是生产成本。就像可卡因:从种植地到消费者之间提价超过一百倍。即使将除草剂倾倒在个体农民的作物上让当地的古柯叶价格翻两番,这对可卡因的街价影响极小,因为街价主要取决于将可卡因运往欧洲和美国的风险。 Nowadays the drug warriors claim to seize close to half of all the cocaine that is produced. The street price in the United States does seem to have risen, and the purity seems to have fallen, over the past year. But it is not clear that drug demand drops when prices rise. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that the drug business quickly adapts to market disruption. At best, effective repression merely forces it to shift production sites. Thus opium has moved from Turkey and Thailand to Myanmar and southern Afghanistan, where it undermines the West’s efforts to defeat the Taliban.
现在禁毒战士们要求减少一半的可卡因生产。去年一年,美国的街边价格有所上升,毒品的纯度有所降低。在另一方面,有大量证据证明毒品生意能很快适应市场的混乱。最多,有效的镇压也不过强迫毒品更换产地生产。因此,鸦片的产地土耳其和泰国转移到缅甸和阿富汗,在那里它破坏着西方世界对抗塔利班的努力。 Al Capone, but on a global scale
一个世界级的AI Capone(一个有名的芝加哥钱财诈骗犯) Indeed, far from reducing crime, prohibition has fostered gangsterism on a scale that the world has never seen before. According to the UN’s perhaps inflated estimate, the illegal drug industry is worth some $320 billion a year. In the West it makes criminals of otherwise law-abiding citizens (the current American president could easily have ended up in prison for his youthful experiments with “blow”). It also makes drugs more dangerous: addicts buy heavily adulterated cocaine and heroin; many use dirty needles to inject themselves, spreading HIV; the wretches who succumb to “crack” or “meth” are outside the law, with only their pushers to “treat” them. But it is countries in the emerging world that pay most of the price. Even a relatively developed democracy such as Mexico now finds itself in a life-or-death struggle against gangsters. American officials, including a former drug tsar, have publicly worried about having a “narco state” as their neighbour.
的确,不同于减少犯罪,禁令造就了前所未有的世界级的犯罪规模。依照联合国可能夸大的估计,非法的毒品产业每年大约价值32亿美元。在西方它造成了其他的守法居民的犯罪(现在的美国总统能够以他年轻的经验简单的把监狱关闭)。禁令同样使毒品变得更加危险:上瘾者买来大量掺入次品的可卡因和海洛因;许多人使用肮脏的针管向自己注射,传播艾滋病;这些屈服于“快克”和”甲安非它明”的不幸人们超出法律范围之外,只有他们的推动者去“管”他们。但是其实是新兴世界国家支付了大部分的价格。即使是一个相对发展的民主政治像墨西哥,现在也发现在对待犯罪分子方面也处在一个与生死斗争的境地。美国的官员,包括前毒品部长也有公开的对要像他们邻居一样“充斥缉毒刑警的情形”的担忧。 The failure of the drug war has led a few of its braver generals, especially from Europe and Latin America, to suggest shifting the focus from locking up people to public health and “harm reduction” (such as encouraging addicts to use clean needles). This approach would put more emphasis on public education and the treatment of addicts, and less on the harassment of peasants who grow coca and the punishment of consumers of “soft” drugs for personal use. That would be a step in the right direction. But it is unlikely to be adequately funded, and it does nothing to take organised crime out of the picture. Legalisation would not only drive away the gangsters; it would transform drugs from a law-and-order problem into a public-health problem, which is how they ought to be treated. Governments would tax and regulate the drug trade, and use the funds raised (and the billions saved on law-enforcement) to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addiction. The sale of drugs to minors should remain banned. Different drugs would command different levels of taxation and regulation. This system would be fiddly and imperfect, requiring constant monitoring and hard-to-measure trade-offs. Post-tax prices should be set at a level that would strike a balance between damping down use on the one hand, and discouraging a black market and the desperate acts of theft and prostitution to which addicts now resort to feed their habits.
毒品之战的失败使得一些勇敢的人们,特别是来自欧洲和拉丁美洲的人们,建议将关注点从关押转向公共健康和“减少伤害”(类似鼓励上瘾者使用干净的针头)。这种方法更强调公众教育和对待上瘾者的方式,而不是对种植古柯的农民的折磨以及对个人使用“软”毒品的消费者的惩罚。那将向正确的方向迈向一步。但是这未必能得到充分的资助,并且它对消除有组织的犯罪没有起到任何作用。合法化不仅可以驱逐犯罪分子;它同样可以将毒品问题从一个法律和次序问题转换成一个公共健康问题,这才是他们应该去做的。政府将能规范毒品交易并对其征税,同时使用基金(和从减少法律强制手段中省下的数千万美元)去教育公众吸毒的危害以及治疗上瘾者。对未成年人出售毒品的行为仍然应被禁止。不同的毒品将征取不同等级的税务采取不同的税收条例。这一系统将是高精度的和不完美的,需要持续不变的监管和难以衡量的贸易换算。税后的价格应当被设立在一个能在抑制使用和防止黑市产生间产生一个平衡并让以卖淫和偷窃满足毒瘾的瘾君子绝望。 Selling even this flawed system to people in producer countries, where organised crime is the central political issue, is fairly easy. The tough part comes in the consumer countries, where addiction is the main political battle. Plenty of American parents might accept that legalisation would be the right answer for the people of Latin America, Asia and Africa; they might even see its usefulness in the fight against terrorism. But their immediate fear would be for their own children.
甚至可以将这套系统推销给生产过的人们也相当的容易,因为在那里组织性的犯罪是最中心的政治问题。最大的阻碍来自消费国,那里上瘾者是政治斗争的主要力量。大量的美国父母可能会认同说立法的方式对拉丁美洲亚洲和非洲的人们来说会是一个好的选择,他们甚至看到它在抗击恐怖主义方面的有效性。但他们想到自己的孩子时立刻会感到害怕。
That fear is based in large part on the presumption that more people would take drugs under a legal regime. That presumption may be wrong. There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes (notably America but also Britain) take more drugs, not fewer. Embarrassed drug warriors blame this on alleged cultural differences, but even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates. Legalisation might reduce both supply (pushers by definition push) and demand (part of that dangerous thrill would go). Nobody knows for certain. But it is hard to argue that sales of any product that is made cheaper, safer and more widely available would fall. Any honest proponent of legalisation would be wise to assume that drug-taking as a whole would rise.
这一恐惧是极大地基于更多的人将通过合法的渠道得到毒品这样一个假定。这一假定可能是错的。在严酷的毒品之战和吸毒的影响之间没有任何关联。暴政下的人民(尤其是美国,英国也同样)吸食更多的毒品,而不是更少。财政困难的禁毒者将这个归结于文化的难题,但即使在及其类似的国家里严格的规定对吸毒者的数量没有造成丝毫的影响:严酷的瑞典和比较自由的挪威有几乎相同的上瘾者比率。立法可能同时减少供(经定义的贩卖者)需(部分危险的追求兴奋者会消失)双方。没有人能对此确定。但也很难说任何产品只要制造成本更低,更安全,更容易获得,它的销售量就会降低。任何正值的立法支持者都能有理智的推断整体而言吸毒者的数量将会上升。 There are two main reasons for arguing that prohibition should be scrapped all the same. The first is one of liberal principle. Although some illegal drugs are extremely dangerous to some people, most are not especially harmful. (Tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them.) Most consumers of illegal drugs, including cocaine and even heroin, take them only occasionally. They do so because they derive enjoyment from them (as they do from whisky or a Marlboro Light). It is not the state’s job to stop them from doing so.
这里仍然有两个主要理由去说明禁令应当被废除。首先是自由原则。尽管非法的毒品对某些人来说极度的危险,但大部分不是那么极端的有害(事实上烟草比它们中的所有都容易上瘾)。大部分非法毒品的消费者,包括可卡因甚至海洛因,仅仅是偶然吸食。他们这么做的原因是他们从中得到快乐(就像他们喝威士忌和抽万宝路一样)。制止他们这样的行为并不是政府的职责所在。 What about addiction? That is partly covered by this first argument, as the harm involved is primarily visited upon the user. But addiction can also inflict misery on the families and especially the children of any addict, and involves wider social costs. That is why discouraging and treating addiction should be the priority for drug policy. Hence the second argument: legalisation offers the opportunity to deal with addiction properly.
那么上瘾者又怎么样呢?第一个论证在一定程度上已经说明了这一点,伤害的大小主要取决于使用者。但上瘾同样使家庭遭受痛苦特别是上瘾者的子女,包括更广泛的社会成本。这就是为什么阻止上瘾和处理上瘾应当是毒品警察的首要任务。因此第二项论证时:合法化为处理上瘾提供适当的机会。 By providing honest information about the health risks of different drugs, and pricing them accordingly, governments could steer consumers towards the least harmful ones. Prohibition has failed to prevent the proliferation of designer drugs, dreamed up in laboratories. Legalisation might encourage legitimate drug companies to try to improve the stuff that people take. The resources gained from tax and saved on repression would allow governments to guarantee treatment to addicts—a way of making legalisation more politically palatable. The success of developed countries in stopping people smoking tobacco, which is similarly subject to tax and regulation, provides grounds for hope.
通过提供毒品对健康危害的真实信息,并相应定价,政府将引导消费者使用害处最小的产品。禁令在应对实验室任意研制毒品的种类暴涨这方面已经失效。立法可能会促使合法的毒品公司试图去改进毒品原料。从税收中以及从镇压行动中省下的资源将能保证政府对上瘾的治疗-这是一条使得法制化更加公平合理的道路。在发展中国家制止人们吸烟的成功也是使用类似税收和控制的方式,有理由给我们以希望。 A calculated gamble, or another century of failure?
一次精确计算的赌博,还是另一个世纪的失败? This newspaper first argued for legalisation 20 years ago (see article). Reviewing the evidence again (see article), prohibition seems even more harmful, especially for the poor and weak of the world. Legalisation would not drive gangsters completely out of drugs; as with alcohol and cigarettes, there would be taxes to avoid and rules to subvert. Nor would it automatically cure failed states like Afghanistan. Our solution is a messy one; but a century of manifest failure argues for trying it.
