托福閱讀:世界末日五大預(yù)兆

字號(hào):

   $8.5 billion ain't what it used to be
    Back in June, it looked like Bank of America had a rare win on its hands: a proposed settlement with trustee Bank of New York to the tune of $8.5 billion, meant to restore the damage done by faulty mortgage-backed securities financed by BofA's Countrywide division. Come October, the settlement fell apart because investors (among many other vocal groups, too) didn't feel the figure was high enough. $8.5 billion, not enough money? Yikes. That's a scary indicator for banking in general, but also for BofA considering it is more than the institution made in the last four years combined. The collapsed deal is another low-point in a rough year for the bank and CEO Brian Moynihan. At least he axed those $5 debit card fees.
    85億美元都不夠花了
    2011年6月,美國(guó)銀行(Bank of America)眼看就要取得一場(chǎng)罕見的勝利:它計(jì)劃以大約85億美元的資金,與受托人美國(guó)紐約銀行(Bank of New York)達(dá)成和解,旨在挽回由美國(guó)銀行子公司Countrywide提供資金的不良抵押證券所造成的損失。然而到10月份,因?yàn)橥顿Y人(以及其他眾多意見團(tuán)體)認(rèn)為85億美元不足以解決問題,導(dǎo)致和解最終破裂。難道85億美元還不夠多嗎?沒錯(cuò)!總的看來(lái),85億美元對(duì)銀行業(yè)來(lái)說是一個(gè)驚人的數(shù)字,而考慮到85億美元超過了美國(guó)銀行過去四年盈利的總和,這一數(shù)字著實(shí)令人吃驚。美國(guó)銀行和CEO布賴恩·莫伊尼漢2011年流年不利,而這次和解破裂則意味著又一低谷,但至少布賴恩還是做出了取消5美元借記卡費(fèi)用的決定。
    The hottest CEOs are very, very young
    Facebook. Twitter. Groupon. Zynga. LinkedIn. Yelp. The list keeps growing, but the ages don't. Mark Zuckerberg (impending Facebook IPO: shooting for a $100 billion valuation), no longer a new name to anyone, is still only 27. Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon (which raised $700 million for its IPO), is 27 as well. Zynga, which went public in December, is helmed by Mark Pincus, who even at 45 is on the young side for what was, until recently, the prototypical American blue-chip company CEO. (Think Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, 82, ex-Ford CEO Alan Mulally, 66, or ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, 60.) Let's face it: the biggest, buzziest business news is continually coming from companies that are helmed by people who listened to Green Day in middle school.
    商界當(dāng)紅炸子雞都是小年輕
    Facebook、Twitter、團(tuán)購(gòu)網(wǎng)站Groupon、社交游戲公司Zynga、商務(wù)社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)LinkedIn和點(diǎn)評(píng)網(wǎng)站Yelp都是如今炙手可熱的科技公司,而且這份名單還在不斷擴(kuò)容,但這些公司掌門人的年齡卻沒有呈現(xiàn)上升的趨勢(shì):馬克·扎克伯克(Facebook即將進(jìn)行首次公開募股:估值有望達(dá)到1,000億美元)不再是個(gè)籍籍無(wú)名的名字,而他2011年只有27歲;Groupon的CEO安德魯·梅森(首次公開募股籌資7億美元)2011 年也是27歲;Zynga公司于2011年12月上市,馬克·平卡斯是這家典型的美國(guó)藍(lán)籌公司的CEO。雖然他已經(jīng)45歲,仍然是較為年輕的CEO?!鞠胂氚桑好绹?guó)保險(xiǎn)公司伯克希爾·哈撒韋公司(Berkshire Hathaway)的沃倫·巴菲特已是82歲高齡、福特公司(Ford)前CEO艾倫·穆拉利已經(jīng)66歲了,??松梨诠?ExxonMobil)CEO雷克斯·蒂爾納森也60歲了?!棵鎸?duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)吧,如今商界的重磅新聞都是來(lái)源于這些新生力量,而他們的掌門人都是些聽著綠日樂隊(duì)(Green Day)的歌曲長(zhǎng)大的年輕人。