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human rights "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate crisis and the security crises," Clinton said.

2008年11月25日23点10分，走出地铁1号线玉泉路站B口。 “师傅，坐车吧，十块钱。” 低头一看，别克君威2.4。 … 这是经济危机吧…

Singapore's exports collapsed by a stunning 35 percent in January, mirroring much of the rest of Asia. The export boom here was tied to credit-fueled buying sprees in the United States that stopped abruptly and may take years to return, if ever. Manufacturers are grasping for a Plan B. But none of the options -- mining domestic markets, or trying to tap consumers in still-growing China and India -- offers a truly viable solution.

"The collapse of globalization . . . is absolutely possible," said Jeffrey Sachs, a noted American economist. "It happened in the 20th century in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression, and could happen again. Nationalism is rising and our political systems are inward looking, the more so in times of crisis."

Economists from Credit Suisse predict an exodus of 200,000 foreigners -- or one in every 15 workers here -- by the end of 2010.

9月15日，凯瑟琳·诺(Catherine Naud)查了一下在华盛顿互惠银行(Washington Mutual, 英文简称WaMu)的账户，然后开始了在犹他、亚利桑那和其他几个州为期十天的公路旅行。回到纽约后，身为哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)科学家的诺登录到自己银行的网站。“我收到通知，说我现在是摩根大通(JPMorgan)的客户，华盛顿互惠银行已不存在了，”她说。“我惊呆了。”

这导致该基金的资产净值低于每份1美元的面值。换句话说，该基金已“跌破1美元”(break the buck)

Did you wonder whether our economy had grown a little overly precious? How can we really be producing value if we're all sitting around blogging and Facebook-friending each other?

1999 the British think-tanker Charles Leadbeater published the book Living on Thin Air. It was both an appealing notion and a scary one: that we no longer have to produce anything but ideas. And that was even before Web 2.0--a platform for everyone to share their ideas, opinions, favorite tunes, and relationship statuses with each other. It was all a lot of fun, but I occasionally wondered whether it was really good for economic productivity.

it wouldn't be a bad outcome if the current crisis led to a more diligent, industrious economic climate. Chatting and socializing are important things, but they're not the only things.

Thirteen years ago in Beijing, you spoke eloquently about the duty of all governments to respect the fundamental human rights of women and men. Respect for human rights, you said, means “not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.” In recent years, however, human rights concerns have been pushed progressively further to the margins of the U.S.-China relationship. The Chinese government’s growing financial, diplomatic, and military strength, coupled with its hostility to reforms that challenge the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power, make China a difficult country in which to effect change. But the advancement of human rights in, and with, China is arguably more central to U.S. interests than ever before. Press censorship in China makes it possible for toxic food and public health crises to spread globally. Suppression of dissent removes internal checks against environmental damage that has global impact. Abuses of low-wage labor implicate international firms operating inside China and compromise goods that come into the United States. The government’s control of mass media and the internet allow it to stoke nationalist anger against the United States in moments of crisis. The export from China of internet-censoring technologies and its provision of unconditional aid to repressive regimes increases the United States' burdens in fighting censorship and human rights crises worldwide. As much as the Chinese government appears to resist outside pressure to improve its record, experience suggests that it does respond to such pressure.

包括美联储(Fed)和欧洲央行(ECB)在内的全球六大央行昨日宣布，同时紧急减息半个百分点，这项举措史无前例。

美联储将利率从2%降至1.5%，最近才提高了利率的欧洲央行，则将基准利率从4.25%下调至3.75%。欧洲央行还公布，调整向银行提供资金的方式，保证在官方利率下，银行贷款数额不受限制。 英国央行(BoE)将基准利率从5%下调至4.5%，瑞士央行(Swiss National Bank)将利率从3%减至2.5%。瑞典央行(Riksbank)则从4.75%调至4.25%。

同时，除本次共同减息外，中国将一年期存贷款利率各下调了27个基点。日本央行对本次举措“表示欢迎”，但没有采取任何行动。

是的，中国领导人的直觉非常准确。在一场历时三十年的资本主义狂欢之后，中国可能的确正在进入一个前途诡谲的时期。

正如最近几年已经被广泛揭示的那样，在过去三十年沸腾的资本主义实验中，中国不仅缔造经济史上无与伦比的增长纪录，但也为此付出了高昂的成本。这些成本虽然无法像GDP一样反映在国民经济核算体系之中，但却是加诸于中国社会的实实在在的债务。长期以来，这些成本被转移、隐匿起来，不仅没有得到很好的消化，反而跟中国的GDP一样处于高速积累之中。如果说我们在以前更多的是看到并快乐的享受高速增长之红利的话，那么在未来的很多年中，我们将为过去三十年中积累的巨额债务痛苦地埋单。在这个意义上，中国其实正在进入一个还债高峰期。中国经济在2007年所发生的种种诡异症状，其实就是这个债务洪峰即将到来的明确信号。

Furthermore, China will be tested for its willingness and ability to play a more active international role, commensurate to its growing world-power status.

