时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2008年(八)月


英语课

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


Credit cards let people buy things now and pay for them over months or even years. But some people get deep into debt. And critics say some banks have terms and charges that can make it harder for people to pay off that debt.


In the United States, there are calls for stronger government supervision 1 of the credit card industry.


Credit cards have been heavily marketed through the mail and at stores. They offer economic power at a price.


In two thousand four, Americans had about eight hundred billion dollars in credit card debt. Now they owe about nine hundred sixty-eight billion. The average interest rate on those cards is currently thirteen and a half percent.


Critics say banks made it too easy to get credit cards. But that may be changing. The crisis in the housing and credits markets is beginning to affect the credit card industry. More payments are late. Charges for late payments are a growing source of profit for banks. But late payments can also signal bad debts.


The central bank, the Federal Reserve, says two-thirds of American banks have recently reported tighter lending requirements. Many people report having their credit limits reduced without warning.


Some lawmakers are concerned that cardholders do not have enough protections from what critics say are abusive policies. These include actions like raising interest rates because of an unrelated event -- like a missed payment on another debt. Also, banks may raise the chances of a late payment by changing monthly payment dates for credit cards.


Congress has been considering bills to increase cardholder protections. The industry sees no need for more rules.


Eighty-two percent of Americans think credit cards provide a valuable service. But a majority, fifty-eight percent, say they do not trust credit card companies. And three out of four think the government should regulate the industry more closely.


These are among the findings released this week from a national survey. CreditCards.com, an online marketplace, reported the findings based on a thousand adults.


Three out of four people feel there is always some condition that makes a card less appealing than the company made it sound. And a little more than half say they have had a card that was not as good as they expected. But close to eighty percent say no one really reads the terms and conditions when they sign up for a credit card.


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



n.监督,管理
  • The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
  • The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。
学英语单词
a man of high standing
abbrev.
all-knowings
anacanthus barbatus
anomala mizusawai
antonio amaro
associate(d)
astringer
bemoiling
besplashing
black dogwood
Bowmont
budget and accounting act
cancer nadaensis
cast iron standard parts
cave formation
Commercial Credit Conference Form
cresotinic acid
crogball
dark green
Delo
description point
dimcontinue
distance formulae
duration of heat release
eastern plane
ecophilosophy
entraining
examine and verify
fuel fission
gas-cooled breeder reactor
genodermatosis
give oneself up to despair
Greenwich Time-Zone
herring-cob
high speed vessel
histolytically
hospital beds
imidophosphonic acid
inventory systems
isobrightness
it was said
jump-ball
kamarck
Kuril'skiye Ostrova
Kāveripatnam
latter part
Lysholm type compressor
mable
meliosma platypoda rehd. et wils
military government
milk bottles
negotiable amount
Nether Alderley
no hurry
nrd
oxaloacetic acid-enolphosphate
paleontological species
panegyrise
parabranchium
parallel drum winding
penancing
player-piano
plod along
pollutant interaction
positive causal link
principal axis of a quadric
pyknodysostosis
Quercus virginiana
quipp
radius rod
ramble over
rattlesome
ribozymology
Richmond, Mt.
rockys
roumm
same-day
sanl
schistocormus fissiventralis
self-propelled crust breaker
skeeziness
smoothing constant
spamless
Stephan
story-tellings
streaming factor
superior pelvic aperture
sustain damage
technophobe
time-integrated neutron flux
tips in
tks
toy store
upsodown
vat water disinfection
velum palatinum
water measure
wedge type snubber
white-friars
winegrapes
Yoshikuni