VOA慢速英语2009-Economics Report - Obama's Financial Rescue Plan

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

In Washington this week, Treasury¹ Secretary Tim Geithner announced new steps to rebuild trust in financial markets and restart the flow of credit. The plan, separate from President Barack Obama's economic recovery legislation, could total two trillion dollars.
　
Traders at the New York Stock Exchange as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announces the Financial Stability Plan

But Secretary Geithner gave few details of the plan to rescue banks. Investors² quickly reacted. Stock markets fell almost five percent after he spoke³ Tuesday. Financial stocks lost the most.

Some lawmakers criticized the lack of details. Others said the plan was too big. But the secretary called for aggressive action, saying there was more risk in taking small steps.

For banks that need more capital, the plan calls for private investors or the government to provide it. But first, major banks will face a "stress test," a careful examination of their health.

Another step is to create a Public-Private Investment Fund. This will use government and private money to buy housing loans and other troubled assets that financial companies are unable to sell.

The fund may reach one trillion dollars in financing, but start with half that. The idea is to use private capital and private asset managers to help set a market value for the securities. Exactly how is not clear yet.

A third step is to increase the availability of credit for individuals and businesses. Tim Geithner says the government is prepared with up to one trillion dollars to rebuild the market for loan-based securities.

TIM GEITHNER: "Roughly forty percent of consumer lending has typically been made available because people buy loans, put them together and sell them. And because this vital source of lending has frozen up, no financial recovery plan will be successful unless it helps restart securitization markets."

The new lending program will build on one announced last November by the Federal Reserve. And it will expand to markets for small businesses and products like student and auto⁴ loans.

In the next few weeks, the administration is expected to announce details of a plan for the housing crisis. But the Treasury secretary has promised fifty billion dollars to help people keep their homes. The money is to come from the second half of the seven hundred billion in TARP funds.

TARP was the Bush administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Obama program is called the Financial Stability Plan. It continues some of last year's measures. But TARP was criticized on supervision⁵. The new administration says it will hold banks responsible for how they use taxpayers⁶' money, and will report details on a Web site.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

1 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

6 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。