2019年考研英语一阅读 Text 1 原文翻译及答案解析

Financial regulators in Britain have imposed a rather unusual rule on the bosses of big banks. Starting next year, any guaranteed bonus of top executives could be delayed 10 years if their banks are under investigation for wrongdoing. The main purpose of this "clawback" rule is to hold bankers accountable for harmful risk-taking and to restore public trust in financial institutions. Yet officials also hope for a much larger benefit: more long-term decisionmaking, not only by banks but by all corporations, to build a stronger economy for future generations.

英国金融监管机构对大型银行的高管实施了一项相当不寻常的规定。从明年开始，如果银行因不当行为受到调查，任何高管的保底奖金可能会被延迟10年支付。这项“追回”规则的主要目的是让银行家对有害的风险承担负责，并恢复公众对金融机构的信任。然而，官员们还希望实现一个更大的好处：更多的长期决策，不仅由银行，还有所有公司，为子孙后代建设更强的经济。

"Short-termism" or the desire for quick profits, has worsened in publicly traded companies, says the Bank of England's top economist, Andrew Haldane. He quotes a giant of classical economics, Alfred Marshall, in describing this financial impatience as acting like "children who pick the plums out of their pudding to eat them at once" rather than putting them aside to be eaten last.

“短期主义”或追求快速利润的欲望，在上市公司中日益恶化，英格兰银行的首席经济学家安德鲁·霍尔丹表示。他引用古典经济学巨匠阿尔弗雷德·马歇尔的话，将这种金融急躁形容为“像孩子从布丁里挑出梅子立刻吃掉”，而不是留到最后吃。

The average time for holding a stock in both the United States and Britain, he notes, has dropped from seven years to seven months in recent decades. Transient investors, who demand high quarterly profits from companies, can hinder a firm's efforts to invest in long-term research or to build up customer loyalty. This has been dubbed "quarterly capitalism."

他指出，在美国和英国，持有股票的平均时间在近几十年里从七年下降到七个月。要求公司提供高季度利润的短期投资者，可能会阻碍公司投资于长期研究或建立客户忠诚度的努力。这被称为“季度资本主义”。

In addition, new digital technologies have allowed more rapid trading of equities, quicker use of information, and thus shorter attention spans in financial markets. "There seems to be a predominance of short-term thinking at the expense of long­ term investing," said Commissioner Daniel Gallagher of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a speech this week.

此外，新的数字技术使得股票交易更迅速、信息使用更加快捷，从而在金融市场中导致注意力跨度缩短。“似乎短期思维占主导地位，牺牲了长期投资，”美国证券交易委员会委员丹尼尔·加拉格尔在本周的一次演讲中说。

In the US, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2 0 0 2 has pushed most public companies to defer performance bonuses for senior executives by about a year, slightly helping reduce "short-termism." In its latest survey of CEO pay, The Wall Street Journal finds that "a substantial part" of executive pay is now tied to performance.

在美国，《2002年萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》已促使大多数上市公司将高管绩效奖金延迟约一年，略微有助于减少“短期主义”。在最近对首席执行官薪酬的调查中，《华尔街日报》发现高管薪酬的“相当一部分”现在与绩效挂钩。

Much more could be done to encourage "long-termism," such as changes in the tax code and quicker disclosure of stock acquisitions. In France, shareholders who hold onto a company investment for at least two years can sometimes earn more voting rights in a company.

可以采取更多措施来鼓励“长期主义”，例如修改税法和更快地披露股票收购。在法国，持有公司投资至少两年的股东有时可以在公司中获得更多投票权。

Within companies, the right compensation design can provide incentives for executives to think beyond their own time at the company and on behalf of all stakeholders. Britain's new rule is a reminder to bankers that society has an interest in their performance, not just for the short term but for the long term.

在公司内部，合理的薪酬设计可以激励高管超越自己在公司的时间思考，并代表所有利益相关者的利益。英国的新规则提醒银行家，社会对他们的表现感兴趣，不仅仅是短期，还有长期。