【Native Speaker每日综合训练—43系列】【43-12】经管 Euro zone

小蘑菇开始打怪

内容：吐吐yeah 编辑：小蘑菇开始打怪


Stay tuned to our latest post! Follow us here ---> http://weibo.com/u/3476904471


今天的主题是Euro zone，大家Enjoy~!

Part I: Speaker

Cross-Culture Work in a Global Economy
By HBR IdeaCast | May 29, 2014


Source: HBR Ideacast
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/cross-culture-work-in-a-global-economy/


[Rephrase 1, 15: 16]

小蘑菇开始打怪

Part II: Speed

Europe growth pact floated as euro zone recession fears mount
By Jan Strupczewski and Jason Lange | October 10, 2014


[Time 2]
Heeding global calls for action to shore up Europe's sagging economy, euro zone's top finance official proposed a new growth pact on Friday to break a policy logjam and spur reforms by rewarding countries with cheap funds and leeway on budget targets.

The International Monetary Fund, which cut its global growth forecasts for the third time this year this week, flagged Europe's weakness as the top concern, a sentiment echoed by many policymakers, economists and investors.

European officials in Washington for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings sought to dispel the gloom, with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi talking about a delay, not an end, to the region's recovery.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chairman of euro zone's finance ministers, used the forum to propose a new "growth deal" for Europe offering nations embarking on ambitious economic reforms more fiscal wiggle room and low-interest EU funds.

"There is no reason for this gloominess about Europe," Dijsselbloem told Reuters. "Those countries that have actually implemented the strategy and done the reforms, have returned to growth, in southern Europe, in the Baltics, in Ireland. Which once again proves that reforms do not hurt growth, but help recovery quite quickly."

It would take months of political negotiations for the proposed pact to take shape. In the meantime, a steady stream of poor economic data looks set to keep Europe's partners on edge.

"The biggest risk to the global economy at the moment ... is the risk of the euro zone falling back into recession and into crisis," British finance minister George Osborne told reporters.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew repeated a familiar mantra that nations with strong economies and sound public finances should do more to shore up global demand.

"Demand and structural supply side reforms should go hand-in-hand to catalyze stronger growth," he said in a statement.
[305 words]

[Time 3]
DOUBTS ON PRESCRIPTION

Several officials, including Osborne, voiced scepticism about infrastructure spending as the latest prescription for a world economy that six years after the global financial crisis was still struggling to find a firm footing. The IMF has said infrastructure spending could give economies a near-term boost, while improving long-term growth prospects as well.

The Group of 20 major industrial and developing powers agreed last month to prop up growth over the coming years largely via targeted public investment in infrastructure. But since then fresh evidence of weakness in the euro zone, including in its powerhouse Germany, has rattled financial markets and heightened the sense of urgency.

"We as a group do not want to settle for mediocre growth," Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver told reporters.

Global shares hit a eight-month low on Friday, while oil prices skidded to their lowest level since 2010. After a 13-week rally, the U.S. dollar ended lower for the week on the view the Federal Reserve may have to delay tightening U.S. monetary policy.

"It's panic mode. Panic and capitulation," said Carsten Fritsch, commodities analyst at Commerzbank.

GERMANY IN FOCUS

While several euro zone governments are hamstrung by excessive debt and fiscal deficits, the IMF, the United States and other G20 members have repeatedly called on Germany to use its wiggle room to ramp up spending and shore up sagging growth.

Berlin, however, has rejected such calls and stuck to its goal of balancing the federal budget next year.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble repeated in Washington his line that Europe needed economic reforms not "writing checks." Yet evidence of further weakness and a threat of recession might still force Berlin's hand, senior officials told Reuters earlier this week.

In contrast, France and Italy have announced budget plans that fail to meet their deficit targets, and EU officials were engaged in last-minute efforts to persuade Paris and Rome to tweak the drafts to avoid likely rejection.
[322 words]

Source: Finance Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/europes-weakness-global-focus-recession-140555904.html


Euro zone back in firing line over growth, lowflation, Greece
By Paul Taylor | October 16, 2014

[Time 4]
After a two-year siesta, the euro zone is back in the financial markets' firing line due to stagnating growth, low inflation, budget problems in France and Italy and rising political risk in Greece, where the bloc's debt crisis began in 2009.