While it is understandable that the Chinese public has been emotionally involved in such a calamity so close to home, the country will command universal respect when its government and its citizens display as much care to other humanitarian crises around the world as they have at home.

The government now faces a tricky predicament: Having loosened its restraints on information flow this time, a return to its old ways at the next sign of difficulty could backfire. “The government should learn a positive lesson: When it allows freer information flow it is better for its image and legitimacy,” Mr. Xiao said. “But this will not always be a case, especially if the next crisis is man-made

China’s online censors can be merciless in their deletion of blog postings or forum comments that are deemed “too sensitive,” particularly involving anything to do with the so-called “Three T’s”: Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan. Post-earthquake negativity, though, has been tolerated. “Nine billion yuan [$1.3 billion] has been raised but how much will actually get to the disaster zone?” one skeptical commenter asked on a forum on Baidu, China’s leading search engine. Discussions focusing on discrepancies between the amount of donations declared by the Chinese Red Cross and the corresponding numbers issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs also have met with minimal interference, Mr. Kennedy said. However, the government has not turned a blind eye. More than a dozen people have been arrested for “spreading rumors” online, and political blogger Guo Quan was detained for questioning the risks posed by cracked dams and damaged nuclear facilities.

70年代生的人，他们曾经狂热过诗歌，最早接触到了流行音乐，照理说，理想主义的成分还是很浓厚的。面对社会突变，其实也是考量一个人内心是否强大的时候。

受到信贷紧缩的影响，加之联邦保险教育贷款盈利能力不断下降，越来越多的私营及公共贷款机构正在停止发放学生贷款。由于多数贷款安排介于现在至许多大学开学时的8月份之间，这一问题正变得日益紧迫。颇具影响力的美国参议院银行委员会周二将就此问题向学生融资专家小组提出质询。

We hear that Tibetans suffer “demographic aggression” and “cultural genocide”. But we do not hear those terms applied to Spanish and French policies toward the Basque minority. We do not hear those terms applied to the US annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1898. And Diego Garcia? In 1973, not so long ago, the UK forcibly deported the entire native Chagossian population from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. People were allowed one suitcase of clothing. Nothing else. Family pets were gassed, then cremated. Complete ethnic cleansing. Complete cultural destruction. Why? In order to build a big US air base. It has been used to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, and soon maybe to bomb Iran and Pakistan. Diego Garcia, with nobody there but Brits and Americans, is also a perfect place for rendition, torture and other illegal actions.

The Chinese Context The Chinese government is responsible for the well-being and security of one-fourth of humanity. Race riots and rebellion cannot be tolerated, not even when done by Buddhist monks. Chinese Civilization was already old when the Egyptians began building pyramids. But the last 200 years have not gone well, what with two Opium Wars forcing China to import drugs, and Europeans seizing coastal ports as a step to complete colonial control, then the Boxer Rebellion, the collapse of the Manchu Dynasty, civil war, a brutal invasion and occupation by Japan, more civil war, then Communist consolidation and transformation of society, then Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Such events caused tens of millions of people to die. Thus, China’s recent history has good reasons why social order is a higher priority than individual rights. Race riots and rebellion cannot be tolerated. Considering this context, China’s treatment of its minorities has been exemplary compared to what the Western world has done to its minorities. After thousands of years of Chinese dominance, there still are more than 50 minorities in China. After a few hundred years of European dominance in North and South America, the original minority cultures have been exterminated, damaged, or diminished.

China’s one-child-policy seems oppressive to Westerners, but it has not applied to minorities, only to the Han Chinese. Tibetans can have as many children as they choose. If Han people have more than one child, they are punished. There is a similar preference given to minorities when it comes to admission to universities. For example, Tibetan students enter China’s elite Peking University with lower exam scores than Han Chinese students. China is not a perfect nation, but on matters of minority rights, it has been better than most Western nations. And China achieved this in the historical context of restoring itself and recovering from 200 years of continual crisis and foreign invasion.

Suppose that the value of the asset the Fed holds falls to zero after the trade. The trade was permanent, so there's no margin call or anything like that - the Fed owns the asset and it is worth nothing. Then, in the end, it is no different than the Fed simply printing that same amount of money and giving it to the banks as new reserves, it is an increase in the money supply.

If the central bank, or some other government agency, were to act as Market Maker of Last Resort and buy the impaired asset at a price no greater than its fair value but higher than what it would fetch in the free but unfair illiquid market, such a purchase would not be a bail-out. It would also be welfare-increasing...

My feeling is that it's not going to happen, mainly for political reasons. In this particular crisis, the distressed assets the Fed would end up buying would almost certainly be mortgage-backed bonds. But buying up mortgage-backed bonds looks very much like giving money to big banks and investors instead of giving it straight to struggling homeowners: the optics are simply terrible. If the collapse of Bear Stearns is seen as a bailout, this would be much worse. It might be a good idea, but its time