Subprime Mortgage Crisis
次贷危机
Beginning in late 2006, the US subprime mortgage industry entered what many observers have begun to refer to as a meltdown. A steep rise in the rate of subprime mortgage defaults and foreclosures has caused more than 100 subprime mortgage lenders to fail or file for bankruptcy, most prominently New Century Financial Corporation, previously the nation’s second biggest subprime lender. The failure of these companies has caused prices in the $6.5 trillion mortgage backed securities market to collapse, threatening broader impacts on the US housing market and economy as a whole. The crisis is ongoing and has received considerable attention from the US media and from lawmakers during the first half of 2007.
在2006年底,美国次优抵押贷款行业进入许多观察家已经提出的崩溃阶段。次级抵押贷款违约和止赎陡峭的上升率已造成100多个次级抵押贷款市场的破产或申请破产保护，其中最突出的是新世纪金融公荀，此前为该国第二大次级贷款机构。这些公司的破产造成价值为65亿美元抵押证券市场的崩溃,对美国住房市场和经济整体造成深远的影响。危机仍在继续，而且在2007年上半年已经得到了美国媒体和国会议员的广泛关注。
However, the crisis has had far-reaching consequences across the world. Tranches of sub-prime debts were repackaged by banks and trading houses into attractive-looking investment vehicles and securities that were snapped up by banks, traders and hedge funds on the US, European and Asian markets.
然而，这场危机的深远影响已经扩散至世界各地。银行和交易所将成批的次贷包装成诱人的投资工具并通过美国、欧洲和亚洲市场的银行、经纪人和对冲基金公司进行发售。
Thus when the crisis hit the subprime mortgage industry, those who bought into the market suddenly found their investments near-valueless or impossible to accurately value. Being unable to accurately assess the value of an asset leads to uncertainty. With market uncertainty, banks reined in their lending to each other and to business, leading to rising interest rates and difficulty in maintaining credit lines. As a result, ordinary, run-of-the-mill and healthy businesses across the world with no direct connection whatsoever to US sub-prime suddenly started facing difficulties or even folding due to the banks’ unwillingness to budge on credit lines.

因此,危机爆发后购买这些次贷的行业突然发现他们的投资几乎毫无价值或无法估值。因此当危机来临时，那些次级债券的持有者突然发现他们的资产价值近乎归零，或是根本无法准确估量，由此增加了不确定性，继而银行缩紧银根，减少商业贷款的发放，导致利率的上升及信贷额度的维持出现困难。结果，曾一度正常健康运作的、在世界各地并且看似与美国次级债没有任何关系的公司企业开始面临困境,一些公司甚至由于银行不愿让步的信贷额度而倒闭。
Observers of the meltdown have cast blame widely. Some have highlighted the practices of subprime lenders and the lack of effective government oversight. Others have charged mortgage brokers with steering borrowers to unaffordable loans, appraisers with inflating housing values, and Wall Street investors with backing subprime mortgage securities without verifying the strength of the underlying loans. Borrowers have also been criticized for entering into loan agreements they could not meet.
见证了此次经济危机的人们都对此进行了指责。有些人强调批评次贷行业的做法以及政府监督的缺乏。另一些指责抵押贷款经纪人鼓动支付不起贷款的借款人，评估者默许房价飆升和华尔街投资者未经核实基本贷款能力而支持其购买抵押贷款证券。借款人也因自不量力而签订贷款合同被批评。
Many accounts of the crisis also highlight the role of falling home prices since 2005. As housing prices rose from 2000 to 2005, borrowers having difficult meeting their payments were still building equity, thus making it easier for them to refinance or sell their homes. But as home prices have weakened in many parts of the country, these strategies have become less available to subprime borrowers.
许多危机中的房款户头也在自2005年以来房价下跌中显现出其地位。随着2000年至2005年住房价格的不断上涨,无力支付的借款人仍在增加股权，如此一来他们更容易进行再融资或出售自己的家园。但是，随着该国许多地区房价的低迷，这些战略已经变得不太能够为抵押贷款借款者所采用。
Several industry experts have suggested that the crisis may soon worsen. Lewis Ranieri, formerly of Salomon Brothers, considered one of the inventors of the mortgage-backed securities market in the 1970s and 1980s, warned of the future impact of mortgage defaults: “This is the leading edge of the storm. ...If you think this is bad, imagine what it，s going to be like in the middle of the crisis?” Echoing these concerns, consumer rights attorney Ackelsberg predicted in testimony to the US Senate Banking Committee that five million foreclosures may occur over the next several years as interest rates on subprime mortgages issued in 2004 and 2005 reset from the initial, lower, fixed rate to the higher, floating adjustable rate or “adjustable rate mortgage”.Other experts have raised concerns that the crisis may spread to the so-called Altemative-A (Alt-A) mortgage sector, which makes loans to borrowers with better credit than subprime borrowers at not quite prime rates.
一些业内专家认为,这场危机可能很快恶化。刘易斯.拉涅利，曾经任职于所罗门兄弟公司，研究了住房抵押贷款证券的市场在70年代和80年代的兴起,发出抵押贷款违约对未来影响的警告，说:“这是风暴的最前沿。……如果您认为这已够糟糕的,想象下危机继续进行会是什么样子。”消费者 权益的律师阿科勒斯伯格认同这些问题,他在向美国参议院银行委员会的证词中预测，随着2004与 2005的次级房贷利率从最原始的最低的固定利率发展成息率较高的浮动利率，即“浮动利率抵押贷 款”,可能会出现500万房屋止赎。其他专家担心这一危机可能蔓延到所谓的超A抵押贷款部门,这使得贷款会提供具有较好信用的借款人而不是不享受最优惠利率的抵押贷款借款者。