时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2009年(九)月


英语课

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


The American housing collapse 1 was a major cause of the recession. The housing market is showing new life after three years of falling prices and too much supply. But now there are worries that banks could face big losses next on business properties.
 
Better times: Workers build a Manhattan high-rise in 2006. Now, lending has tightened 2.


For example, one effect of a weak economy is less demand for office space. As a result, property owners earn less and charge less in rent. This puts pressure especially on owners who borrowed a lot money.


Easy credit helped fuel an explosion of development. The market hit a high point in two thousand seven.


Now, late payments are growing. Almost three percent of commercial mortgages were reported at least ninety days late between April and June. That was double a year earlier.


One major lender lost more than a billion and a half dollars in the second quarter. Capmark Financial Group said it might seek bankruptcy 3 protection from its creditors 4. Medium and small banks also face a growing risk.


Banks hold one and a half of the three and a half trillion dollars in debt that supports the commercial real estate market. Housing debt is much higher. Still, around two trillion dollars in commercial mortgages are expected to come due for payment within the next five years.


Commercial properties face two serious problems. One is falling prices -- down by one-fourth since two thousand seven. The other is refinancing.


Most commercial real estate loans have terms of ten years or less. They often end with a large payment, a balloon payment, which owners usually refinance. But lower property values and tighter lending requirements mean a harder time getting new loans.


One way to make capital available for new loans is to sell mortgage-backed securities. But since last year there has been little activity in the seven hundred fifty billion dollar market for commercial mortgage securities. The Federal Reserve recently extended into next year a loan program designed to get investors 5 to buy more securities like these.


The United States is not alone. Commercial rents in Moscow, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai have fallen thirty percent or more.


American housing sales, though, have improved in recent months, helped by lower prices and a tax credit for first-time buyers. The S&P/Case-Shiller national index of home prices rose in April, May and June. That was the first three-month increase in three years.


And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.


 



vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
n.破产;无偿付能力
  • You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产,就必须节省开支。
  • His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。
n.债权人,债主( creditor的名词复数 )
  • They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
学英语单词
-owned
abhor-rently
Acetoxyfluorenylacetamide
acylindazolone
advanced registry of merit
all saints' day
aristodikos
arlin
ballast water
bath therapy
be free to
behavior concept
bepeps
block multiplication of matrices
branch-cut bridge
breidenthal
c (carat)
Ca-Orotate
caenolestids
carry the house
cartilaginean
cauloma
chondroitinase
circulating water return valve
clairements
colortrack
commendment
computer program configuration item
compuword
conceitist
crown-beards
cutting tools
dimensional test
drewery
dump power
electron lattice theory
eugenic engineering
fructosterol
geminal function
gingam
gob-stoppers
gold hydroxide
gold mining
gravitational prospecting
header capacitance
heelballs
herderite
hexacoralla
hydergine
impacarzine
imponderable substance
inculpablenesses
lausenite
lenticularity
Li Po
link chute adapter
Litsea honghoensis
lively stock
lung infarction
malonic anhydride
marble quarry
microwave communications
mmunotherapy
mottler
negative trigger
nonanterior
on shank's pony
outpatient clinic
oxygen (jet) steelmaking
Pancreaticoileostomy
paucispinum
Phenaphen
photo-real
pleus
polyvinyl phthalimide
poor cluster
quantum corral effect
rabiophobia
Rhodo-dendron delavayi Franch.
Rigidulae
rvm
sampling counter
schoolbags
screen map
shaft system
short answer
sideways transfer
silicon damping transistor
sixth grades
spirostane
steady stimulation
steam trap valve
surface and dimension inspection
switchyard
system design problem
talcs
Teshio
thermal protective aids
ultra-light
upon one's guard
valve of colon
wood sheathing