这份报纸在20年前首次讨论了合法化的问题。回顾那些证据,禁令似乎害处更大,特别是对世界上贫穷和弱小的国家。合法化不可能完全消除毒品犯罪:就像烟酒犯罪一样,将会出现避免征税和破坏规则。不仅仅会自动的帮助困境的国家像阿富汗。我们解决方式并不好,但已经一个世纪的失败告诉我们值得一试。
February 24 The price of conservation
The unkindest cut
Feb 14th 2008 From The Economist print edition 来自<经济学人>印刷版 Cameroon wants to sell a forest, but conservationists don't want to buy it Get article background FOR rent: 830,000 hectares of pristine tropical rainforest. Rich in wildlife, including forest elephants and gorillas. Provides a regionally important African green corridor. Price: $1.6m a year. Conservationist tenant preferred, but extractive forestry also considered. Please apply to the Cameroonian minister of forestry. 喀麦隆想出售一片森林,但环境保护管理论者们不愿意放弃它. 文章背景 供出租:830000公顷质朴的热带雨林.野生物种丰富,包括森林象和大猩猩.为非洲提供了一个重要性的绿色走廊. 价格:一千六百万一年. 环境保护管理论者出租是首选,开发森林资源同样也是被考虑的.请把对森林的决定权交给喀麦隆的部长吧。 That, in essence, is what the government of Cameroon has been offering since 2001 in an attempt to make some money from a forest known as Ngoyla-Mintom. The traditional way would be to lease the land to a logging company. But Joseph Matta, the country's forestry minister, would rather lease it to a conservation group. The trouble is, he cannot find one that is prepared to take it off his hands. 事实上,这就是喀麦隆政府自2001年以来就从森林,例如Ngoyla-Mintom创造一些价值所做的努力。传统的做法是把这片土地租给一个伐木公司。但是国家林业部长Joseph Matta更愿意把它出租给一个保护组织。但问题是,他没法找到这样的一个组织准备从他手中接管这片森林。 The idea of conservation concessions has been around since 2000. It was introduced by an American charity called Conservation International, which realised the going rate for logging concessions was often so low that it could afford to outbid the foresters. It has since leased forests in Guyana—where it has 80,000 hectares of Upper Essequibo—and in Peru, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Mexico. But even in 2001 it reckoned that at $2 a hectare Ngoyla-Mintom was too dear. Its land in Essequibo costs a mere 37 cents a hectare. 保护主义的特权自2000年开始。这由美国一个称之为国际保护组织的组织引入的,他们意识到美国伐木业的现行汇率是那么的低以致于可以提供比林务官更高的报酬。这源于在圭亚那的森林出租,在那里它拥有上埃塞奎博80000公顷-并且还在秘鲁,塞拉利昂,巴布亚新几内亚,斐济和墨西哥。在2001年,它计算出在Ngoyla-Mintom2美元一公顷是太贵了。埃塞奎博的土地每公顷仅仅用到37美分。 Mr Matta, of course, thinks Ngoyla-Mintom is worth every penny. Indeed, the price has gone up. The government now wants additional money to compensate Cameroon for forgoing the jobs and local development that come with logging. The forest is pristine habitat of a sort likely to contain some extremely valuable pieces of timber. It also connects three other large protected areas (see map), and thus forms an important part of a regionally important green corridor. Mr Matta says that if one group of conservationists or another doesn't cough up soon, he really will be forced to get on the phone to the loggers. 马塔先生当然认为Ngoyla-Mintom更物有所值。事实上,这个价格已经在上涨。政府需要更多的钱去补偿喀麦隆因为放弃伐木而导致的工作岗位和地方发展机会的流失。森林是一些有价值木材质朴的生长地??.它同样连接这其它三个大型的保护区,因此是地域性的绿色走廊的重要部分。马塔先生称如果不是环境管理保护论者们或是其它组织不那么勉为其难接管,他真的要拿起电话打给伐木者们了。 A compromise put forward by the World Wide Fund for Nature has failed to find favour. The WWF suggested keeping an unexploited core of Ngoyla-Mintom while the rest is opened to limited “sustainable” hunting and forestry. The quid pro quo would be a lower rent. 世界环境基金会做出的妥协没能找到感兴趣者。世界环境基金会建议保持Ngoyla-Mintom一块未开发的核心地,同时其它的开放给有限的“可忍受的”打猎和林业。以较低的租金作为交换。 Cameroon, not surprisingly, would prefer the higher rent. Mr Matta also points out that even a little forestry would mean building roads that will present additional threats to the area. Ngoyla-Mintom is thus turning into an interesting test of what the conservation market will bear. There is a willing seller, but not yet a willing buyer. The fine words of the rich-world's armchair conservationists butter few parsnips in the poor world. Here is a good opportunity to spread some butter. 喀麦隆,一点也不惊讶,会选择更高的租金。马塔先生同时也指出即使一点点的林业开发也意味着要修建道路这同样代表会对这片区域造成额外的伤害。Ngoyla-Mintom尽管已经成了一项有趣的测试,保护市场到底能承受到什么程度。这有一个有意的卖主,但还没有一个有意的买家。来自富有世界的环境保护管理论者总是说的那么好,黄油很少会涂抹给贫穷世界。现在就有一个好机会去施舍一些了。 February 22 China's farmland 中国的耕地 This land is my land 这地是我的地 Feb 14th 2008 | BEIJING From The Economist print edition 来自《经济学人》印刷版 Peasants for privatisation 农民私有制 “LAND to the tiller” has been a slogan of Chinese revolutionaries since Sun Yat-sen used it in 1924. Mao Zedong came to power in 1949 with just such a promise. Now some of China's peasants want his party to make good on the pledge. Late last year groups in different parts of China began simply claiming land as their own individual private plots. “将土地还给耕者”这一中国革命性的口号在1924年曾被孙中山使用过。毛泽东在1949年靠着同样的承诺取得了权利。现在中国的一些农民希望他们的政党能好好的履行这些诺言。在去年的晚些时候,来自中国不同地区的团体开始简单的将索赔来的土地私自划分。 China's constitution decrees that rural land is owned by “collectives”. But it does not make clear who represents these collectives. This vagueness has been one of the biggest causes of rural unrest in recent years. Rural officials, eager to make money for themselves as well as their localities, often appropriate land from farmers to sell to developers. They say they are acting on behalf of the collective. The farmers disagree. If they receive any compensation at all, it is only a fraction of the market value. In recent years a few Chinese scholars have suggested that privatising rural land would make such land grabs far harder. Their views have been dismissed by Communist Party officials, for whom the collective ownership of rural land is one of the very few core ideological principles left standing in the rush to embrace capitalism. 中国的宪法规定农村的土地归“集体”所有。但是并没有明确的指出谁代表这些集体。在近些年来这样的含糊不清已经成为乡村动荡的最大原因。乡村官员,渴望为自己和地方挣些钱,常常从农民处挪用一些土地卖给开发者们。他们说他们是集体的代表。农民们不这么认为。如果他们得到了一点点来自市场价值的补偿也不会那样认为了。在近几年,一些中国学者已经提出私有化耕地将使土地的非法掠夺更加激烈。但他们的看法被认为耕地的集体所有权是少数在资本化的冲击中依然屹立的核心意识形态共产党官员所忽视。 Of the handful of incidents that have come to light where peasants have taken matters—and land—into their own hands, the first was in the province of Heilongjiang. A statement circulated on the internet in December by leaders claiming to represent 40,000 peasants in 72 villages in Jiamusi prefecture called on village representatives “to pledge to fight to the death” to protect land from seizure by corrupt officials. It said the current system of collective ownership had turned peasants into serfs. Peasants, it said, should have the right to negotiate their own price for land appropriated from them. 在少数事情中暴露出有些农民在自己动手解决问题-包括土地,第一例发生在黑龙江省。十二月一项由佳木斯72个乡镇的四万农民代表们提出的声明在互联网上传播,号召乡镇代表们“誓死斗争到底”来保护土地不被腐败的政府所没收。它声称当前的集体所有制系统已经将农民变成了奴隶。农民们认为他们应当由权力自己商议土地的价格。 Isolated groups of peasants elsewhere followed suit, including some in Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Tianjin. Villagers have likened themselves to the group of peasants in 1978 in a village in central Anhui, who broke up the land into plots farmed by individual households. At the time, they seemed to be taking a big risk. But the party itself soon decided that the Mao-era communal farms had failed and households should be allocated plots of land. The Anhui villagers became famous and the new “householdresponsibility system” pushed up yields and incomes. Land ownership remained unchanged. The flurry of land-rights declarations was soon suppressed. Human-rights groups report that two peasant leaders in Heilongjiang were sentenced in January to labour camp. At least two leaders in Shaanxi have also been detained. Chen Yongmiao, a Beijing lawyer following these developments, says other villagers are preparing to issue similar declarations, but have been slowed down by the recent lunar new year celebrations. 其他地方的农民团体也跟着这样做,包括在山西,江苏,四川和天津。村民们把他们自己比作在1978年安徽中部一个村的农民,他们把土地划分给独立的家庭耕作。在那个时候,他们似乎在冒险。但是政党在不久后确定,毛泽东时代土地公有制已经失败,家庭应该分配给土地。安徽的村民从此以后出了名,并且新的“家庭责任制系统”提高了产量和农民的收入。土地所有制仍然没有改变。但是宣称土地权利的呼声被镇压下去了。人权组织报道说黑龙江的两个农民代表在一月被宣判劳动改造。至少两名山西代表被拘留。陈永苗,一位北京律师跟随着这些事态的发展,声称其他正准备为类似的宣言辩护的村民,因为庆祝旧历新年放缓了他们的行动。 The central government has given a frosty response to the idea of privatising rural land. On January 30th a senior party official, Chen Xiwen, said he saw no prospect of such a move. But some state-controlled newspapers have given unusual prominence to the issue. In January Southern Metropolis Weekly published a lengthy account of the incident in Heilongjiang. It mentioned that peasants did briefly enjoy private land-ownership rights after Mao took over. Other newspapers have published academics' appeals for new thinking on land ownership. 中央政府对私有化耕地的建议给出了冷淡的回应。1月30日,一个共产党高官,陈锡文声称对于这样的行动他看不到任何前景。但是一些地方报纸对事件表示出了异乎寻常的重视。在一月,南方周末发表了一篇黑龙江事件的长篇评估。它指出在毛泽东接管后农民曾短暂的享受过土地私有制的权利。其他报纸则发表了理论派们请求重新看待土地所有制问题。 The party may have hoped that such debate would be put to rest by the passage last March of China's first law on property rights. This allows the renewal on expiry of the 30-year land-use leases most peasants were granted when plots were divided among households. Officials said the process would be automatic, with renewals granted indefinitely. But peasants still cannot sell or mortgage their plots. 政党可能希望这样的争论能在三月推出的中国第一项财产权利法律后告一段落。它允许30年土地使用租期期满后可以续借,大部分的农民都同意土地在家庭之间分配。官员声称在不确定是否同意续租的情况下这样的过程将自动执行。但是农民们仍然不能买卖和抵押他们的土地。 The government worries that the country's food security will be jeopardised by the loss of farming land.So it is alarmed that peasants living close to cities have increasingly been behaving as if the land is theirs anyway. Urban demand for housing has pushed prices up rapidly in recent years. Farmers have been taking advantage of this by selling land, or even their own homes, to developers without proper authorisation. Urban residents have been keen to buy these village properties because they are considerably cheaper than legitimate ones in the cities. 政府担心国家的粮食安全会因为耕地的流失而受到威胁。这提出了一项警告临近城市的农民正日益的认为土地不管怎样就是他们的。近几年来,城市的房屋需求正在迅速的提高房价。农民们通过像未经批准的经销商出售土地,甚至自己的家来获利。城市居民热切渴望购买这些乡镇财产,因为他们同城市内合法地相比是相当的便宜。 In January the central government issued a directive reminding city-dwellers that they were banned from buying village properties. But enforcement is likely to be half-hearted at best. Chinese press reports have suggested that as many as one out of five homes purchased in Beijing are on rural land unauthorised for such use. Evicting their occupants would anger the middle classes. Their wrath frightens the party far more than the tillers'. 在一月中央政府发表了一项指示提醒城市居民他们被禁止购买乡镇财产。但这项禁令更多的象是三心二意。中国的压力报道建议五分之一那么多在北京购买的房子是建立在未经允许的耕地上的。驱逐他们的居住者将惹怒中产阶级。他们的愤怒较之农民更让政府惊恐。
February 21 Barack Obama But could he deliver? 他能得到选票吗? Feb 14th 2008 From The Economist print edition It is time for America to evaluate Obama the potential president, not Obama the phenomenon THIS has been an extraordinary week for the man who could become America's first black president. Barack Obama has now won all eight of the primaries and caucuses held since Super Tuesday on February 5th, which ended, more or less, in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton. He has won by much larger margins than most people expected, trouncing his rival not just in heavily black states, such as Louisiana, but in ones that are almost completely white, such as Maine. On February 12th he took all three prizes in the “Potomac primary”—Washington, DC, Maryland and, by a socking 29-point margin, Virginia. 是时候再次评估奥巴马将会是潜在的总统,而不只是一种现象。这个可能成为美国首位黑人总统的男人刚刚经历了非常的一周。巴拉克·奥巴马已经赢得了自2月5日那个超级星期二举行的政党秘密会议后的所有八个初选,这一结果可以说终结了他与希拉里·克林顿之间不分胜负的较量。他赢得了比大多数人想象中更多的边缘选票,不仅仅在像路易斯安那那样的黑人州,同样在几乎绝大多数是白人居住的缅因州,痛击了他的对手。在2月12日,他在华盛顿的“波托马克”,马克兰,以及成功得到29%边缘选票的维吉尼亚赢得了所有的三项奖项。 Mr Obama now has more pledged delegates than his rival—and he is likely to remain the front-runner for at least another three weeks (see article). Revealingly, Mrs Clinton made her Virginian concession speech from Texas—a state which votes alongside Ohio on March 4th and is already being billed as her last stand. Mr Obama is raising money at the rate of $1m a day, twice as fast as she is; indeed, she has been forced to lend her campaign $5m of her own cash and fire the two people who run her campaign (although her husband has a big say). 奥巴马先生现在比他的对手许下更多保证-他很可能至少在接下来的三周仍保持领先地位(作者观点)。有启发作用的是,克林顿夫人在3月4日投票,选民靠近俄亥俄州,并已作为她最后阵地的得克萨斯州作了在维吉尼亚让步的演说。奥巴马募集资金的速度是每天一千万,两倍于克林顿夫人,事实上克林顿夫人已经被迫从她自己的现金中拿出五千万来支持竞选,并解雇了两名为她运作竞选的工作人员(尽管他的丈夫有更夸大的说法)。 