经济学人

[2009.04.16]American banks 美国银行

American banks 美国银行

Payback time还债赎身

Apr 16th 2009 200年4月16日

From The Economist print edition 摘自《经济学人》印刷版

Goldman Sachs and other banks want to pay back bail-out cash. But the banking system is not in the clear yet

高盛投资公司及其它一些银行希望偿还政府救济资金。但银行业并非已脱离困境。

USING taxpayers’ funds to prop up America’s banking system was a necessary evil. So in many ways it is welcome that some banks now want to repay the money. On April 14th, six months after getting $10 billion from the Treasury, Goldman Sachs sold $5 billion of new shares with that in mind.

用纳税人的钱来支持美国的银行业本就是一件迫不得已的事。因此从许多方面来说，现在一些银行希望偿还这些钱是受欢迎的。在四月十四号，即从财政部获取一百亿救济金六个月之后，高盛投资公司抛售了价值五十亿的新股用于还债。

It is easy to see why. Some banks, including Goldman, say that back in October they had enough capital and took part in the bail-out only to show solidarity with the government’s plan. Since then they have been excoriated by Congress and now face restrictions, mainly on pay but also on hiring foreigners, that Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s boss, says “limit our ability to compete”. Meanwhile banks’ shares have soared on optimism about their profits. Goldman says that repayment is a “duty”. But who wants to rely on livid voters and banker-bashing politicians when private cash is available?

其中缘由显而易见。一些银行（包括高盛）称，早在十月份他们就有充足的资金而参加政府救助计划只是为了声援政府救市方案。自那以后他们就一直受到国会非难而如今还要面临诸多限制。这些限制除薪酬问题外还包括聘用外籍员工方面。正如高盛老板劳埃德.布兰克费恩说，“那将限制我们的竞争力 ”.同时银行的股票已出现上涨，他们对利润收益颇为乐观。高盛称还债是“义务”。想想，当有私人资金可以利用时谁还想依靠满脸愠色的选民和欺压银行的政客？