This is not euro crisis 2.0. At least not for now. The bond market is nervous but not seething with contagion as it was in 2010-12. This week's global market sell-off was sparked by weak U.S. and Chinese data, adding to concerns about a global slowdown.

But four overlapping factors have rekindled anxiety about the euro zone's stalling recovery amid rising political tensions both among its leaders and between economic giant Germany and the European Central Bank:

* economists and investors are concerned Germany is pushing the wrong austerity recipe for its own and other euro zone countries' economic problems, depressing demand and neglecting sorely needed public investment;

* the United States, IMF and others are worried that the European Central Bank's monetary policy easing may be too little and too late, and that it may lack the political support to take bolder action;

* a looming clash between the EU authorities and France and Italy over their 2015 budgets is about to come to a head, with Paris and Rome resisting peer pressure to cut their deficits;

* Greece's politically motivated dash for a premature exit from its 240 billion euro bailout programme has raised market doubts about its ability to fund itself without external aid and risks of an early election bringing radical leftists to power.

"The fear is back," a senior EU diplomat said. While traders are no longer speculating on a possible breakup of the euro zone, "any thought that the crisis was over has gone".
[291 words]


[Time 5]
RULES FOR ALL

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament in Berlin on Thursday that the euro zone must not drop its guard.

"The crisis has not yet been permanently and sustainably overcome because the causes, regarding the set-up of the European economic and currency union and the situation of individual member states, haven't been eliminated," she said.

Merkel insisted all euro zone member states must stick to the EU's strict budget rules, a veiled criticism of a Franco-Italian drive for more time to bring down their debts.

"All - and I stress here once again - all member states must fully respect the reinforced rules of the stability and growth pact," she said.

Merkel made no mention of international pressure on Berlin, underlined in a U.S. Treasury report to Congress on Wednesday, to do more to revive growth, saying only: "We can show in Germany that growth and investment can be strengthened without abandoning the path of consolidation."

Merkel's "Grand Coalition" is single-mindedly focused on achieving a balanced budget in 2015 for the first time since 1969, and determined not to be blown off course by demands for a big public works programme.

The U.S. report spelled out more politely what German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble heard in blunt terms from critics at the annual International Monetary Fund meetings last week.

Washington, and Keynesian economists in Europe, say Germany should be boosting demand to counter falling growth rates and evaporating inflation that could tip into a downward spiral of prices and wages.

GRAND BARGAIN?

EU officials are seeking a grand bargain in which Germany would invest more in infrastructure, France and Italy move further with economic reforms in return for budget leeway, and the ECB would have political cover for more monetary expansion, including if necessary printing money to buy government bonds.

It was ECB chief Mario Draghi's declaration in 2012 that he would do whatever it takes to save the euro that drew a line under the bloc's debt crisis. He may now finally have to back words with actions.
[341 words]


[Time 6]
The aim is to clinch a deal at a Dec. 18-19 European Union summit, EU officials say, but they acknowledge there are many obstacles and any agreement may fall short of what is required.

Germany's central bank and finance minister are already critical of the ECB's plans to buy repackaged loans and covered bonds from banks to counter "lowflation". Germany's financial establishment is utterly opposed to quantitative easing.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, under fire for going back on France's commitment to cut its deficit to 3 percent of national output in 2015 and demanding two more years, underlined the difficulties.

"Four issues are on the table for the euro zone to return to durable growth: monetary policy - it's done; then we governments have three issues to address: budget consolidation, structural reforms and investment," he told reporters in Paris.

"Just because all these issues are being discussed together does not mean it will give rise to a compromise or trade-offs. There has to be movement on all these points," Sapin said.

The executive European Commission seems likely to send the French budget back to Paris for redrafting later this month, aggravating the political spat over economic policy.

Behind the scenes, Berlin and Paris are scrambling to find a compromise that enables France to go further in tightening its budget and reforming rigid labour and product markets, while Germany would make a gesture on public investment.

The risk, a senior EU official said, is that a December deal is too minimal to revive growth or restore confidence.

Meanwhile, uncertainties over Greece seem likely to grow with conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras fighting for his coalition government's survival by trying to declare an early end to its deeply unpopular EU/IMF bailout.

Greek 10-year government bond yields soared above 9 percent on Thursday - a level at which Athens could not afford to rely on market finance - as investors fretted about the risk of a snap election next March that could bring the anti-bailout leftist Syriza party to power.

