Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke Tuesday told a congressional panel that the economy is in the midst of a severe contraction, but that there is a chance of turnaround later this year.
美国联邦储备委员会主席伯南克星期二告诉一个国会小组，美国经济正处于一个严重的收缩期间，不过在今年晚些时候有可能会好转。
Bernanke made clear that a recovery will not take hold until the financial system has been stabilized.
伯南克明确地指出，除非金融系统能够稳定下来，否则经济复苏是不可能的。
"If we're going to have a strong recovery it's got to be on the back of a stabilization of the financial system," he said. "It's basically black and white. If we stabilize the financial system adequately we'll get a reasonable recovery....it might take some time. If we don't stabilize the financial system we're going to founder for some time."
他说：“如果我们要有强健的复苏，那必须要在金融系统能够稳定下来的情形下才会发生。如果我们能够适当地将金融制度稳定下来，我们就能够取得合理的复苏......它可能需要一些时间。如果我们不能稳定金融制度，我们可能会失败一段时间。”
Weakness in the U.S. financial sector - specifically bad loans in the sub-prime mortgage market-triggered the credit squeeze that began in 2007 that subsequently evolved into a global financial crisis and worldwide recession. U.S. banks have been significantly weakened and their share prices remain severely depressed-in some cases down 80 percent in the past year.
美国金融行业的疲软，特别是房屋市场的次级抵押贷款引发了2007年开始的信贷紧缩，并由此发展成一场全球性金融危机和世界范围的经济衰退。美国银行受到极大削弱，过去一年它们的股票价格持续大幅度下降，某些情况下跌幅达到80%。
There is great uncertainty as to what will happen to the biggest banks. Bernanke would not say whether he thought the banks would be nationalized but he did reveal some details of the stress test that will be given to the 19 biggest U.S. banks.
有关几个最大规模银行的前途目前还不清楚。伯南克不愿意透露他是否认为这些银行会被国有化，不过他透露了要给美国19家最大的银行进行压力测试的细节。
"The purpose of the test is to try to insure that even in a bad scenario banks will have enough capital, including enough common equity, to meet their obligations to lend," he said.
伯南克说：“测试的目的是要确保，即使在不好的情况下，银行也有足够的资本金来完成提供贷款的义务，包括足够的普通股本。”
Bernanke said that despite the current emergency in which the United States is greatly expanding its fiscal deficit, he believes U.S. securities (debt) remain attractive to foreign purchasers.
伯南克说，尽管在目前紧急的情况下，美国的财政赤字目前正在急剧扩大，但是他相信美国的政府债券仍然对外国投资者具有吸引力。 |