Whatever happens, Mr Obama is already that rare thing—a political phenomenon. It is not just that he has managed to survive the Clintons' crude onslaught with grace. He has persuaded huge numbers of people around the world to reconsider politics in an optimistic way. To many Americans, a black man who eschews both racial politics and the conservative-liberal divide is a chance to heal the country's two deepest divisions. To many foreigners, he represents an idealistic version of America—the hope of a more benevolent superpower. Although Mr Obama's slogan “Yes We Can” has been turned into a pop video, the theme of his campaign echoes the Clintons' old tune—“Don't stop thinking about tomorrow”. 不管发生了什么,奥巴马已经成就了一件罕见的事,一个新的政治现象。这已仅仅是他以他的优雅应对来自克林顿夫妇粗鲁的攻击,并得以幸存。他已经说服了来自世界各地数目巨大的人们他会以乐观的态度重新考虑政策。对许多美国人来说,一个能同时避开人种问题,保守分裂问题的黑人将成为弥补这个国家最深两道裂痕的契机。在很多外国人看来,他代表了一种理想主义的美国-一个更加慈善的超级大国的希望。尽管奥巴马的口号“是的我们可以”已经进入流行影视,他的竞选主题模仿了克林顿的老言辞“不要停止思考明天”。 Optimism is a powerful emotion, but as that song warned, “tomorrow will soon be here.” That is why the real questioning of Mr Obama should begin now. With the brief exception of those four heady days after the Iowa caucuses, he has never been a front-runner; now he will be more fully scrutinised. The immediate focus will be on the horse race: can he win? But the bigger issue, which has so far occupied too little attention, is this: what would a President Obama, as opposed to Phenomenon Obama, really mean for America and the world? 乐观主义只一种强大的情感,但就像那首歌里所警告的“明天将很快到来”这就是为什么对于奥巴马真正的问题现在就要开始。除了爱荷华政党密会后顽固的四天这一短暂的例外,他还没有作为领先者出现,但现在他将进行更为全面的核查。即刻的焦点将关注到这场比赛上,他能赢吗?但一个长时间没有引起关注的更大争论是,作为奥巴马现象的相反面??,对美国和世界来说是有意义的吗??? Yes, you can; but not immediately 是的,你可以,但不是现在 Begin with the horse race. Mrs Clinton is in a bad way—and deservedly so. The Clintons have fought a EPA leaden and nasty campaign; at present, the prospect of a “Billary presidency” (even before you take into account the dynastic Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton aspect) is hardly enthralling. But Mrs Clinton is tough and smart, and now her rival will be under the media microscope. In debates she trumps Mr Obama on mastery of detail—and the race could well be a long, grinding one, perhaps decided in the end by the 796 “super delegates” from the Democratic Party's establishment. These people have tended to be loyal to the Clintons—though many might defect if polls still showed Mr Obama doing better against John McCain. Mr McCain, whose lock on the Republican nomination looks stronger than ever following his own triple victory in the Potomac primary, is another part of tomorrow Mr Obama's euphoric supporters might think about. The Republicans are a mess, and the elderly Arizonan senator has plainly failed to stir up his party's supporters in the same way as either of the main Democrats. But Mr McCain is a brave man, with huge experience of international affairs and a much longer record of reaching out to his opponents in politics. Why should independent voters, who have often backed Mr McCain in the past, turn to the less proven man? 在这场比赛的开始,克林顿夫人就已经在一条差劲的路上了-理所应当是这样。克林顿夫妇进行了一场EPA一样沉闷肮脏的竞选,目前,“比尔任期”的期望很难让人心动(??)。但是克林顿夫人是强硬和聪明的,现在她的对手将暴露在媒体的显微镜下。在辩论中她在细节的熟练控制方面胜过奥巴马-这场竞争将变得旷日持久,可能最终还要靠民主党创立的769个“超级代表”的决定来结束。这些人已经倾向于向克林顿夫妇表示忠诚-尽管会有很多的缺陷如果如果投票仍然显示奥巴马在对抗乔治·麦克恩上表现的更好。依赖于共和党任命的麦克恩看上去要比他在波拖马可河的初选胜利还要三倍的强势。他将是奥巴马今后可以考虑的另一个感到欣快的支持者。共和党内一片混乱,年长的Arizonan议员应经明显的在通过与主要民主党人类似的道路寻找党内支持者的方法已经失败。但是麦凯恩是一个勇敢的人,在国际形势上有丰富的经验并且与他的对手相比有更多的业绩。 Of magnets and magic dust That question is partly answered by Obama the phenomenon. His immediate effect on international relations could be dramatic: a black president, partly brought up in a Muslim country, would transform America's image. And his youthful optimism could work at home too. After the bitterness of the Bush years, America needs a dose of unity: Mr Obama has a rare ability to deliver it. And the power of charisma should not be underrated, especially in the context of the American presidency which is, constitutionally, quite a weak office. The best presidents are like magnets below a piece of paper, invisibly aligning iron filings into a new pattern of their making. Anyone can get experts to produce policy papers. The trick is to forge consensus to get those policies enacted. 有魔力和磁力的灰尘 这一问题被奥巴马部分的回答了。他在国际关系上的立竿见影是那么的戏剧化:一个黑人总统,部分时间在穆斯林城市长大,将会改变美国的对外印象。并且他年轻的乐观主义在国内同样可以奏效。在历经了布什年代的辛酸,美国需要一剂统一的良药:奥巴马有罕见的能力去达成这一点。并且感召的力量是不能被低估的,特别是在美国承前启后的总统任期里天生虚弱的政府。最好的总统一张纸下的磁铁,隐形的将落下的铁粒调整成他们所想的形状。任何人都能让专家去制定一纸政令。关键在于让大家达成一致意见让政令得以实施。 But what policies exactly? Mr Obama's voting record in the Senate is one of the most left-wing of any Democrat. Even if he never voted for the Iraq war, his policy for dealing with that country now seems to amount to little more than pulling out quickly, convening a peace conference, inviting the Iranians and the Syrians along and hoping for the best. On the economy, his plans are more thought out, but he often tells people only that they deserve more money and more opportunities. If one lesson from the wasted Bush years is that needless division is bad, another is that incompetence is perhaps even worse. A man who has never run any public body of any note is a risk, even if his campaign has been a model of discipline. 但什么样的规则是正确的?奥巴马在上议院的投票记录代表他是大多数左派共和党人中的一个。即使他从来没有投票给伊拉克战争过,他如何制定这个国家的政策看上去似乎相对于度过难关,吸引伊朗人和叙利亚人加入和谈并达成最好结果相比没有太大的价值。在经济上,他的计划似乎是经过彻底思考过的,但他常常只告诉人们他们应该得到更多的钱和机会。如果从浪费的布什年代中得到这样的教训,不必要的分割就是不好的,另一个就是要是不适当的话可能更差。一个从来没有运营过一个有名望的公共团体的人是有风险的,即使他的竞选已经成为一种规范样本。 And the Obama phenomenon would not always be helpful, because it would raise expectations to undue heights. Budgets do not magically cut themselves, even if both parties are in awe of the president; the Middle East will not heal, just because a president's second name is Hussein. Choices will have to be made—and foes created even when there is no intention to do so. Indeed, something like that has already happened in his campaign. The post-racial candidate has ended up relying heavily on black votes (and in some places even highlighting the divide between Latinos and blacks). None of this is to take away from Mr Obama's achievement—or to imply that he could not rise to the challenges of the job in hand. But there is a sense in which he has hitherto had to jump over a lower bar than his main rivals have. For America's sake (and the world's), that bar should now be raised—or all kinds of brutal disappointment could follow. 奥巴马现象可能不能总是帮上忙,因为他将使期望值上升到一个不恰当的高度。预算不可能魔法般的被自己削减,即使两个政党都对总统感到望而生畏,中东问题不会因为总统的第二个名字是Hussein而解决。选择将要被作出-反对者总是会有,即使没有任何意图去反对。事实上,类似的事情在他的选举中已经有所发生。这个有人种象征的候选人已经结束了大量依靠黑人选票的状况(在有些地方甚至强调了拉丁美洲和黑人的区别)。 这些都不能从奥巴马的成果中抹去-或者暗示他可能不能经起他手中工作的挑战。但能感觉到他已经越过了比他的主要对手更低的门槛。为了美国(以及全世界),门槛现在应该会被提高-不然令人不能想象的失望将接踵而来。 February 19 Credit-rating agencies Restructured products 这篇太专业了,看不懂。翻出来更是莫名其妙。 Feb 7th 2008 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition 来自《经济学家》印刷版 A beleaguered industry looks to reform itself 一个被围困的产业看上去似乎要自我改革了 HOUNDING credit-rating agencies has become the bloodsport of choice for moneymen. At a conference this week one speaker announced, to raucous laughter, that he had just received a news flash: “Moody's has downgraded Fitch, Fitch has cut Moody's in retaliation, and Standard & Poor's has put itself on negative watch.” HOUNDING信用等级代理已经变成金融人士做活血运动选择。在本周的一次会议上一个与会者沙哑的笑着发言道,他刚刚得到了一个新消息:Moody‘s 降低了Fitch信用等级,Fitch作为报复也对Moody’s进行了削减,而Standard & Poor's将自己摆到旁观者的位置。 Politicians and regulators are on the chase, too. Financial regulators, meeting in Amsterdam this week, said they would review a code of conduct for rating agencies, with a view to improving disclosure and clamping down on agencies that give advice on the creation of securities they rate. 政治家和管理者也在竞相追逐。本周在阿姆斯特丹召开的经济管理者会议,声明说他们将要以加强揭露和向代理们施压的观点来重新回顾代理评定的准则以此为证券费率的创造提供一些建议???。 The agencies feel that criticism of their role in the crisis was, in part, based on a misunderstanding: their ratings are based on risk of default, not market swings. But, as mortgage delinquencies rise, even they now admit that they were wrong-footed, and that the golden ratings they awarded to many mortgagelinked “structured” products were flimsy, particularly those of collateralised-debt obligations. 那些代理们感觉对他们在危机中角色的批判是建立在他们的信用等级风险是固定不变而非随着市场波动这样的误解上的片面看法。但是,抵押拖欠的行为正在增长,就算现在他们承认有步数走错了,那些他们提供给黄金等级的许多抵押相关的“结构性”物资是脆弱的,特别是那些间接抵押的债务。 In an effort to head off draconian new rules, the agencies have begun to think about changing the way they do business. On February 4th Moody's said it was considering a new rating system for structured securities, using numbers, not letters, and a suffix that would indicate the expected level of volatility. Not to be outdone, S&P was due on February 7th to unveil more than two dozen reforms. New committees will oversee governance and modelling and will be reviewed periodically by an outside firm. Information on non-default factors, including liquidity (whatever that is), will be attached to ratings. Like Moody's, S&P may introduce separate tags for securitised products and will analyse the effects of unexpected events. “We need to be clear about what traditional ratings do and don't do. Increasingly people have inferred more than was intended to be conveyed,” says Deven Sharma, S&P's president. 为了努力阻止新规则,代理们已经开始思考改变他们经营的方式。在2月4号,Moody‘s声称已经在考虑一种新的等级系统来保证结构化的证券,利用数字而不是字母,并且加以一个后缀用以指明预期的变化水平。为了不被超过,S&P在2月7日公开了超过24项改革。新的沟通机制将监督管理,模型化,并将周期性的接受外部公司的审查。非常规因素的信息,包括流动性(无论是什么)将与等级挂钩。像Moody's,S&P可能会为证券化的产品引进独立的标签并将监控未知事件的影响。“我们需要更清晰的认识什么增加等级什么不。日益增长的人们已经能够从被确定传达的信息中推断出更多。 Such stabs at self-healing may not placate everyone. Some point to more profound concerns: because ratings are deeply embedded in financial regulation, the agencies have been handed an oligopoly; they suffer a conflict of interest, because they are paid by the issuers of the securities they rate, not by investors; and they are unaccountable because their ratings are deemed mere opinions and thus protected as free speech. 这样的在自我治愈过程中的伤痛可能不能至于每个人。一些人指向一些更深层次的关注:因为等级是深入于金融调节中的,那些代理已经掌握了垄断,他们经受利益冲突,因为他们收入来源于他们估价的证券发行人,而不是投资人,并且他们没有责任因为他们的信用评价被认为仅仅是意见所以像言论自由一样被保护。 None of these issues is easy to resolve. Switching to an investor-pays system might seem the obvious solution, but it is not clear that enough investors would cough up to make the business viable. Some, perhaps many, would hitch a free ride as ratings leaked. 没有一项争论是能简单的被解决的。选择一个投资人支付报酬的系统可能是一个显而易见的解决方法,但是能不能有足够的投资人让商业勉为其难的进行并不清楚。有一些,也可能不少,会搭信用评价漏洞的免费车。 In any case, agencies can reasonably claim to be tackling their conflicts. Moody's and S&P have built stronger walls between their analysts and salespeople. Both have vowed to review any rating issued by an employee who leaves to work for a client. “Whoever pays, there will be a conflict,” says Brian Clarkson, president of Moody's. “The key is to manage it.” 无论如何,代理们能适度的要求暂时搁下他们之间的利益冲突。Moody’s和S&P已经在他们的分析师和交易员之间建立起了一道更为牢固的屏障。双方都发誓复审任何委托人的有争议的信用等级问题。“无论谁付工资,都会有冲突”Moody‘s的主席Brian Clarkson这样说,“关键在于对其的管理。” More competition should help, but it might just as easily lead to a race to the bottom, as agencies vie to offer the best terms to issuers. Making agencies legally liable for their opinions, meanwhile, would scare them out of the business. 更多的竞争可能有所帮助,但是那也可能仅仅是简单的将竞赛引向终点。代理们仍然竞相向发行人提供最优惠的条件。要让代理们合法的为他们的观点负责任,必须以让他们离开商业为威胁。 The most appealing reform, in theory, would be to end the regulatory dependence on ratings and let investors draw their own conclusions from “expert” opinions and market data, as they do with shares. (Even the agencies themselves believe investors should be placing more emphasis on other indicators, such as derivatives prices.) But ratings are so pervasive that it is hard to see this being accomplished without great dislocation. 在理论上,最吸引人的改革将是结束把信用等级作为调整依据取而代之让投资者自行从“专家”意见和市场数据中得到结论(甚至代理们相信投资者们应当更多的强调其它的指示象一些派生的价格)。但是信用等级是那样的深入人心使得不经历大的改变很难看到这种改革的成效。 A more practical approach might be to let the agencies get on with their house-cleaning while introducing a reform borrowed from the accounting industry: a board, made up of industry types, investors and academics, charged with policing the agencies' analytical techniques and governance. Rating firms have embraced change, but they will need help convincing the world that they mean it. 一个更实际的途径可能是在引进一个会计业改革的同时让代理们继续自己内部的清理。一个由各种工业类型所组的董事会,投资人,学院人士控告代理们的分析技术和管理。等级公司已经在拥护了,但他们仍然需要帮助去说服那个他们所谓的圈子。 February 17 Suicide-bombers
Just what are they dreaming of?
