TED演讲:银行是如何被掏空的(1)

 TED演讲(MP3+双语字幕) 第7期:银行是如何被掏空的(1)So today's top chef class is in how to rob a bank, and it's clear that the general public needs guidance, because the average bank robbery nets. 今天的“顶级大厨”寓教于食，揭秘怎么抢银行，显然，大众对这个外行。 因为一般的劫匪抢一次银行.

Only 7,500 dollars, Rank amateurs who know nothing about how to cook the books.  平均只能抢到区区7500刀，这是完全不懂做假帐的业余会计的水平。

The folks who know, of course, run our largest banks,and in the last go-around,they cost us over 11 trillion dollars.  当然，懂行的专业人士全是大银行的头头们，上次他们出手，我们损失11万亿刀。

That's what 11 trillion looks like. That's how many zeros? And cost us over 10 million jobs as well.  11万亿看起来是酱紫的。数数多少个0？还让我们损失1000万个工作岗位。

So our task is to educate ourselves so that we can understand why we have these recurrent,intensifying financial crises,and how we can prevent them in the future. 所以我们的当务之急是好好学习，长长见识，搞清楚金融危机一再出现并且愈演愈烈的原因，以及未来如何防范。

And the answer to that is that we have to stop epidemics¹ of control fraud. 答案就是我们需要制止大面积的管理欺诈行为。

Control fraud is what happens when the people who control,typically a CEO,a seemingly legitimate² entity,use it as a weapon to defraud³.  何为管理欺诈？管理人员，通常是CEO在管理一个貌似合法的金融机构时，把这个机构当成武器来使，搞诈骗。

And these are the weapons of mass destruction in the financial world.  这些算是金融界的大规模杀伤性武器。

They also follow in finance a particular strategy,because the weapon of choice in finance is accounting⁴,and there is a recipe for accounting control fraud, and how it occurs.  在金融领域，他们还采取一种特定的策略，因为他们所使用的武器是会计，这是金融领域的不二之选。会计管理欺诈行为及其发生都有固定的“套路”。

And we discovered this recipe in quite an odd way that I'll come back to in a moment.  我们发现这一点也是不期而然。我稍后再谈。

First ingredient in the recipe: grow like crazy;  这一套路不可缺少的“原料”：首先是疯狂地膨胀扩张。

Second, by making or buying really crappy loans, but loans that are made at a very high interest rate or yield;  其次是放出或者购买“垃圾贷款”，不过这种贷款的利率或者收益非常之高。

Three, while employing extreme leverage⁵ that just means a lot of debt compared to your equity⁶; 第三，大肆利用金融杠杆，也就是相对于资产而言不成比例的大量债务。

And four, while providing only trivial loss reserves against the inevitable⁷ losses. 第四，为应对必然发生的坏账提供少之又少的准备金。

If you follow those four simple steps,and any bank can follow them,then you are mathematically guaranteed to have three things occur. 只要遵循这四个简单的步骤，任何银行都做得到，就会确定无疑地出现以下三种情况。

The first thing is you will report record bank profits not just high, record. 第一，银行的账面利润将会是史无前例的高不是一般的高，是史无前例的高。

Two, the CEO will immediately be made incredibly wealthy by modern executive compensation. 第二，鉴于现代的高管薪酬结构，CEO会一夜暴富。

And three, farther down the road,the bank will suffer catastrophic losses and will fail unless it is bailed⁸ out. 第三，长此以往银行就会遭受巨额损失，除非获得救助，不然就将倒闭。

And that's a hint as to how we discovered this recipe,because we discovered it through an autopsy⁹ process.  因为我们对整个流程进行了“解剖”。顺藤摸瓜我们才发现了这个固定的套路。

1 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

2 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

3 defraud   

vt.欺骗，欺诈

参考例句：

• He passed himself off as the managing director to defraud the bank.他假冒总经理的名义诈骗银行。
• He is implicated in the scheme to defraud the government.他卷入了这起欺骗政府的阴谋。

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

6 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

7 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

8 bailed   

保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Fortunately the pilot bailed out before the plane crashed. 飞机坠毁之前，驾驶员幸运地跳伞了。
• Some water had been shipped and the cook bailed it out. 船里进了些水，厨师把水舀了出去。

9 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。