VOA慢速英语:Debt, Recession Worries Bring Volatility to World Markets

A "rollercoaster ride" is one description for these days of scary ups and downs in financial markets. If you want to use a more technical term, the markets are showing volatility.
 “过山车”是一个用来形容金融市场的暴涨暴跌的词语。如果你想用更加学术性的词语，那就是金融市场出现了大幅波动。

Thursday was another example of a day of strong gains on the New York Stock Exchange after a day of heavy losses.
纽约证券交易所在经历了前一天的重挫之后在周四又大幅上涨。

Major measures of United States markets have closed with their biggest one-day losses since the financial crisis of two thousand eight. Asia and Europe have also had sharp declines.
美国市场的主要指数收盘时的跌幅已经接近2008年金融危机以来的最大单日跌幅。亚洲和欧洲的股市也出现大幅下跌。

Volatile markets can react suddenly in wild and uNPRedictable ways. Usually some kind of shock, or more than one, is involved.
动荡的市场会突然以疯狂的，不可预知的方式表现出来。通常是不只一次的震荡。

For example, last Friday, one of the three major credit rating agencies downgraded long-term United States government debt. Standard & Poor’s lowered its opinion of Treasury securities one step from the highest rating, triple-A, to AA-plus.
例如，上周五，三大主要的信誉评级机构中的一家降低了美国长期国债的评级。标准普尔将美国国库券的等级从AAA下调到AA+。

But shocks like a hopeful jobs report or good earnings results can stop a fall and send prices higher. Also, when prices fall, investors may find good deals and start buying.
但是，充满希望的就业报告或收入水平提高等消息会止住了股市的下跌，甚至会使股价上涨。另外,当股价下跌时,投资者们会发现投资价值而开始购买.

The United States held S&P's top rating for seventy years and never had a downgrade. But many investors were expecting that to happen even after the budget deal in Washington. Congress last week agreed to increase the government's borrowing limit in return for steps to cut spending and reduce the deficit.
美国70年来一直被标准普尔评为最高级，从来没有降级。尽管华盛顿已经达成了预算协议，但是许多投资者仍然认为美国的债务信誉等级会下降。美国国会上周同意提高政府借款限额，以削减开支和减少赤字作为交换。

S&P says it thinks America's debt will only increase in the future. President Obama disagreed.
标准普尔称美国的债务在未来只会增加。奥巴马总统并不同意该说法。

BARACK OBAMA: "The fact is, we didn't need a rating agency to tell us that we need a balanced, long-term approach to deficit reduction.  That was true last week, that was true last year, that was true the day I took office."
奥巴马：“事实是，我们不需要评级机构告诉我们，我们需要平衡的，长期的方法来减少赤字。这一点在上周是正确的，在去年是正确的，在我刚刚执政的那一天也是正确的。”

He said this week that markets still consider United States credit "as among the world’s safest."
他说，本周市场仍然认为美国的信誉是“全世界最安全的”。

Still, there are growing worries of another recession -- a double dip. On Tuesday, policy makers at the central bank said economic growth so far this year has been "considerably slower" than they had expected. The Federal Reserve said it would likely keep short-term interest rates near zero for at least two more years.
不过，人们日益担心另一次的经济衰退——二次探底。周二，中央银行的政策制定者称，迄今为止今年的经济增长比他们预期“较为缓慢”。 美联储表示，他们可能会在至少两年之内保持长期利率接近零的水平。

Borrowing costs for the United States remain very low. But debt worries in two of Europe's biggest economies have increased costs for their governments in recent weeks.
美国的借贷成本仍然很低。但是对欧洲两个最大的经济体的担忧导致欧洲政府近几周来的借款成本增加。

On Monday the European Central Bank began buying debt securities from Spain and Italy. These efforts have helped push down interest rates for those countries.  Nick Parsons, an economist with the National Australia Bank, says the bank made the right move.
周一，欧洲央行开始购买西班牙和意大利债券。这些努力已经帮助降低这些国家的利率。澳大利亚国民银行的经济学家Nick Parsons说，银行作出了正确的举动。

NICK PARSONS: "It has been an absolutely critical decision."
Nick Parsons：“这绝对是一个非常关键的决定。”

But he also thinks the bank will have to buy more. And Europe must still deal with the rescues of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
但他也认为银行应该购买更多债券。并且欧洲必须继续处理对希腊，爱尔兰和葡萄牙的援助。