EU officials say Greece will need at least a European precautionary credit line subject to reform conditions even if it foregoes further assistance from the IMF, which is deeply unpopular in Athens.
[370 words]

Source: Finance Yahoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/euro-zone-back-firing-line-105141837.html

小蘑菇开始打怪

Part III: Obstacle

Does a New Eurozone Recession Threaten U.S. Growth?
By James Picerno | October 7, 2014

[Paraphrase 7]
It’s a perfect score for Germany’s economic reports so far this week—perfectly negative. In two days we’ve seen two macro updates for Europe’s biggest economy and in both cases the numbers were deeply disappointing. Yesterday we learned that new manufacturing orders suffered a substantially larger-than-expected decline in August, followed by today’s news that industrial output plunged 4% during that month. On a year-over-year basis, industrial activity in Germany has crumbled by 3%. It’s been clear for the past month or so that the country’s expansion was slowing, but the latest figures suggest that the deceleration is much worse than assumed.

The surprisingly hefty degree of deterioration comes at a time when Europe can hardly afford a new phase of macro trouble at its core. Eurozone GDP was flat in Q2 for the quarter-over-quarter comparison, according to Eurostat, and the recent negative momentum via the Bank of Italy’s Euro-coin projections leaves little room for optimism about the near-term future.

The latest numbers from Europe’s so-called growth engine certainly don’t offer any reason to think otherwise these days. Until recently, Germany’s growth has been modest but reliable, not to mention a critical source of support that’s kept the Eurozone inching forward, if only on the margins. But it now looks like Germany and the rest of the Europe is in recession. Ok, so what does that mean for the US economy?

It would be surprising if we don’t see some blowback in America. The European Union, after all, is a major trading partner with the US. There’s still a reasonable chance the US will continue to grow regardless, although the growth will probably be lower because of Europe’s recession. It may be hard to see the difference, of course, because we’ll never know what the US would have done if Germany and the Eurozone sidestepped a downturn. In any case, it would be surprising—impossible, really—if the latest round of contraction overseas doesn’t take a bite out of US economic output.

The good news is that the recent numbers for the US look encouraging, which offers a degree of insulation. Friday’s payrolls report in particular suggests that the macro trend is still humming along at a moderate pace. My big-picture reviewof the major indicators from a few weeks ago also shows a high degree of positive bias in the numbers, which suggests that economic momentum has been fairly strong lately. But with Europe now at the tipping point, there’s more uncertainty about the US outlook.

It’s worth pointing out that a new recession for Europe at this stage threatens to be particularly nasty because deflation risk is considerably higher this time. Indeed, consumer price inflation for the Eurozone is now a mere 0.3% on a year-over-year basis. (By comparison, US consumer inflation is advancing at a 1.7% annual pace.) At a time when recession risk is rising, the risk of outright deflation poses a considerable obstacle because of all the macro consequences that come with that condition. At the very least, lowflation at this point makes escape from recession that much tougher for Europe.

A potential antidote to Europe’s ills, or at least one that has a reasonable chance of minimizing the damage, would be the launch of an aggressive new round of monetary stimulus by the European Central Bank (ECB). Nothing less than a shock-and-awe campaign is required at this stage, however. That’s unlikely. Sure, the ECB continues to tinker around with half-measures and modest efforts at juicing growth, but so far those efforts have been ineffective. Indeed, the fact that the Europe appears to be slipping back into a contractionary phase is irrefutable evidence that the ECB’s policies so far have been a dismal failure. By comparison, the Federal Reserve’s quantitative-easing programs over the last few years present a considerably more encouraging record.

The great irony here is that Germany’s push to keep the ECB from doing more have apparently succeeded—a success that’s now coming back to haunt Merkel and company, and all of Europe. You shall reap what you sow.

As for the US, the incoming data will be more important than ever for monitoring the negative effects thrown off by Europe’s latest troubles. The next major release: Thursday’s weekly update on jobless claims. For the moment, the crowd’s expecting new filings for unemployment benefits to remain under 300,000 (seasonally adjusted) and therefore stick close to a 14-year low. Next week will bring additional perspective via retail sales (Oct. 15), industrial production (Oct. 16), and housing starts (Oct. 17). Even then, it’ll take a month or two to judge the effects on US data in terms of measuring the ill effects of Europe’s macro slide, which is still in its early stages.