Feb 7th 2008 From The Economist print edition 来自《经济学家》印刷版 Religion is not always the reason 宗教并非总是原因 THE list of causes and countries in which people are prepared to turn themselves, and those around them, into bloody piles of bone and gristle is long and growing. In Sri Lanka on February 3rd, a woman on a platform at Colombo's main railway station blew herself up, killing at least 15 people, including seven schoolboys and their sports coach. The next day, Israel saw its first suicide attack for more than a year: at a mall in Dimona, a Palestinian put an abrupt end to his own life, and that of an elderly Israeli woman. As rescuers tended to an unconscious youth who appeared to be a wounded victim, they noticed—just in time—that he too was wearing an explosives belt. Meanwhile in the Pakistani garrison town of Rawalpindi, where Benazir Bhutto was slain in December, a human bomb on a motorcycle rammed into a military bus, killing at least ten people. 无论是原因还是那些人们准备将他们自己和他们周围的人变成片片血肉的城市都长久有之并在不断增长。2月3日在斯里兰卡首都科伦坡的一个主要火车站台引爆了自己,造成了至少十五人的死亡,包括七名学生和他们的体育教练。第二天,以色列见证了它一年多以来的首次自杀性袭击。在Dimona的一个购场,一个巴基斯坦人突然的结束了他自己以及一名年长的以色列妇女的生命。救援人员注意到一个不省人事的年轻人似乎是一个受害者,但就在这个时候他们发现他身上同样捆绑了爆炸物。与此同时,在十二月贝布托总统遇刺身亡巴基斯坦的要塞城市Rawalpindi,一个人肉炸弹骑着摩托车冲向一辆军事车辆,造成了至少十人的死亡。 There is almost always something mysterious about suicide: a gap between everything that was ever said by or known about the selfdestroyer (even by his family), and the silence that remains. In the case of politically inspired suicide, the motives are at once more obvious and more elusive. Just why are terrorists, often promising young men (or increasingly, women) with much to live for, willing to kill themselves as well as others? It is exactly eight years since the first international conference on suicide terrorism was convened in Israel; since then, dozens of security pundits have been searching for new answers to the question. 自杀袭击总是笼罩着一些神秘,得不到自杀袭击者的任何信息(甚至从他们的家庭),留下的只有寂静(自杀袭击者所说的或被了解的一切与他留下的沉默之间存在巨大的鸿沟)。因为这样的自杀式袭击有政治上的授意,使得这样的行动立刻显得更加的显而易见和难以捉摸。仅仅是为什么这些恐怖分子,通常是生活有希望有前途年轻人(或是日益增加的女人),愿意牺牲自己和他人牺牲自。自第一次就自杀式恐怖袭击在以色列举办的会议至今刚好八年。自那时起,不少的安全专家就在为这个问题寻找一个新的答案。 At the time of that meeting in 2000, the secessionist Tamil Tigers, waging war in Sri Lanka, were the most prolific users of suicide tactics. Since then there has been a change. While Tamil nationalists are still at large, the locus of suicide-bombing has shifted to the Muslim world, and most perpetrators—whether they are fighting local wars, or a global campaign against America and its allies—have claimed to be acting in the name of Islam. The practice spread from the Hizbullah fighters of Lebanon to Hamas and other Palestinian groups—and thence to the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. That prompts some Westerners to assert a link between Islam—especially Shia Islam, with its stress on martyrdom—and readiness for self-destruction. But scholars who comb the available data about suicide attacks are often sceptical about religion's role. 2000年那次会议的时候,在斯里兰卡发动战争的分裂论者Tamil Tigers是自杀式袭击策略最多的使用者。从那时起就已经产生了变化。在Tamil民族主义者还没有被逮捕,自杀性袭击的地点却转移到了穆斯林世界,并且大部分的犯罪者-无论是他们为了赢得一场地区战争或是在全球对抗美国和他的同盟,都声称以伊斯兰教的名义。这样的实验从黎巴嫩的Hizbullah战斗者传播到哈马斯以及其他巴勒斯坦派别-从此以后延伸到伊拉克和阿富汗。这加速了一些西方人断言,伊斯兰-特别是面临牺牲压力的Shia伊斯兰-和自杀准之间有所联系。但是学者搜寻关于自杀式袭击的档案常常怀疑其中宗教扮演的角色。 Robert Pape, of the University of Chicago, has identified three factors that make suicide terrorism probable. It is likely to occur when a community feels it is under occupation that must be resisted; when the “occupier” is a democratic society whose opinion can be swayed; and where there is a sectarian difference between the perpetrators' community and the target community. In his view, religious differences help to make suicide attacks conceivable, but they are not the main driver. Nichole Argo, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, agrees that religion's role is limited. What counts is a background of support for the idea of insurgency: a sense among self-annihilators that their peers will see them as heroes. Nor is religious indoctrination a big factor, Ms Argo insists; only a fraction of the alumni of hard-line madrassas in Pakistan and Indonesia engage in violence. Material deprivation is not decisive either; many suicide-bombers are from comfortable backgrounds. 芝加哥大学的Robert Pape,找出了三个可能造成自杀式恐怖袭击的因素。自杀袭击在这样的情况下可能发生,当一个集体面临被占有而必须抵抗,“占有者”是一个意见摇摆不定的民主组织(当“占领者”是民主社会,它的态度会被动摇),罪犯团体和目标团体存在一个选择上的分歧。在他的观点中,宗教信仰的不同助长了自杀袭击发生的可能性,但是它们不是主要原因。Nichole Argo来自Massachusetts技术学院的研究人员,也对宗教因素有限的观点持赞同态度。真正起决定价值的是叛乱问题提供者的背景,一个自毁者的同辈们将视他们为英雄。但宗教教化同样不是一个大的因素,Ms Argo坚持道。仅仅一小部分的巴基斯坦和印度尼西亚的强硬份子从事暴力活动。物资的剥夺同样不是决定性的,许多自杀性爆炸者都来自于舒适的环境。 Randall Collins, of the University of Pennsylvania, has made a good point about middle-class bombers: to do their job, human bombs need middle-class virtues like politeness and discretion—till the very moment of self-annihilation 宾夕法尼亚大学的Randall Collins提出了一个很好的观点关于中产阶级爆炸者,为了完成他们的工作,人肉炸弹一直要具备中产阶级的品德像优雅和判断力,直到他自我毁灭的那一刻。 February 16 China's weather 中国的天气 Frozen assets 资产冻结 Feb 7th 2008 | NANCHANG From The Economist print edition 来自《经济学人》印刷版 因本人翻译水平有限,疏漏错误在所难免,如有不解之处,请参照原文。-From QQK的空间 So long as people criticise the weather, the government can weather the criticism AFTER a week of anguish, Liu Xiaoqiang could heave a sigh of relief. So too, perhaps, could China's government. By the eve of the lunar new year holiday, unusually severe winter weather and crippling transport bottlenecks had eased. Power cuts and food shortages persisted in many parts of southern China. But the worst appeared to be over. 人们已经抱怨天气太长时间了,政府能够经受 经历了一周的苦恼,Liu Xiaoqiang终于能松一口气了。也许中国政府也只能如此了。在阴历年假的前夕,异乎寻常的冰雪天气和临近极限的运输瓶颈终于得到缓解了。能源的隔断和食品的短缺依然存在于南方的许多地区。但是最糟糕的似乎已经过去了。 For Mr Liu, a migrant from rural Anhui who has spent the past year as a building worker in Nanchang, victory came on February 5th, when he finally secured a train ticket home. For the previous week he had spent the days battling crowds in the cold, damp and dirt of Nanchang's station. Nights were passed in a shabby room nearby. He felt lucky to find it, but it cost hundreds of unbudgeted yuan—and he earns just 1,000 yuan ($139) a month. Mr Liu是一名已经在南昌做了一年建筑工人的旅客,他终于在2月5日等到了胜利,拿到了回家的火车票。在前一个星期里,他花了好几天的时间在寒冷潮湿肮脏的南昌站排队。夜晚在附近一个破旧的小房子里度过。他认为能找到那样一件房子是幸运的,但这花去了他好几百元的预算——他的月工资仅仅只有一千元(合139美元)。 A heavy police presence at Nanchang's station (and the minefield of human excrement on the pavements just outside) attest to how fraught things have been. In southern and central China, snow, ice and freezing rain left millions stranded on the roads or at railway stations. Fallen transmission lines, frozen equipment and coal shortages caused power cuts across 17 provinces; at least 11 electricians died making repairs. In some places water supplies have failed, and food has run short. Almost everywhere food prices have risen. 大量的警员出现在南昌站证明了人是多么的满(那些人们的排泄物就被堆放在站外)。在中国的中部和南部,冰雪和冻雨造成了数以万记汽车站和火车站的阻塞。被阻断的运输线路,抗寒物资及煤的短缺造成了17省的能源中断,至少11名电力工人在抢修过程中丧失了生命。在一些地区,水的供应也中断了,食品也面临短缺。几乎所有地方的食品价格都涨了。 For a government that bases its claim to legitimacy on its competence and ability to guarantee the supply of basic necessities, all of this might seem threatening. Yet like many others, Mr Liu blames what he calls “the worst weather in decades”, rather than the authorities. 政府基于要求在能力范围内提供基础的必需品,一切看上去都那么危险。不想许多其它的人,Mr Liu更多的抱怨他所称之的“十年不遇的坏天气”,而不是管理机构。 Not everyone is happy to leave it at that. The disgruntled probably include the millions still suffering from shortages of power and water, and those who have reluctantly heeded the government's call to scrap their cherished holiday visit home. 并非每个人都认为这样离开是值得高兴的。不满可能包括还有数百万人仍然在遭受能源和水的短缺,以及勉强相应政府号召放弃在假期回家。 Government leaders have dispatched army and police forces to keep order and work crews to get things moving again. They have also gone out of their way to express concern and, in the familiar ringing idiom of martial mass-mobilisation propaganda, show they have taken charge. Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, visited stations in three provinces, offering sympathy and vague apologies for unspecified failures. President Hu Jintao went down a coalmine to inspire miners to step up their output. On February 2nd Wu Yi, a deputy prime minister, popped up at Nanchang station, urging local officials to “be fully aware of the arduousness and gravity of the snow-havoc battle”. 