有一篇阅读的原文及翻译，来自eco

xuzhanghong

Banks and accounting standards
银行与会计准则

Messenger, shot
通风报信者，枪毙

Apr 8th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Accounting rules are under attack. Standard-setters should defend them. Politicians and banks should back off
会计规则正在遭受攻击，标准制定者们应当捍卫它，政客与银行应当退开



IN PUBLIC, bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles. Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters. Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it’s just not fair. These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch. Unfortunately, banks’ lobbying now seems to be working. The details may be arcane, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised. And, unless banks carry toxic assets at prices that attract buyers, reviving the banking system will be difficult.

台面上，银行家们将他们的麻烦归咎于己身，台面下，他们一直把目标对准他人：会计准则制定者。银行业抱怨会计规则迫使他们报告巨大损失，认为这不公平。规则规定他们必须以第三方付出价格来评估部分资产的价值，而非按照管理者和监管者期望该资产能够获得的价格。不幸的是，银行的游说活动看来已显成效。其中细节可能无法获知，但是准则制定者在独立性方面——这正是资产市场正常运行的关键——已经做出妥协了。银行如果不以能够吸引买家的价格计量有毒资产，银行系统的复苏将会非常困难。

On April 2nd, after a bruising encounter with Congress, America’s Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rushed through rule changes. These gave banks more freedom to use models to value illiquid assets and more flexibility in recognising losses on long-term assets in their income statements. Bob Herz, the FASB’s chairman, decried those who “impugn our motives”. Yet bank shares rose and the changes enhance what one lobbying group politely calls “the use of judgment by management”.

4月2日，美国FASB（财务会计准则委员会）在与国会激烈摩擦之后，匆匆通过了规则的修改。这些修改使得银行在使用模型评估非流动资方面用有更大的自由，同时使得它们确认收益表中长期资产损失时更为灵活。FASB主席Bob Herz（鲍伯•赫茨）指责那些“怀疑我们的动机”的人们。然而银行股票上涨了，这些修改也使得被一个游说团体客气地称为“管理层自由衡量”的现象更为凸显。

European ministers instantly demanded that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) do likewise. The IASB says it does not want to be “piecemeal”, but the pressure to fold when it completes its overhaul of rules later this year is strong. On April 1st Charlie McCreevy, a European commissioner, warned the IASB that it did “not live in a political vacuum” but “in the real world” and that Europe could yet develop different rules.

欧洲的部长们立刻要求国际会计准则委员会(IASB)也这么做。IASB表示它不想变得“支离破碎”，但试图让它在今年下半年完成规则修订时屈服的压力十分巨大。4月1日，欧洲委员会委员Charlie McCreevy警告IASB说：它不是“处在政治真空中”而是“在现实世界里”，并表示欧洲可能最终会发展出不同的会计规则。

It was banks that were on the wrong planet, with accounts that vastly overvalued assets. Today they argue that market prices overstate losses, because they largely reflect the temporary illiquidity of markets, not the likely extent of bad debts. The truth will not be known for years. But banks’ shares trade below their book value, suggesting that investors are sceptical. And dead markets partly reflect the paralysis of banks which will not sell assets for fear of booking losses, yet are reluctant to buy all those supposed bargains.

是银行待错了星球，它们的账目上充斥着估值过高的资产。现在他们争论道市价高估了损失，因为市价主要反映了市场的暂时性流动性不足，而非坏账的可能范围。几年中没人会知道真相。但是，银行股票以低于账面价值的价格交易，这一点反应了投资者的怀疑。死寂的市场一定程度上反应了瘫痪的银行既不希望承受账面损失而出售资产，也不愿意去购买这些被认为是便宜货的资产。

To get the system working again, losses must be recognised and dealt with. Japan’s procrastination prolonged its crisis. America’s new plan to buy up toxic assets will not work unless banks mark assets to levels which buyers find attractive. Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters. The FASB and IASB have been exactly that, cleaning up rules on stock options and pensions, for example, against hostility from special interests. But by appeasing critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.

为了让银行系统重新运转起来，损失必须被确认和处理。日本的拖延使得它的危机持续了更长时间。美国收购有毒资产的新计划只有在银行将资产定价在足够吸引买家的水平上才会有效。成熟的市场需要独立的，甚至是好斗的标准制定者。FASB和IASB以往正是这样对抗特殊利益集团的敌意的，例如改进股权和年金的相关规则。然而此次为了缓和危机，他们给自己带来了做出更多妥协的压力。

xl04230262

说实话 看汉语都有点蒙

lefteye

原帖由 xl04230262 于 2010-1-13 13:30 发表
说实话 看汉语都有点蒙

你自己出的题还蒙啊？

马甲也禁言

原帖由 xl04230262 于 2010-1-13 13:30 发表
说实话 看汉语都有点蒙

你这个头像比较欠扁！

shadowymoon

哎，汉语的都看不懂，怪不得做不对题。我原谅我自己了。。。。。。

xl04230262

eeeeeeeeeeeeeee