The US economy, in short, is about to undergo a new phase of stress testing. For the moment, it’s still reasonable to expect that the planet’s largest economy will survive with its growth intact, albeit somewhat dented. The assumption here is that macro momentum in these United States is sufficiently strong to weather any turbulence from abroad. But that’s just a guess. Ultimately, the incoming numbers will tell the story, for good or ill. Meantime, the case for expecting a relatively early start of Fed tightening just flew out the window.
[877 words]

Source: EconoMonitor
http://www.economonitor.com/blog/2014/10/does-a-new-eurozone-recession-threaten-u-s-growth/

泡泡跑跑

前排~

T2  01:46.4  Heeding global calls for action to shore upEurope's sagging economy, euro zone's top finance official proposed a newgrowth pact.

T3 01:51.0  There’s a doubt oneconomic resurgence by infrastructure spending.

G20 members have repeatedly called onGermany to use its wiggle room to shore up sagging growth. But Germany hasrejected such calls. However, the threat of recession will change the decisionsin many countries in EU.

T4  01:59.7  EU is back in firing line after euro crisisin 2009. Four overlapping factors have rekindled anxiety.

T5  02:11.3  Merkel insisted all members of EU must fullyrespect the reinforced rules of the stability and growth pact to overcome thecrisis. Besides, EU must be consolidated.

T6 02:27.9  Governments have threeissues to address: budget consolidation, structural reforms and investment.Now, the members of EU have found a compromise to solve the problems.

Obstacle  05:36.4 Although EU is in recession, the economy of US is at a moderate pace.

cyndichiang

Speaker
The author is talking about her book about culture difference in glabal companies
How to understand or decode cultural impact and how to improve effectiveness in negiotiation
EG: French is more direct about feedback than American
How to handle more than one people from different country:
EG: American,Indian and Chinese's views on French:
A: late/chaotic/change topic in communication
I: too rigid/inflexible/cannot adapt
C: amazing/they are equal
Stereotype: EG: Japanese and Chinese have similarities but also differ noticeably.
1.time schedule: J: extremely on time/highly organized  CN: highly flexible
Travel: Foriegners are worried about cultural difference when travel to another country,but now most countries are more acceptible.

Obstacle 4'59''
EU has decreased in GDP, but its decline seemed not influence the recovery of US economy.
It is surprising since EU is major trade partner of US
EU launched monetory stimuli that is unfavorable now,whereas US's quantity easing program is encouraging

seraph797979

小蘑菇开始打怪 发表于 2014-10-23 21:00
Part II: Speed

2,1'46
3,1'59
4,1'55
5,2;06
6,2'29

Stefan00

Time 2:3’12  An article about the situation of the Europe economy.  investors and economists worry most about the weakness.  Even though the reform did good to the economy, the E is till on edge. demand and supply structure should be hand-in-hand.
Time 3:3’00  The best way to spur the economy growth is to invest in public infrastructure. Germany in focus, even though G is urged to do something, but it refuses and still focus on its budget balance.
Time 4: 2’40 Although the anxiety of the finance in Europe was eased by the weak U.S and Chinese data, but four overlap concerns still suggest that the anxiety is here and any thoughts that the crisis was over has gone.
Time 5:2’15  Official  M insists that all the involved counties should stick to the consolidate path which is about the budget balance. But other countries like France and Italy urge G to invest more in infrastructure.
Time 6:2’41 Enumerate four problems that should be settle down without compromise. But some strategies are needed to make the cooperation of F, I and G possible. Greece’ s economy is associated with its politic.

Obstacle:  8’11 how will the crisis in E influence the US economy?  The author analyzes the situation. So far so good.  But since the recession in E is not positive and what the E has done proves to be useless. We don’t know how well will US conduct in this stress testing. The result can tell only until more data are released.

麦兜兜0212

2‘12
2’10
1’39
1‘47
1‘58
5’18

kit琳

time2 1'57
euro should implement a reform on low interest to stimulate the economy.
time 3 2'22
the reality the the current economic situatition is not so well, and the policy may not be effective.
germany refuses to carry out the deficit policy.
time 4 2'10
the worries  that the crisis is not gone is caused by 4 factors.
time 5 2'40
M insisted that all euro members should stick to the policy to spur the economy, but he did not say much about the german policies.
time 6 3'00
the meeting in dec is unlikely to reach agreement in euro and help the economy.
at the same time, greece is likely to face danger because of the unpopular financial bailout.

ZOEYZHANG114

thank you for posting. Enjoy reading them.