政府领导已经派遣军队和警力维持次序,并让一切重新运转。他们同样去到偏远地区,在熟悉的充满俗语的军事动员中,显示了他们的负责任。温家宝总理视察了三个省的数个车站,表示同情并为一些未指明的错误含糊的表示道歉。 According to Fang Xiu'an, of the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association, which handles marketing for coal producers, the authorities deserve high marks for responding to the crisis. They worked quickly to increase coal production, to give deliveries of coal priority over other cargoes, and to start fixing transport and power disruptions. 依照操纵煤市场生产的中国煤运输和分配委员会的Fang Xiu'an的说法,管理机构对灾难的回应应当给予高度评价。他们很快的提高了煤的产量,给了煤运输相对于其他货物更高的优先权,并且开始填补运输和能源的中断。 But he also faults bureaucrats in the coal and power industries. Power plants that normally stock 18-20 days' worth of coal had in some cases run their reserves down to as little as three days' worth. Planners, says Mr Fang, should have been more alert to warning signs that these dangerously low stockpiles made China vulnerable. The causes of the supply crunch are clear enough. 但他同样因在能源和煤工业因官僚主意而犯错。电厂的正常库存应当保持有18-20天的用煤量,但出于某些原因使得它们的存量低到仅能供三天使用。规划者应当对这次警报提起警惕,因为这样的低库存让中国变得脆弱。导致这次供应危机的原因已经足够清楚。 Since 2005 the government has ordered thousands of unsafe AP And the trains don't run on time and poorly managed coalmines to shut down, reducing production. Lower output, together with unusually cold weather, forced up prices. From December to January, the price of premium coal rose by 13%, from 575 yuan a tonne to 650 yuan. But electricity prices are fixed, and, unable to pass on costs, power producers had been waiting for seasonal price cuts in March before stocking up. 直至2005年,政府已经规范了数千个不安全的管理程序。列车不按时运转和煤矿缺乏管理的现象已经被制止。出口的降低,合并寒冷的天气,被迫上涨的物价。从十二月到一月,特级煤的价格已经上涨了13%,从575元每吨上涨到650元每吨。但是电的价格是固定的,不能有效的传递消耗。电力生产者在储备之前不得不等待三月份的季节性价格下降。 Equally clear is the reasoning behind these policies. Rising inflation has unnerved citizens and officials alike, and powerprice controls are one way to stem it. Lax mining standards, meanwhile, have led to a gruesome string of coalmine accidents and a scandalous yearly toll of thousands of dead miners. The government has justifiably been under pressure to act. 同样清楚的是这些政策后面的原因。不断增长的通货膨胀已经让官员和民众气馁,能源价格的控制是唯一能够阻止这一低调情绪的方法。同时,不严格的采矿标准已经导致一连串可怕矿难的发生,并且令人震惊的,每年有数千名矿工死亡。政府有理由在压力下实施行动。 The transport crisis has highlighted the fragility of China's tightly strung infrastructure, as well as the conflicting pressures facing policymakers as they try to keep the economy growing. Yet the overall economic impact of the weather crisis, like the political fallout, may be limited. Officials have reported direct economic losses of 54 billion yuan in damage to buildings and crops, a figure that is bound to rise. But government economists insist that the long-term effects will be mild. Many foreign analysts agree that they will, as one puts it, “vanish with the melting snow”. Jonathan Anderson, an economist in Hong Kong for UBS, an investment bank, calls it a “very temporary, short-term shock” and sees no cause yet to revise his growth forecast for China's economy. 这次运输危机已经为中国暴露出的基础结构脆弱亮起了红灯,这又给予了试图保持经济增长的政策制定者们不相一致的压力。现在全部因天气危机带来的经济冲击,象行政力被减弱,可能已经得到了控制。许多国外的分析家认同他们可以,就像有一个人说那样“一切随着冰雪消融而消失”。Jonathan Anderson香港一位为投资银行UBS工作的经济学家,称之为“十分暂时,短期的冲击”,并称不影响他对中国经济增长的预测。 Even if they seem to have weathered this storm, China's leaders must be pondering the lessons it offers. The government may not have all that long to make good on its earnest promises to do better in future. In under two weeks, for example, Mr Liu will be trying to buy a ticket back to his job in Nanchang. 尽管他们已经经历了这次风暴,中国的领导人必须反思本次的教训。政府似乎没有为他们承诺的在经来做的更好投入全部的热情。在接下来的两个星期里,举例说,Mr将会试着买张票重回他在南昌的工作。 February 15 America's election Half-way there 因水平有限,这篇翻译存在许多问题,不解之处,请自己参照英文。 Feb 7th 2008 From The Economist print edition The Republicans, at least, seem to have found a decent candidate 共和党似乎已经找到了一个正派的领导人。 WINSTON CHURCHILL, that famous half-American, once said that his mother's countrymen could always be counted on to do the right thing, after exhausting the available alternatives. His words would apply well to the Republican Party just now. Having lengthily lionised “America's mayor”, Rudy Giuliani, looked longingly at Reagan-lite Fred Thompson, flirted with millionaire Mitt Romney and sung along with preacherman Mike Huckabee, the party's voters have sensibly plumped for John McCain, the only Republican whom pollsters give a chance of keeping the White House out of Democratic hands (see article). It is possible—just—to imagine Mr McCain failing to carry the nomination after Super Tuesday, which saw him win three times as many delegates as his nearest rival, Mr Romney, who suspended his campaign. But that would now require spectacular intervention by the Almighty on behalf of the admittedly pious Mr Huckabee. 温斯顿.丘吉尔,那个著名的半个美国人,曾经说过他母亲的同胞们在经历一场疲惫不堪的有用选举后总能去做正确的事情。他的言论可以适用于现在的共和党。在相当长时间内被奉为“美国市长”的Rudy Giuliani,看上去十分的渴望,他在Reagan-lite Fred Thompson,十分轻率的和百万富翁Mitt Romney呆在一起,并且与传教士Mike Huckabee一同在歌咏会上领唱。政党的投票者已经明显的将支持转到John McCain,这个民调显示唯一能将白宫从民主党手中夺回的人身上。有可能,想象一下Mr McCain在超级星期二后没有得到委任,那些看着他胜利三次的代表们甚至他那暂停挑战的亲近对手Mr Romney。但是这需要来自虔诚到无可否认的Mr Huckabee的代表Almighty的强烈干涉。 Given George Bush's failings, the Republicans face an uphill challenge, but they have given themselves a chance. Mr McCain is a man of courage. He showed it in Vietnam, while Mr Bush and Bill Clinton found themselves other occupations; as a prisoner-of-war, he refused to be released without his comrades even though he had already been tortured for a year, so earning four more years of agony. He has been brave politically, too. It takes an exceptional individual to court the hatred of his own party rather than compromise on issues he believes in, such as the need for immigration reform, the wrongness of torture under any circumstances or the need to tackle global warming. Should Mr McCain become president, the world will see an American with different views from those it has sadly learned to expect from Republicans recently. 乔治 布什已有的失败,使得现在的共和党面临着越来越大的挑战,但同时他们也给了自己一个机会。Mr McCain是一个有勇气的人,他在越南已经展示了这一点。当布什和克林顿早已开脱,作为一名战俘,尽管他已经经历了一年的严刑拷打,但他拒绝同他的战友们一起被释放,进而有遭受了近四年的痛苦。他在政治上同样是勇敢的。这真是一个特例啊,象在移民改革的必要性,任何情况下的严刑拷打的错误性,以及制止全球变暖的问题上,他宁可给自己招来党内的憎恨也不愿意向自己所坚信的观点妥协。Mr McCain 当选总统,世界将看以不同的眼光看待对寄希望于共和党已经表示沮丧的美国。 Those atypical positions, and his willingness to team up with Democrats in the Senate, may have earned Mr McCain the support of many of the independent voters who will be crucial to Republican chances in the general election. But it would be wrong to think the senator from Arizona is simply pandering to them. On a host of other issues, he has risked alienating the centre. He is a passionate believer in free trade (which endears him to this newspaper, at least), and he was a supporter of the “surge” in Iraq when all Democrats, most independents and a fair few Republicans thought the best thing to do was for America to leave. Some of these beliefs, alas, will surely hurt him, but it is much to his credit that when advisers urged him to moderate them he angrily refused. 那些不显著的举动,及他自发的在上议院与共和党合作,已经赢得了许多将成为共和党在大选中作用至关重要的独立投票者的支持。但是就此认为来自亚利桑那州的议员会简单的被它们所吸引将是错误的。在大量其他的论点上,他冒着偏离中央的危险。在自由贸易上他是个充满热情的信仰者(这使得他饱受我们经济学人的钟爱),并且他还是在伊拉克采取“激进”行动的支持者,当所有的民主党人,绝大多数的独立人士及小部分公正的共和党人都认为最好的举措就是从伊拉克退兵。哎,这些观点当然会对他有所损害,但是这也助长了他的信誉度,当顾问们希望他表示妥协的时,他气愤的拒绝了。 A few chinks in the armour 装甲上的一些小裂口 Illustration by Kevin Kallaugher ——引自Kevin Kallaugher Mr McCain is certainly the right man for the Republicans, but we are not yet ready to endorse him for the presidency. His age is one drawback: at 72, he will, if elected, be the oldest president ever to take office (though Ronald Reagan was older when he was re-elected in 1984). His health has not been perfect— though his 96-year-old mother looks reassuringly sprightly—and his choice of a running-mate is therefore a subject of more than the usual concern. One danger is that he might feel constrained to select Mr Huckabee, who won five southern states this week and appeals to the evangelical Christians who mistrust Mr McCain. Likeable though he is, Mr Huckabee is tainted by an anti-business strain of populism and a literalist faith that sometimes blinds him to basic science. The possibility of a Huckabee presidency would give many independent voters (and this newspaper) pause. Mr McCain当然是共和党的正确人选,但是我们不能已经认可他的任期。