综英翻译

BANKS have endured a brutal nine months since credit markets froze in August. Losses and write-downs already total $335 billion; many of their best businesses have disappeared. In developed economies, almost all banks are facing economic and regulatory headwinds that will cut revenues and jobs. Yet the biggest danger facing Western finance is not a fall in its earning power but a loss of faith in how it works.
八月份信贷市场冻结后银行度过了惨淡的九个月。直接损失和会计账簿减记(write-down)已达3350亿美元；银行原本最好的生意都消失无踪。在发达国家，几乎所有的银行都在面对经济和调控带来的逆风，这都将导致收入和职位的减少。然而西方金融业所面临的最大危险并不是盈利能力的衰退，而是公众对其运作方式失去了信任。


Two criticisms assail the industry, one based on fairness and the other on efficiency. The first argues that finance is rigged to enrich bankers, rather than their customers, shareholders or the economy at large. Some worry about the way bonuses are calculated; others about moral hazard. Bankers will take wild bets because they know they will be bailed out by the taxpayer. Look at Bear Stearns or Northern Rock.
对金融业主要有两种批评观点。一个是关于公平，另一个关于效率。第一种批评是金融系统被用来充实银行家的腰包而不是其客户、股东或者——从更大角度来说——整个经济。一些人担忧奖金的计算方式，另外一些人则担忧道德风险(moral hazard)[1]。银行家们会疯狂的赌博，因为他们知道一旦出事，纳税人会为他们作买单——看看贝尔斯登(Bear Stearns)和北岩(Northern Rock)就知道了。

The second, deeper question is whether a market-based approach to finance is efficient. Some Chinese officials claim the Western system has been shown up by the crisis (see article). This week Germany's president demanded that the “monster” of financial markets “be put back in its place”: bankers had caused a “massive destruction of assets”. The critics do not lack ammunition. The lapses in credit-underwriting in the subprime-mortgage market hardly reflect a wise allocation of capital. The opacity of the shadow banking system and the mind-boggling complexity of those toxic asset-backed products have raised doubts about the discipline of the market.
对于第二种批评，其深层次的问题是：金融业基于市场的方法是否真的有效。一些中国官员称这次危机让西方的金融系统运作浮出水面(见另文). 本周德国总统要求金融市场的“猛兽回笼”：银行家已经造成了资产的大规模缩水。批评家们不乏论据。次贷市场上信用承销(credit-underwriting)的失误很难反映出银行家们高明的资产配置(capital allocation)。影子银行（非银行金融机构，执行类似银行的职能，短借长贷）的不透明加

上有毒资产抵押产品(asset-backed products)的极端复杂增加了人们对该市场规则的疑惑