他的年龄是一大障碍,72岁,如果当选,将是有史以来最老的总统(尽管里根在1984年连任的时候要更老些)。他的健康状况不是那么好-尽管他那96岁的妈妈看起来还是那么轻快而结实-并且他对竞选伙伴的将投入更多的关注。一个危险是,他可能觉得选择本周内已经赢得五个南部州并且呼吁基督福音对他不太信任的Mr Huckabee让他感觉不自在。尽管Mr Huckabee是这样可爱的,但他也因遭受来自人民党主义反商业联盟的压力而染上污点,而且拘泥于信仰也让他在一些时候忽视基础科学。Huckabee就任的可能将终止于大量的独立投票人(包括本刊)。 Mr McCain's other problem is his temperament. He has not been mellowed by having had to run a state— a shortcoming he shares with his Democratic rivals, but still a disadvantage. The flip-side of his courage is a short temper. There have been too many blow-ups with fellow senators. At a time when America needs to rebuild its relationship with the rest of the world, a prickly patriot who supported the Iraq war (though he was the first to call for Donald Rumsfeld's head after things started to go wrong) and who has been known to sing “Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of “Barbara Ann” could be improved on from a diplomatic point of view. Mr McCain的另一个问题是他的性情。对于运作一个政府他还显得不那么成熟-这是他相对他的民主党对手来说的短处,同时也是个缺点。和他的勇气相对的是他粗暴的脾气。这一点被和他共事的其它议员过度的放大了。一次,美国希望重建它和世界其它国家的关系,一个支持伊拉克战争的印模仿“Barbara Ann”的唱腔歌唱“Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb Iran” 的有刺爱国者可能会改进外交上的观点。 Don't give up on the Democrats 不要在民主党面前放弃 So a Democrat may yet impress us more, but first they must put their own house in order. Luckily for Mr McCain, that will be a while coming—and in the meantime he can start raising money for the generalelection campaign. Most analysts argue that Barack Obama would have a better chance against Mr McCain than Hillary Clinton would. The young black senator is better at appealing to the centrist voters who like Mr McCain; and the prospect of another Clinton co-presidency would do much to compel Republican right-wingers to get behind a man they think is not a true conservative. 一个民主党人可能使我们留下了更深刻的印象,但他们首先要做的是把自己的房子整清楚。幸运的是,对于Mr McCain来说-??? 与此同时他开始为竞选筹集资金。许多分析家认为Barack Obama相对于Hillary Clinton 对抗Mr McCain似乎更有胜算。这个年轻的黑人议员对于像Mr McCain那样的中间派议员看来似乎更有魅力。并且另一个类似于克林顿的总统,他将迫使共和党的右翼份子躲藏在他这样一个不是真正保守的人后面。 That calculation ought to help Mr Obama in the weeks to come after a Super Tuesday that was, on the Democratic side, a dead heat. Another 22 states, including big ones like Texas and Ohio, have still to vote in primaries, and half the delegates have yet to be chosen. Mr Obama will also gain an edge from the return to a battle that is fought state by state, since this plays to his superior abilities at firing up big crowds. But the formidable Clinton machine grinds on, and the fact that she won in most of the big states that were up for grabs on Super Tuesday has buoyed her team no end. Mrs Clinton's solid support among Hispanics will help a lot in Texas, though at the cost of keeping race as a live, and nasty, issue on the hustings. On the other hand, this week Mr Obama won in more states and may have secured one or two more delegates as well, so he can make a strong claim to have superior momentum. 这样的算计在在超级星期二后紧接几周内应该对Mr Obama帮助颇多,但在民主党方面,是冷却的热情。另外的22个州,包括两个大的德克萨斯和俄亥俄,仍然在进行初选,一半的代表还没有被选出来。Mr Obama同样将要面临州与州之间斗争的边缘??。这样的情形来源于点燃群众激情的高超本领。但是可怕的克林顿机器坚定无疑的向前开进,事实是她已经赢取了大部分大洲的支持星期二的公投将非常支持她的团队。Mrs Clinton来自西班牙坚固的支持将帮助她在得克萨斯赢得许多帮助,虽然持续竞争的花费是一个活生生的肮脏事实。在另一方面,本周Mr Obama在更多的几个州取得了胜利并且可能已经受到了一至两个代表的保护,所以他将更有动力。 The fight will be long and mucky, but the Democrats may yet emerge sharpened by the contest. Both Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama have the necessary attributes to take on Mr McCain: they are two formidable campaigners who have offered detailed and generally intelligent policy proposals and have been forced to work exceptionally hard for their votes. 这场竞争将冗长而肮脏,但是民主党的竞争并没有加剧。无论是Mr Obama还是Mrs Clinton都有必要去接纳Mr McCain,他们是两个同样强大,都以提出详细理智仿真假设,并且将为他们的竞选竭尽全力的竞争者。 So Mr McCain is still no more than half-way to the White House. But the fact that the Republicans seem to have learnt from their mistakes enough to line up behind a credible candidate augurs well for their country—and for the world. 所以说Mr McCain仅仅是在通往白宫的路上做着垒间停留,事实是共和党应当会从他们的错误中吸取足够的教训要在推举一个可信的候选者上达成一致,不仅仅为了这个国家,也为了这个世界。 February 13 Samsung Losing its shine Feb 7th 2008 | SEOUL From The Economist print edition South Korea's biggest conglomerate has handled a series of crises badly 韩国最大的集团正面临着一系列严重的危机。 THE lunar new year, celebrated this week, is usually a time when those employed at South Korea's familyowned conglomerates, or chaebols, enjoy a few days off. But there is little to celebrate for executives at Samsung, the biggest and best-known chaebol, which has lately been hit by an investigation into alleged corruption, an oil spill and an adverse court ruling relating to a failed subsidiary. 在本周举行庆祝活动的阴历新年,对受雇佣为韩国最大家族集团工作的员工来说应当是一段愉快的日子。但是对于三星的管理者来说没什么可值得庆祝的,这个最大最为知名的集团企业,最近正在面临一次严峻的腐败调查,以及一次油品泄漏和以此法院对其子公司的不利判决。 Samsung's problems started in November when Kim Yong-chul, formerly its top legal executive, alleged that the group maintained slush funds with which to bribe politicians, judges and the press, and that it had committed accounting fraud to ensure that the group remained in the hands of its chairman, Lee Kunhee, and his family. Samsung insists that Mr Kim's accusations are groundless. An official investigator, Cho Joon-woong, began looking into his allegations in January. 三星的问题开始于十一月,当Kim Yong-chul,三星从前的合法执行长官,声称这个集体始终建立着一个用于非法目的的基金(slush fund)用作贿赂政客,法官和新闻界,制造假的会计结果以保证集团的所有权维持在集团主席Lee Kunhee和他的家族手中。三星坚持说其前执行官Kim的控告是没有依据的。官方调查人Cho Joon-wong在一月开始了他的申诉。 There is a widespread belief that Samsung, whose sales are equivalent to some 20% of South Korea's GDP, is simply too powerful to be brought to heel by Mr Cho's inquiry. Many South Koreans were cynical about the well-publicised searches carried out at Mr Lee's home and the offices of other executives, noting that they took place weeks after the original allegations. 有这样一个广为认知的看法,三星的营业额占据了韩国20%的GDP增长值。很显然这一看法过于有威力以至于阻碍到Mr Cho的调查。很多韩国人对于对Mr Lee的家以及其他执行官的办公室广为宣传的调查取证在最初申述后的几星期仍没有拿出一点结果而感到讽刺。 But the cynics who forecast business as usual for the chaebol were proved wrong in December, when a barge operated by Samsung Heavy Industries, a subsidiary, broke free from its tow lines in heavy weather and slammed into an oil tanker. More than 78,000 barrels of oil leaked out, South Korea's worst spill. Images of dead, oil-covered birds, devastated fishing grounds and despairing people who relied on the ocean for their livelihoods appeared on television day after day. In January thousands of people from the affected region converged on Samsung's headquarters in Seoul and threw oil-stained fish and oysters at the building. At another protest, the owner of a raw-fish restaurant killed himself by drinking agricultural chemicals and setting himself on fire. 但是那些认为因为韩国财团(chaebol)支持商业仍将正常运作的冷嘲热讽者在十二月被证明是错的。当三星旗下子公司三星重工所拥有的一艘油轮,在一次恶劣的天气里因舢板脱落造成了燃油泄露。大约78000桶燃油泄露,这是韩国历史上最大的燃油泄露事件。想象一下那些因沾染燃油而死的鸟们,被毁掉的渔场,那些日复一日守在电视机前以海为生的绝望人们吧。在一月,数千名来自受影响区域的群众聚集在三星在首尔的总部,向建筑扔掷被燃油污染的鱼和牡蛎。在另一起抗议中,一位生鱼饭馆的老板喝农药自杀后自焚。 In a culture where swift acknowledgment of wrongdoing is expected, Samsung was seen to be dragging its feet. It took a month and a half to apologise for its part in the oil spill. Samsung says it delayed its apology because the accident's cause was unclear and it was not entirely to blame, though the owner and operator of the tanker have denied any wrongdoing. On January 21st the courts indicted Samsung Heavy Industries and the owner of the tanker on charges relating to the spill. 在传统中有错就认是大家所期望的,但三星在这一点上似乎在拖后腿。三星在历经一个半月后才对燃油泄露事件中所付的责任表示道歉。三星声称它拖延道歉是因为事故的原因还并不清楚,它并不该被完完全全的责备,因为油轮的所有者和操作者在事件中并没有什么过错。在1月21日,法院对三星重工和油轮拥有者提起指控。 Ten days later a court ruled against Samsung and Mr Lee in South Korea's biggest civil lawsuit. It ordered them to repay 3.15 trillion won ($2.7 billion) to the creditors of Samsung Motors, a subsidiary which went bust in 1999. Mr Lee had pledged shares in Samsung Life Insurance to creditors, promising a payout when it went public—which has yet to happen. 十天后,在这场韩国最大的民事诉讼中法庭裁定三星和所有者Mr Lee败诉。它们被要求偿还于99年破产的公司三星动力债权人约2.7亿美元赔款。Mr Lee已经将三星人生保险的部分股份抵押给债权人,并承诺在此事对外公布时支付。 Given all these problems, you might expect contrition from Samsung executives. But when Mr Cho asked several Samsung executives to come to his office they said they were too busy, provoking further public outrage. Samsung now acknowledges that it has an image problem. “We are concerned about the negative impact on the Samsung brand,” says a spokesman. But in the eyes of South Koreans, the chaebol whose name means “three stars” has already lost its shine. 面对所有这些问题,你可能期望三星的管理层们会有所悔改。但当Mr Cho要求几位三星管理者去到他的办公室接受询问,他们都以太忙为由回绝,这激起了公众进一步的愤怒。三星现在承认它们面临着一项想象中的问题,“我们正为三星的品牌受到的质疑而感到担心”一位发言人这样说道。但是在韩国人民的眼中,那个名字叫做”三颗星“的大型财团企业已经失去了它的光辉。 February 12 对冲基金(Hedge Fund) 对冲基金的起源与发展 对冲基金(也称避险基金或套利基金)意为“风险对冲过的基金”,起源于50年代初的美国。当时的操作宗旨在于利用期货、期权等金融衍生产品以及对相关联的不同股票进行实买空卖、风险对冲的操作技巧,在一定程度上可规避和化解投资风险。1949年世界上诞生了第一个有限合作制的琼斯对冲基金。虽然对冲基金在20世纪50年代已经出现,但是,它在接下来的三十年间并未引起人们的太多关注,直到上世纪80年代,随着金融自由化的发展,对冲基金才有了更广阔的投资机会,从此进入了快速发展的阶段。20世纪90年代,世界通货膨胀的威胁逐渐减少,同时金融工具日趋成熟和多样化,对冲基金进入了蓬勃发展的阶段。据英国《经济学人》的统计,从1990年到2000年,3000多个新的对冲基金在美国和英国出现。2002年后,对冲基金的收益率有所下降,但对冲基金的规模依然不小,据英国《金融时报》2005年10月22日报道,截至目前为止,全球对冲基金总资产额已经达到1.1万亿美元。 对冲基金的特点 经过几十年的演变,对冲基金已失去其初始的风险对冲的内涵,Hedge Fund的称谓亦徒有虚名。对冲基金己成为一种新的投资模式的代名词。即基于最新的投资理论和极其复杂的金融市场操作技巧,充分利用各种金融衍生产品的杠杆效用,承担高风险。追求高收益的投资模式。现在的对冲基金有以下几个特点: (1)投资活动的复杂性。 近年来结构日趋复杂、花样不断翻新的各类金融衍生产品如期货、期权、掉期等逐渐成为对冲基金的主要操作工具。这些衍生产品本为对冲风险而设计,但因其低成本、高风险、高回报的特性,成为许多现代对冲基金进行投机行为的得力工具。对冲基金将这些金融工具配以复杂的组合设什,根据市场预测进行投资,在预测准确时获取超额利润,或是利用短期内中场波动而产生的非均衡性设计投资策略,在市场恢复正常状态时获取差价。 (2)投资效应的高杠杆性。 典型的对冲基金往往利用银行信用,以极高的杠杆借贷(Leveradge)在其原始基金量的基础上几倍甚至几十倍地扩大投资资金,从而达到最大程度地获取回报的目的。对冲基金的证券资产的高流动性,使得对冲基金可以利用基金资产方便地进行抵押贷款。一个资本金只有1亿美元的对冲基金,可以通过反复抵押其证券资产,贷出高达几十亿美元的资金。这种打杆效应的存在,使得在一笔交易后扣除贷款利息,净利润远远大于仅使用1亿美元的资本金运作可能带来的收益。同样,也恰恰因为杠杆效应,对冲基金在操作不当时往往亦面临超额损失的巨大风险。 (3)筹资方式的私募性。 对冲基金的组织结构一般是合伙人制。基金投资者以资金入伙,提供大部分资金但不参与投资活动;基金管理者以资金和技能入伙,负责基金的投资决策。由于对冲基金在操作上要求高度的隐蔽性和灵活性,因而在美国对冲基金的合伙人一般控制在100人以下,而每个合伙人的出资额在100万美元以上。由于对冲基金多为私募性质,从而规避了美国法律对公募基金信息披露的严格要求。由于对冲基金的高风险性和复杂的投资机理,许多西方国家都禁止其向公众公开招募资金,以保护普通投资者的利益。为了避开美国的高税收和美国证券交易委员会的监管,在美国市场上进行操作的对冲基金一般在巴哈马和百慕大等一些税收低,管制松散的地区进行离岸注册,并仅限于向美国境外的投资者募集资金。 (4)操作的隐蔽性和灵活性。 对冲基金与面向普通投资者的证券投资基金不但在基金投资者、资金募集方式、信息披露要求和受监管程度上存在很大差别。在投资活动的公平性和灵活性方面也存在很多差别。证券投资基金一般都有较明确的资产组合定义。即在投资工具的选择和比例上有确定的方案,如平衡型基金指在基金组合中股票和债券大体各半,增长型基金指侧重于高增长性股票的投资;同时,共同基金不得利用信贷资金进行投资,而对冲基金则完全没有这些方面的限制和界定,可利用一切可操作的金融工具和组合,最大限度地使用信贷资金,以牟取高于市场平均利润的超额回报。由于操作上的高度隐蔽性和灵活性以及杠杆融资效应,对冲基金在现代国际金融市场的投机活动中担当了重要角色。 对冲基金的运作 最初的对冲操作中,基金管理者在购入一种股票后,同时购入这种股票的一定价位和时效的看跌期权(Put Option)。看跌期权的效用在于当股票价位跌破期权限定的价格时,卖方期权的持有者可将手中持有的股票以期权限定的价格卖出,从而使股票跌价的风险得到对冲。在另一类对冲操作中,基金管理人首先选定某类行情看涨的行业,买进该行业几只优质股,同时以一定比率卖出该行业中几只劣质股。如此组合的结果是,如该行业预期表现良好,优质股涨幅必超过其他同行业的股票,买入优质股的收益将大于卖空劣质股的损失;如果预期错误,此行业股票不涨反跌,那么较差公司的股票跌幅必大于优质股,则卖空盘口所获利润必高于买入优质股下跌造成的损失。正因为如此的操作手段,早期的对冲基金才被用于避险保值的保守投资策略的基金管理形式。可是,随着时间的推移,人们对金融衍生工具的作用的理解逐渐深入,近年来对冲基金倍受青睐是由于对冲基金有能力在熊市赚钱。从1999年到2002年,普通公共基金平均每年损失11.7%,而对冲基金在同一期间每年赢利11.2%。对冲基金实现如此骄人的成绩是有原因的,而且它们所获得的收益并不像外界所理解的那么容易,几乎所有对冲基金的管理者都是出色的金融经纪人。 金融衍生工具(以期权为例)有三大特点: 第一,它可以以较少的资金撬动一笔较大的交易,人们把其放大作用,一般为20至100倍;当这笔交易的交易量足够大时,就可以影响价格; 第二,根据洛伦兹•格利茨的观点,由于期权合约的买者只有权利而没有义务,即在交割日时,如果该期权的执行价格(Strikeprice)不利于期权持有者,该持有者可以不履行它。这种安排降低了期权购买者的风险,同时又诱使人们进行更为冒险的投资(即投机); 第三,根据约翰·赫尔的观点,期权的执行价格越是偏离期权的标的资产(特定标的物)的现货价格,其本身的价格越低,这给对冲基金后来的投机活动带来便利。 对冲基金管理者发现金融衍生工具的上述特点后,他们所掌握的对冲基金便开始改变了投资策略,他们把套期交易的投资策略变为通过大量交易操纵相关的几个金融市场,从它们的价格变动中获利。 对冲基金投资案例 已经被人们了解的众多对冲基金投资案例中,对冲基金对金融市场价格的扰动引起对实质经济和货币体系的破坏时,这些价格才会向对冲基金期望的方向持续地跌落。同时,被攻击的国家被破坏得越严重,对实施攻击的对冲基金越有利。其结果,是对冲基金与民族国家之间的一次财富再分配。从分配的公正性角度看,对冲基金的这种行为被认为接近于垄断,那么它所获得的收入则近乎垄断利润。经济学界所公认,市场作为一个配置资源的机制是有效的,但是,一旦有对冲基金操纵价格,不仅输赢的机会不均等,而且会导致对包括货币体系在内的市场本身的破坏,更谈不上提高市场的效率了。从经济学的价值观来看,既然没有效率,也就缺乏道德基础。因为这种行为导致的财富再分配,赢者的收入不仅以输者同等的损失,而且以输者更大的损失,以至其货币体系及经济机制的崩溃和失效为代价;从全球角度看,是一种净的福利损失。 (1)1992年狙击英镑 1979年始,还没有统一货币的欧洲经济共同体统一了各国的货币兑换率,组成欧洲货币汇率连保体系。该体系规定各国货币在不偏离欧共体“中央汇率”25%的范围内允许上下浮动,如果某一成员国货币汇率超出此范围,其他各国中央银行将采取行动出面干预。然而,欧共体成员国的经济发展不平衡,货币政策根本无法统一,各国货币受到本国利率和通货膨胀率的影响各不相同,因此某些时候,连保体系强迫各国中央银行做出违背他们意愿的行动,如在外汇交易强烈波动时,那些中央银行不得不买进疲软的货币,卖出坚挺的货币,以保持外汇市场稳定。 1989年,东西德统一后,德国经济强劲增长,德国马克坚挺,而1992年的英国处于经济不景气时期,英镑相对疲软。为了支持英镑,英国银行利率持续高升,但这样必然伤害了英国的利益,于是英国希望德国降低马克的利率以缓解英镑的压力,可是由于德国经济过热,德国希望以高利率政策来为经济降温。由于德国拒绝配合,英国在货币市场中持续下挫,尽管英、德两国联手抛售马克购进英镑,但仍无济于事。1992年9月,德国中央银行行长在《华尔街日报》上发表了一篇文章,文章中提到,欧洲货币体制的不稳定只有通过货币贬值才能解决。索罗斯预感到,德国人准备撤退了,马克不再支持英镑,于是他旗下的量子基金以5%的保证金方式大笔借贷英镑,购买马克。他的策略是:当英镑汇率未跌之前用英镑买马克,当英镑汇率暴跌后卖出一部分马克即可还掉当初借贷的英镑,剩下的就是净赚。在此次行动中,索罗斯的量子基金卖空了相当于70亿美元的英镑,买进了相当于60亿美元的马克,在一个多月时间内净赚15亿美元,而欧洲各国中央银行共计损伤了60亿美元,事件以英镑在1个月内汇率下挫20%而告终。 (2)亚洲金融风暴 1997年7月,量子基金大量卖空泰铢,迫使泰国放弃维持已久的与美元挂钩的固定汇率而实行自由浮动,从而引发了一场泰国金融市场前所未有的危机。之后危机很快波及到所有东南亚实行货币自由兑换的国家和地区,港元便成为亚洲最贵的货币。其后量子基金和老虎基金试图狙击港元,但香港金融管理局拥有大量外汇储备,加上当局大幅调高息率,使对冲基金的计划没有成功,但高息却使香港恒生指数急跌四成,对冲基金意识到同时卖空港元和港股期货,使息率急升,拖跨港股,就“必定”可以获利。1998年8月索罗斯联手多家巨型国际金融机构冲击香港汇市、股市和期市,以惨败告终。然而,香港政府却在1998年8月入市干预,令对冲基金同时在外汇市场和港股期货市场损手。 著名的对冲基金 对冲基金中最著名的莫过于乔治·索罗斯的量子基金及朱里安·罗伯逊的老虎基金,它们都曾创造过高达40%至50%的复合年度收益率。采取高风险的投资,为对冲基金可能带来高收益的同时也为对冲基金带来不可预估的损失。大规模的对冲基金不可能在变幻莫测的金融市场中永远处于不败之地。 关于量子基金 1969年量子基金的前身双鹰基金由乔治·索罗斯创立,注册资本为400万美元。1973年该基金改名为索罗斯基金,资本额跃升到1200万美元。索罗斯基金旗下有五个风格各异的对冲基金,而量子基金是最大的一个。1979年索罗斯再次把旗下的公司改名,正式命名为量子公司。之所谓取量子这个词语是源于海森堡的量子力学测不准原理,此定律与索罗斯的金融市场观相吻合。测不准定律认为:在量子力学中,要准确描述原子的运动是不可能的。而索罗斯认为:市场总是处在不确定和不停的波动状态,但通过明显的贴现,与不可预料因素下赌,赚钱是可能的。公司顺利的运转,得到超票面价格,是以股票的供给和要求为基础的。 量子基金的总部设立在纽约,但其出资人皆为非美国国籍的境外投资者,其目的是为了避开美国证券交易委员会的监管。量子基金投资于商品、外汇、股票和债券,并大量运用金融衍生产品和杠杆融资,从事全方位的国际性金融操作。凭借索罗斯出色的分析能力和胆识,量子基金在世界金融市场中逐渐成长壮大。由于索罗斯多次准确地预见到某个行业和公司的非同寻常的成长潜力,从而在这些股票的上升过程中获得超额收益。即使是在市场下滑的熊市中,索罗斯也以其精湛的卖空技巧而大赚其钱。至1997年末,量子基金已增值为资产总值近60亿美元。在1969年注入量子基金的1美元在1996年底已增值至3万美元,即增长了3万倍。 关于老虎基金 1980年著名经纪人朱利安·罗伯逊集资800万美元创立了自己的公司——老虎基金管理公司。1993年,老虎基金管理公司旗下的对冲基金——老虎基金攻击英镑、里拉成功,并在此次行动中获得巨大的收益,老虎基金从此名声鹊起,被众多投资者所追捧,老虎基金的资本此后迅速膨胀,最终成为美国最为显赫的对冲基金。 20世纪90年代中期后,老虎基金管理公司的业绩节节攀升,在股、汇市投资中同时取得不菲的业绩,公司的最高赢利(扣除管理费)达到32%,在1998年的夏天,其总资产达到230亿美元的高峰,一度成为美国最大的对冲基金。 1998年的下半年,老虎基金在一系列的投资中失误,从此走下坡路。1998年期间,俄罗斯金融危机后,日元对美元的汇价一度跌至147:1,出于预期该比价将跌至150日元以下,朱利安·罗伯逊命令旗下的老虎基金、美洲豹基金大量卖空日元,但日元却在日本经济没有任何好转的情况下,在两个月内急升到115日元,罗伯逊损失惨重。在有统计的单日(1998年10月7日)最大损失中,老虎基金便亏损了20亿美元,1998年的9月份及10月份,老虎基金在日元的投机上累计亏损近50亿美元。 1999年,罗伯逊重仓美国航空集团和废料管理公司的股票,可是两个商业巨头的股价却持续下跌,因此老虎基金再次被重创。 从1998年12月开始,近20亿美元的短期资金从美洲豹基金撤出,到1999年10月,总共有50亿美元的资金从老虎基金管理公司撤走,投资者的撤资使基金经理无法专注于长期投资,从而影响长期投资者的信心。因此,1999年10月6日,罗伯逊要求从2000年3月31日开始,旗下的"老虎"、"美洲狮"、"美洲豹"三只基金的赎回期改为半年一次,但到2000年3月31日,罗伯逊在老虎基金从230亿美元的巅峰跌落到65亿美元的不得已的情况宣布将结束旗下六只对冲基金的全部业务。老虎基金倒闭后对65亿美元的资产进行清盘,其中80%归还投资者,朱利安·罗伯逊个人留下15亿美元继续投资。 Microsoft v Google When clouds collide Feb 7th 2008 From The Economist print edition 微软对雅虎的出价不仅仅是关于线上广告业务。两块云的碰撞本是一件温和的事情,除非,是发生在在高科技产业的数字天空里。但是这样一个虚拟的碰撞,在你试图去理解为什么微软,这个世界上最大的软件公司为雅虎,一个处于危难中的在线巨头,开出44.6亿元的价格时成为意识中的一个绝佳反映。当计算机产业向在线方向发展,权利和金钱将逐渐地变成被评论家们称之的庞大的“计算机云”,操纵着整个英特网。雅虎的交易目的在于进一步膨胀微软这朵大云,使得他们至少能够跟他们最为危险的对手谷歌相比拟。 可以肯定的是,这将是英特网产业内自2000年AOL与Time Warner那次注定不幸的联合那次久远交易后的最大一次合并。就如经济学人所报道的,雅虎已经就议价作出了官方回应,而不说仍在考虑。事实上,它的管理层早先就曾拒绝过微软的提议,声称已经考虑过二选一的状况:被接收,或是出售一些部门甚至与谷歌达成一项联盟。一个能与之竞争的报价也是能被接受的,但是目前为止还没有人参与到这场与财大气粗的微软竞价的竞争中来。微软提供给雅虎每股31美元的价格,这个价格是微软提出收购价之前雅虎收盘价外附带62%的额外价格而得到的。此后将不可避免的面临的是一次垄断评估。如果微软设法吞下雅虎,那么它将迎来一次严重的消化不良,就像AOL和Time Warner(时代华纳)之间发生的那样。(本周,时代华纳的新总裁,Jeff Bewkes,说道他计划收缩AOL的网上商务)微软将不得不联合或者去除它与雅虎之间重叠的产品和服务。这也将会是一个文化问题。雅虎是一家在线媒体公司骄傲于它的娱乐风气,并且利用开源技术建立了自己的商务,于此同时微软吸引了许多性情固执的怪人从软件中获取利润。所以说联合了两家公司的基础技术,将会为未来省下钱来,这真是个狡猾的主意。 微软明白这一切,它仍然想买雅虎的事实相当于承认它需要一些帮助才能去赶超谷歌。后者因它的搜索引擎而闻名,但它同样是头一家通过提供在线服务联系起软件,硬件,数据和用户,并以此建立起一个庞大的计算机帝国。在谷歌大量的数据中心里,计算机就像一个个发电站,几十万台机器协同运作就好像一台一样。谷歌从网络和用户那里收集了大量的数据。并且它已经聘请了一大批杰出的工程师利用这些资源开发新的服务。 最重要的是,谷歌已经找出了一条盈利之道。通过推广它的服务,公司创造出了极大的广告空间,大部分源于一个依附在用户搜索结果旁的一个小小的文本框。这些是被拍卖的,竞拍者仅仅在用户点击了广告的情况下才像谷歌付款。 ——来自Claudio Munoz的描述 谷歌已经创造一个良性的循环。作为最大的搜索引擎,谷歌能吸引到更多的广告客户,所以能提供更加精准的广告服务。这使得他们能吸引更多的用户,同时广告客户也进一步增加,以此循环。 在最近几年里,微软力图建立另一个可与谷歌比拟的搜索领域。它在基础的建立上投入了大量的资金,已经在世界各地建立起了自己的数据中心。它也努力尝试赶上谷歌的服务,特别是在网络搜索方面。微软已经在屏幕广告??方面有了长足的进步,这是整个以搜索为基础的广告市场里的一个小的部分,微软希望这项业务能够快速发展。去年五月,就在谷歌买下屏幕广告的领头公司DoubleClick后,微软买下了在线广告代理商aQuantive。 然而,现在为之这一举动还没有显现出什么成效。在搜索领域,微软的全球市场在07年11份时仅占有2.9%的份额,与comScore公司相当,相比较之下谷歌占有62.4%的份额(雅虎12.8%)。微软的在线业务还没有开始盈利。最使公司管理者担忧的是谷歌已经在在线广告领域遥遥领先,并且有可能垄断这个决定性的市场,特别是当它与DoubleClick融合后。经过微软猛烈并带有恶意的游说,美国的管理者已经同意了微软的收购计划,他们的欧洲同盟们可能也在不久后表示认可。 微软提出的谷歌将因垄断而获利,它扮演了对抗软件巨头成功阻止反垄断的重要角色,然而极具讽刺的是这样的事实长期的存在于微软自身的操作系统上,没有一家公司能与微软的操作系统相抗衡。到目前为止,已经有如此多的软件被写成在Windows下运行,这导致有竞争力的操作系统很难进入这个市场。类似的,如果太多的出版人和广告客户采取谷歌的在线广告平台,竞争者将不能“可靠的与之竞争??”,在一份微软的内部文件中这样写道。 使DoubleClick摆脱谷歌掌握的计划已经失败了,微软寄希望于雅虎能让它不致在这场竞争中落得个灰飞烟灭。如果微软成功了,那么互联网的天空之上将笼罩起微软之云,尽管它没有谷歌的云彩那么庞大。合并后的公司网页每月将吸引290万美国用户——比谷歌还多一点,来自另一家搜索公司尼尔森在线的统计。合并后的Microsoft-Yahoo! 将占有18%的搜索市场和30%的屏幕广告市场,来自投资银行Oppenheimer的数据。 这次合并将给微软在其他领域带来巨大的影响。首先是基于网络的电子邮件,合并后的业务将占据80%的美国市场。它相当于支配了实时消息领域。雅虎同样提供许多其他的业务,像Flicker,微软将控制世界上最大注册用户群——其价值等同于它开发新的服务。
虽然如此,这项交易对谷歌而言可能是件好事,至少在短期而言。谷歌一定会尝试诱惑雅虎最好的员工。整合将转移微软管理层的重心并且花去大量时间。谷歌已经组织了一次游说活动来阻止这次合并,声称此举将破环英特网领域的改革——不管是微软还是雅虎近期内都没有做出任何革新。事实上,谷歌越是抱怨改革,而不是着手去做,越听起来像微软过去曾做过的。 February 11 Jan 31st 2008 From The Economist print edition 改革国际体制是一个令人心动的想法。但是理清国内的规章同样是重要的。GEORGE SOROS,一个拥有亿万资产的投资者,想要一个“新的行政长官”,一个国际的管理者来拯救“60年来最大的财政危机”。政客们躲在不远的后面。英国的Gordon Brown想要把IMF(国际货币基金组织)变成一个“预警机构”来阻止金融风暴的发生。法国的Nicolas Sarkozy(尼古拉斯。萨科奇)想强制给资本主义“下令”“因为有些时候有些事超出了控制”。在1月29日伦敦举办的一次高层会晤中,布朗,萨科奇以及一些欧洲政治巨头们共同要求银行提高透明度,并威胁建立新的规则除非信用评估机构改变他们的现有做法。 21世纪首个大的银行危机隆隆地向我们驶来,改革现有国际财政的呼声越来越高涨。因为资本市场的没有边界,政府修正草案和对市场的控制引发了大量的忧虑。国际金融在磋商中前进,而不能仅仅依靠Balkanised国内的疏忽。 这样的论调在曾经也被提到过。在十年以前,一次金融危机导致了从巴西到印度尼西亚市场被扫清的后果,同样的叫法——就像现在的声音一样——去重新规划世界金融市场的格局。一些老式的国际机构,像IMF,被认为是国际资本市场不合理的基础结构,可能会导致整体经济在几天内垮台。 一些伟大的提议正在激增。有些人希望IMF转化为能被最终依赖的国际领导人角色;另一些人希望废除它。有些人希望抑制国际资本的泛滥;另些人看到来自国外的能源市场银行正将一切向着更稳固的方向引导。近几年来,中央银行领导人和财政部长们的会议上已经将全球经济布局提上了他们的最高议程。 事实上,建议的结果是适度的。一些乐于助人的新团体被建立起来,像经济稳定论坛,一个来自财富和能源领域经济管理者的定期聚会,现在正在讨论如何从现实情景中吸取经验教训。IMF得到了新的工具和更多的专家来解决金融问题。新的关于宏观经济透明度和财政统计的标准已经被建立。但是仍缺少一个整体的系统重设解决国际资本泛滥与国家自订规则的共存。 ——引自Claudio Munoz 将他们自己的财产规整好 在那些面临危机的国家里,一个巨大的改变正在到来。通过采取浮动汇率一个能保护他们对抗反复的经济体系在1990年末的风暴中心中显现成型,这使得银行系统更加健壮,外部的债务被重组,并且建立起巨大的外汇储备。这些国内的改革比之新的全球规则更为有效,一个成长的市场已经被建立——至少目前为止——能够更有弹性的对抗金融混乱。 这是政治家们应该留意的一课。一个有效的全球管理制度的改变在于,任何事,如果比十年前同期低。现在问题的起源并不在于能被IMF摆布的发展中国家,而是一些更为富有的国家,特别是美国。美国有着不少独立,有自由意识的管理者和经济监督人。但美国的失败在于它试图把它高度分离的国家系统加载在几乎没有可能让其放弃实际权力的国际管理体系。 一个更加现实的目标是加强国家管理者之间的合作,并且鼓励他们在更多的领域采取公共标准。Basel条约在资本适当性为银行资本上制定了一个公共的台阶,这就是一个国家规则怎样才能靠近国际规则的例子。Basel委员会正确的看待为银行流动性而制定的规则。一个国际样板在其他的领域同样是有效的,比如说在评估混合债务的构成或是就信用代理系统最好尝试达成一致建议。 同样的,国家规则应当更加透明化。太多的监管人认为经济的不稳定在于国家内部团体之间,甚至某个大银行自身灾难引发的国际后果。 对于所有国际大公司的利益,虽然说最为重要的在这次危机中管理上的教训是由于内部的原因。美国在次贷监管中的失败被摆在了首位。在英国Northern Rock的倒闭同样极大的源于不适当的国家监管,一个过时的存款保险系统,英国财政制定者,金融服务权威,英格兰国家银行和国库之间的缺乏合作。如果任何政策制定者都去责备那么法国第二大银行Société Générale(应该是法国兴业银行)的灾难,那一定是法国人。 政客们与其常常为全球金融改革高唱挽歌,不如更多的面对自己国内的问题。如果十年前的教训有任何的启示的话,那将是国内经济体制改革的最伟大回归。 February 10 Jan 31st 2008 From The Economist print edition 伊朗的穆斯林领袖摆脱了核问题的麻烦,但仍存在可能将他们再次卷入。 WHO可能认为,一位由否认核灾难,在公共场合绞死青少年,用石刑处死妇女的领导人所统治的神权国家是不友好的,它可能导致美国和其欧洲同盟们的外交困境。但这恰恰是伊朗正在做的。之所这样做在很大程度上是因为美国间谍们一个不准确的目标,这帮间谍在无用的请报下导致了伊拉克战争。 不难假设,如果伊朗的决策者们拥有了炸弹的威胁,世界将陷于一片不愉快的惊讶。伊朗承诺说他们的核项目将完全用于和平用途,这一说法被广泛质疑。这就是中国,俄罗斯加入美英法德的联合国安全委员会试图阻止伊朗的铀浓缩试验。知道两个月之前,他们似乎准备采取一个第三方强硬制裁来解决伊朗问题。不过美国的情报机构又声称,直到现在历经五年费尽心机外交手段今天突然的得到了解决。 在伊拉克情报的大失败使得美国间谍们对于如何运用他们所得感到忧虑。这可能就是为什么他们和白宫会认为承认坦白是对的,在十一月的国家情报评估中,他们现在认为伊朗曾在五年前核研究方面的秘密工作。当事态发生,这样的说法并不为得到同样情报的以色列和其他美国同盟国们所相信。不过没关系,新闻头条足以让事实从外交的重重笼罩中显现出来。上个月在柏林,俄罗斯和中国明确了如何采取一个第三方解决方案,它将会是温和的谈判手腕,而不是另一轮的经济威胁。 与此同时,伊朗正试图在世界能源组织中寻找一个同盟。它的直接产生,源于一位诺贝尔和平奖获得者Mohamed ElBaradei,他曾经在华盛顿投身于一项运动通过帮助伊朗建立核设施挫败那些他所声称的“疯狂行径”,得到了一份干净的账单关于健康发展和避免另一次损失惨重战争的发生。 诚实的间谍,一个热爱和平的核问题监督人。会有什么错呢?答案是没有,除非间谍们的诚实被故意曲解,监督人没有履行好他们探查伊朗核活动的工作。 谢天谢地我们摆脱了麻烦 开心的像待在奶油堆里的猫,一队伊朗人员参加了一月举行的多哈世界经济论坛,他们要求一次双边的辩护。难道美国现在已经认可伊朗不再拥有武器项目了?为什么伊朗正要给IAEA的回答不是它需要“关闭”关于核问题的文件?这样的情况让伊朗的外交部长倍感欣慰,没有理由实施新的制裁了,甚至中国和俄罗斯所主张的温和政策也不需要了。 然而,伊朗的论调是荒谬的。尽管国家情报评估机构说伊朗在2003年可能中断了其核弹头研究,但它同时也说伊朗事实确凿的在此后有重启了此项研究,没有人知道它到底进行了多久。联合国的制裁目的不在于伊朗有没有秘密制造核弹头,而是它公开的做了什么,像公然挑衅联合国决议进行铀浓缩。伊朗说,他们需要核能来发电。但核能同样可以用做炸弹燃料。一旦一个国家能够制造这样的燃料,那么将它变成核弹头只是一件很简单的事情。 有些国家,是的,它们被允许自由的进行铀浓缩活动。之所以剥夺伊朗的这项“权利”,是由于伊朗在历史上曾有过欺骗举动,这使得核原子能机构断定其无法履行核安全的承诺。所以Mr ElBaradei期望结束这场对峙,那么首先解释这许许多多没有回答的问题是必须的。依然没有解开的制裁,一个在白宫的破产者,将真的使伊朗空手而归。 难道真的这么悲惨,狡猾的伊朗会逃脱核不扩散协议的制约?朝鲜曾退出条约,并在2006年进行了一次核弹测试。以色列从来没有加入过,低调地声称,它不会是头一个在所处区域内引进核武器的国家,但不会是第二个吗?印度和巴基斯坦,另外的两个旁观者,已经准备好了他们的材料。为什么要有更多的一方闯入扰乱这个聚会? 一个显而易见的危险是,一个核武装的伊朗,或者假设说一个有能力按照自己意愿武装自己的伊朗,可以引发一个连锁反应,使得沙特阿拉伯,埃及,叙利亚,甚至土耳其加速核进程。美国和苏维埃联盟,仅仅为他们自己的冷战担心,都有可能引发一场大灾难。增进中的中东对抗将引发级数增长的危机,一旦出现某个国家的误算,将引发可怕后果。 是时候采取一个B计划了 从某些方面来说,这样孤立的威胁证明在伊朗能够生产令人害怕的核武器之前打击其核计划是次要的。但是一旦伊朗倾向于拥有核武器,事先制止是一个更好的选择。布什已经声称美国将使以色列远离伤害。通过扩大它的保护伞,美国可能在中东区域处于临界点之前抑制区域各国之间的对抗。 更好的情况是,避免一个核化的伊朗。布什称外交手段仍能做到这一点。很难预测将怎么做。但是他有一项锦囊妙计:提供一次隆重的讨价还价解决美伊之间的分歧,从伊拉克的未来到中东的安全进程。迄今为止,伊拉克领导人通过指出其共同的枢纽伊朗首先暂停它的铀浓缩活动,表示已经接受美国的协商建议“在任何时候,在任何地点”关于“任何事情”。不可思议的是,对美国来说最好的方式向伊朗统治者施压就是让那个领导人下台。 这似乎需要一个时限不然伊朗可以轻易地在不经意之间富裕起来,就像得到世界的恩赐祝福一样。同样的俄罗斯和中国需要一个协议采取更严厉的制裁来帮助集中观点。伊朗领导人可能仍然会说不。但什叶派领导人有必要向伊朗大众解释为什么他们要付出高昂的代价为了维持一个信念不进行谈话放弃当前的繁荣,并使用多余的技术来创造使灯亮起来的能源。如果伊朗领导人不能被劝服,那么他们可能因他们的核弹计划而陷入窘境。 February 05 释义:① 一场发生在美国,因次级抵押贷款机构破产、投资基金被迫关闭、股市剧烈震荡引起的风暴。②致使全球主要金融市场隐约出现流动性不足危机,2007年8月席卷美国、欧盟和日本等世界主要金融市场。 典故:引起美国次级抵押贷款市场风暴的直接原因是美国的利率上升和住房市场持续降温。次级抵押贷款是指一些贷款机构向信用程度较差和收入不高的借款人提供的贷款。 例句:次贷危机重创全球股市,中国能否独善其身? 关联词:信用体系 抵押贷款 次级房贷危机(subprime lending crisis) 1.次贷危机的概念 次贷危机:利息上升,导致还款压力增大,很多本来信用不好的用户感觉还款压力大,出现违约的可能,对银行贷款的收回造成影响的危机。 美国“次贷危机”是从2006年春季开始逐步显现的。美国次级抵押贷款市场通常采用固定利率和浮动利率相结合的还款方式,即购房者在购房后头几年以固定利率偿还贷款,其后以浮动利率偿还贷款。在2006年之前的5年里,由于美国住房市场持续繁荣,加上前几年美国利率水平较低,美国的次级抵押贷款市场迅速发展。随着美国住房市场的降温尤其是短期利率的提高,次级抵押贷款的还款利率也大幅上升,购房者的还贷负担大为加重。同时,住房市场的持续降温也使购房者出售住房或者通过抵押住房再融资变得困难。这种局面直接导致大批次级抵押贷款的借款人不能按期偿还贷款,进而引发“次贷危机”。 2.次贷危机的爆发 2007年2月13日美国新世纪金融公司(New Century Finance)发出2006年第四季度盈利预警。 汇丰控股为在美次级房贷业务增加18亿美元坏账拨备。 面对来自华尔街174亿美元逼债,作为美国第二大次级抵押贷款公司——新世纪金融(New Century Financial Corp)在4月2日宣布申请破产保护、裁减54%的员工。 8月2日,德国工业银行宣布盈利预警,后来更估计出现了82亿欧元的亏损,因为旗下的一个规模为127亿欧元为“莱茵兰基金”(Rhineland Funding)以及银行本身少量的参与了美国房地产次级抵押贷款市场业务而遭到巨大损失。德国央行召集全国银行同业商讨拯救德国工业银行的篮子计划。 美国第十大抵押贷款机构——美国住房抵押贷款投资公司8月6日正式向法院申请破产保护,成为继新世纪金融公司之后美国又一家申请破产的大型抵押贷款机构。 8月8日,美国第五大投行贝尔斯登宣布旗下两支基金倒闭,原因同样是由于次贷风暴。 8月9日,法国第一大银行巴黎银行宣布冻结旗下三支基金,同样是因为投资了美国次贷债券而蒙受巨大损失。此举导致欧洲股市重挫。 8月13日,日本第二大银行瑞穗银行的母公司瑞穗集团宣布与美国次贷相关损失为6亿日元。日、韩银行已因美国次级房贷风暴产生损失。据瑞银证券日本公司的估计,日本九大银行持有美国次级房贷担保证券已超过一万亿日元。此外,包括Woori在内的五家韩国银行总计投资5.65亿美元的担保债权凭证(CDO)。投资者担心美国次贷问题会对全球金融市场带来强大冲击。不过日本分析师深信日本各银行投资的担保债权凭证绝大多数为最高信用评等,次贷危机影响有限。 其后花期集团也宣布,7月份有次贷引起的损失达7亿美元,不过对于一个年盈利200亿美元的金融集团,这个也只是小数目。 3.次贷危机的发展 2007年4月,全美第二大次级抵押贷款机构——新世纪金融申请破产保护,成为美国地产业低迷时期最大的一宗抵押贷款机构破产案。 6月,美国第五大投资银行贝尔斯登公司旗下两只基金,传出因涉足次级抵押贷款债券市场出现亏损的消息。 7月,标普和穆迪两家信用评级机构分别下调了612种和399种抵押贷款债券的信用等级。 8月,为了防止美国次级抵押贷款市场危机引发严重的金融市场动荡,美联储、欧洲央行、日本央行和澳大利亚央行等向市场注入资金。 9月,英国第五大抵押贷款机构诺森罗克银行,因美国次级住房抵押贷款危机出现融资困难,该银行遭遇挤兑风潮。 10月,美林证券财报称,第三季度由于在次贷相关领域遭受约80亿美元损失。美林证券CEO斯坦·奥尼尔随后辞职。 11月,阿联酋主权基金阿布扎比投资管理局将投资75亿美元购入花旗集团4.9%的股份,花旗因次贷事件受到重创。 12月,美国财政部表示,美国政府已经与抵押贷款机构就冻结部分抵押贷款利率达成协议,超过200多万的借款人的“初始”利率有望被冻结5年。 12月,美、欧、英、加、瑞士央行宣布,将联手向短期拆借市场注资,以缓解全球性信贷紧缩问题。 4.次贷危机的影响 美国“次贷危机”的影响范围将有多广?这是目前世界经济界和金融界密切关注的问题。从其直接影响来看,首先受到冲击的是众多收入不高的购房者。由于无力偿还贷款,他们将面临住房被银行收回的困难局面。其次,今后会有更多的次级抵押贷款机构由于收不回贷款遭受严重损失,甚至被迫申请破产保护。最后,由于美国和欧洲的许多投资基金买入了大量由次级抵押贷款衍生出来的证券投资产品,它们也将受到重创。 这场危机无疑给国内金融业带来了不少启示。在金融创新、房贷市场发展和金融监管等方面———美国次贷风波爆发以来,无论从全球资本市场的波动还是美国实体经济的变化来看,次贷之殇在美国乃至全球范围内都不容小觑。对于中国来说,这场风波为我们敲响了居安思危的警钟。 美国次贷风波中首当其冲遭遇打击的就是银行业,重视住房抵押贷款背后隐藏的风险是当前中国商业银行特别应该关注的问题。在房地产市场整体上升的时期,住房抵押贷款对商业银行而言是优质资产,贷款收益率相对较高、违约率较低、一旦出现违约还可以通过拍卖抵押房地产获得补偿。目前房地产抵押贷款在中国商业银行的资产中占有相当大比重,也是贷款收入的主要来源之一。根据新巴塞尔资本协议,商业银行为房地产抵押贷款计提的风险拨备是较低的。然而一旦房地产市场价格普遍下降和抵押贷款利率上升的局面同时出现,购房者还款违约率将会大幅上升,拍卖后的房地产价值可能低于抵押贷款的本息总额甚至本金,这将导致商业银行的坏账比率显著上升,对商业银行的盈利性和资本充足率造成冲击。然中国房地产市场近期内出现价格普遍下降的可能性不大,但是从长远看银行系统抵押贷款发放风险亦不可忽视,必须在现阶段实施严格的贷款条件和贷款审核制度。 事实上,本次美国次贷危机的源头就是美国房地产金融机构在市场繁荣时期放松了贷款条件,推出了前松后紧的贷款产品。中国商业银行应该充分重视美国次贷危机的教训,第一应该严格保证首付政策的执行,适度提高贷款首付的比率,杜绝出现零首付的现象;第二应该采取严格的贷前信用审核,避免出现虚假按揭的现象。 在次贷风波爆发之前,美国经济已经在高增长率、低通胀率和低失业率的平台上运行了5年多,有关美国房市“高烧不退”的话题更是持续数年。中国与美国房市降温前的经济图景存在一定相似性。 本次美国次贷危机的最大警示在于,要警惕为应对经济周期而制订的宏观调控政策对某个特定市场造成的冲击。导致美国次贷危机的根本原因在于美联储加息导致房地产市场下滑。当前中国面临着通货膨胀加速的情况,如果央行为了遏制通胀压力而采取大幅提高人民币贷款利率的对策,那么就应该警惕两方面影响:第一是贷款收紧对房地产开发企业的影响,这可能造成开发商资金断裂;第二是还款压力提高对抵押贷款申请者的影响,可能造成抵押贷款违约率上升。而这两方面的影响都最终会汇集到商业银行系统,造成商业银行不良贷款率上升、作为抵押品的房地产价值下降,最终影响到商业银行的盈利性甚至生存能力。 人们需要认识中国和美国经济周期以及房市周期的差异性。美国是一个处于全球体系之下的有着悠久市场经济历史的国家,周期性很强,目前正处于本轮经济周期的繁荣后期。 中国则还没有经历过一个完整的经济周期,即使从改革开放算起到现在也只有30年的历程,从1992、1993年提出市场经济到现在更是只有15年历史。处于这一阶段,中国经济的关键词是供需不平衡,固定投资需求大。这是区别于美国经济接近10年一个周期的重点所在;此外,中美房市的周期也有所不同。中国实施房改后,结束了此前多年无住房市场的局面,需求大幅飙升。虽然中国房市也存在投机因素的推动,但需求大而供给有限是促使房价走高的最重要原因。而且,对于中国房市,政府有调控余地。 本次美国次贷危机也给中国宏观调控提出了启示。主要有三方面:第一,有必要把资产价格纳入中央银行实施货币政策时的监测对象。因为一旦资产价格通过财富效应或者其他渠道最终影响到总需求或总供给,就会对通货膨胀率产生影响。即使是实施通货膨胀目标制的中央银行,也很有必要把资产价格的涨落作为制订货币政策的重要参考;第二,进行宏观调控时必须综合考虑调控政策可能产生的负面影响。例如美联储连续加息时,可能对房地产市场因此而承担的压力重视不够;第三,政府不要轻易对危机提供救援。危机是对盲目投资和盲目多元化行为的惩罚,如果政府对这种行为提供救援,将会导致道德风险的滋生。本次发达国家中央银行在市场上联手注资,可能会催生下一个泡沫。 February 01
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私募又称不公开发行或内部发行.是指面向少数特定的投资人发行证券的方式。私募发行的对象大致有两类,一类是个人投资者,例如公司老股东或发行机构自己的员工;另一类是机构投资者、如大的金融机构或与发行人有密切往来关系的企业等。私募发行有确定的投资人,发行手续简单,可以节省发行时间和费用。私募发行的不足之处是投资者数量有限,流通性较差,而已也不利于提高发行人的社会信誉。
私募基金,是指通过非公开方式,面向少数机构投资者募集资金而设立的基金。由于私募基金的销售和赎回都是通过基金管理人与投资者私下协商来进行的,因此它又被称为向特定对象募集的基金。
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