Business this week
本周商业
2021年10月2日
Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, gave her strongest warning yet on the potential consequences of not raising the federal debt limit, saying it would be “catastrophic”.
美国财政部长珍妮特 · 叶伦（Janet Yellen）对不提高联邦债务限额的潜在后果发出了最强烈的警告 ，她说这将是“灾难性的”。
The Treasury estimates that it will run out of money by October 18th unless the ceiling is increased to allow the government to continue borrowing.
据财政部预测，如果不提高贷款上限以允许政府继续借款，到 10 月 18 日将会出现资金用完的情况。
Even with a stopgap resolution to avoid a government shutdown, the issue of lifting the debt limit still remains.
即使有一项旨在避免政府关闭的权宜之计，提高债务限额的问题仍然存在。
Ms Yellen said the uncertainty was eroding investor confidence.
叶伦女士说，不确定性正在侵蚀投资者的信心。
Stockmarkets had their worst day in months on September 28th.
9 月 28 日，股市出现最糟糕的一天。
The S&P500 dropped by 2% and the Nasdaq by 2.8%, its biggest decline in half a year.
标准普尔500指数下跌了2%，纳斯达克指数下跌了2.8%，这是半年来的最大跌幅。
European and Asian bourses also fell.
欧洲和亚洲股市也纷纷下跌。
The prospect of a government shutdown was just one factor unsettling investors.
政府关门只是让投资者不安的一个因素。
Markets are also digesting moves by central banks to taper their stimulus programmes, which has led to a sell-off in bonds.
市场也在消化中央银行为减少刺激计划而采取的行动，这导致了债券的抛售。
Natural-gas prices remained volatile, but were still rising sharply in Asia and Europe, and to a lesser degree in America.
天然气价格仍不稳定，但在亚洲和欧洲仍在急剧上涨，在美国涨幅较小。
The price of Brent crude crept up to $80 a barrel for the first time in three years.
布伦特原油价格在三年内首次上涨至每桶 80 美元。
Evergrande, China’s second-biggest property developer, sold part of its stake in a bank to a publicly owned investment group, raising $1.5bn.
中国第二大地产开发商恒大地产将其在一家银行的部分股权出售给一家公有投资集团，募集了 15亿 美元。
The bank has demanded that Evergrande, which has rattled markets by warning of a debt default, use its proceeds to repay a loan.
恒大地产发出债务违约警告，扰乱了市场。这家银行要求恒大将其所得用于偿还一笔贷款。
It won’t make much of a dent in the company’s $300bn-worth of liabilities.
这不会对该公司的 3000亿 负债产生太大的影响。
Still, the fact that the stake was sold to a state investment firm was taken as a sign that the government is working behind the scenes to avoid Evergrande’s collapse.
不过，这些股份被出售给一家国有投资公司的事实，被视为政府正在幕后努力避免恒大倒闭的信号。
Battle lines were drawn in the American Senate over a possible second term for Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
美国参议院就杰罗姆·鲍威尔(Jerome Powell)可能连任美联储(Federal Reserve)主席一事展开了争论。
Elizabeth Warren, a left-wing Democrat, became the first senator publicly to oppose Mr Powell remaining in office because of his past support for financial deregulation.
左翼民主党人伊丽莎白•沃伦(Elizabeth Warren)成为首位公开反对鲍威尔留任的参议员，原因是他过去支持放松金融监管。
She called him “a dangerous man”.
她称他为“危险的人”。
Joe Biden is expected to announce his decision on who should lead the central bank within the next few months.
预计乔 · 拜登将在未来几个月内宣布决定由谁领导央行。
Ford announced an $11bn plan to build three factories that will produce batteries for electric vehicles and another plant to make its F-series of electric pickup trucks.
福特公司宣布了一项价值 110亿 美元的计划，计划建造三家生产电动车蓄电池的工厂，并建造另一家生产 F 系列电动皮卡车的工厂 。
The investment is in partnership with SK Innovation, a South Korean company; the carmaker is providing $7bn.
这项投资是与韩国的 SK Innovation 公司合作进行的；该公司的汽车制造商提供 70亿 美元。
Along with its Detroit rivals, General Motors and Stellantis, Ford has made a commitment to switch to greener motoring and wants 40% of its global sales to be electric by 2030.
与底特律的竞争对手通用汽车(General Motors)和斯特兰提斯(Stellantis)一样，福特已经承诺转向绿色汽车，并希望到2030年其全球销售的40%是电动汽车。
Voters in Berlin backed a referendum proposal to expropriate apartments held by corporate landlords, the most visceral reaction yet in a big European city to property speculation that has priced out most families.
柏林选民支持一项征收公司业主持有的公寓的全民公投提案，这是迄今为止欧洲大城市对房地产投机最本能的反应，房地产投机已经让大多数家庭买不起房。
The vote is non-binding and may end up in Germany’s Constitutional Court.
这次投票不具约束力，可能会在德国宪法法院结束。
With one of the toughest vaccine mandates in American business, United Airlines said that 96% of staff in the United States had been jabbed to protect themselves against covid-19, but that it was preparing to fire almost 600 who had not done so before the deadline of September 27th.
美国联合航空公司(United Airlines)发布了美国商界最严厉的疫苗规定之一，该公司表示，美国96%的员工已经接种了疫苗，以保护自己免受 covid-19 的感染，该公司准备解雇近600名在9月27日截止日期前未接种疫苗的员工。
They had a few days leeway to comply.
他们只有几天的时间去打疫苗了。
About 2,000 employees sought a religious or medical exemption.
约 2,000 名雇员要求宗教或医疗豁免。
In Britain the furlough scheme introduced at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 came to an end.
在英国，2020年3月大流行开始时实施的休假计划已经结束。
Over its course the programme covered 11.6m workers, paying up to 80% of their wages, though by July 2021 that had dropped to 1.6m.
在整个过程中，该计划覆盖了1160万名工人，支付高达80%的工资，但到2021年7月，人数已降至160万。
The government spent nearly £70bn ($94bn) on its support.
政府花费了近 700亿 英镑 (940亿美元)。
Meanwhile, revised figures showed that the British economy grew by 5.5% in the second quarter, a faster pace than an initial estimate had suggested.
与此同时，经修订的数字显示 ，英国经济在第二季度增长了 5.5% ，增速快于最初的估计。
GDP is now just 3.3% below its pre-pandemic level of late 2019.
目前国内生产总值仅比2019年底大流行前水平低3.3%。
A leading indicator of house prices in America rose at a record rate for the fourth consecutive month.
美国房屋价格的领先指数连续四个月以创纪录的速度上升。
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national index jumped by 19.7% in July over the same month a year ago, with the biggest increases reported in Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle.
标准普尔 CoreLogic Case-Shiller（以席勒命名，标准普尔监测房价走势的指数）全国指数7月份同比上涨19.7%，其中菲尼克斯、圣地亚哥和西雅图涨幅最大。
The firm said it needed more data to tell if surging prices were being driven by a shift to the suburbs as a result of the pandemic.
该公司表示，它需要更多的数据来判断价格暴涨是否是由大流行导致的向郊区转移所驱动。
Dealing in bricks of a different kind, Lego reported a net profit of DKr6.3bn ($1bn) for the first half of the year, up by 140% from the same period in 2020.
乐高今年上半年的净利润为 63亿 丹麦克朗(约 10亿 美元)，比2020年同期增长了140%。
What could possibly go wrong
可能会出现什么问题
Amazon launched its first robot for the home, which will sell for under $1,000.
亚马逊推出了首款家庭机器人，售价将低于 1,000 美元。
Astro, an internet-connected roving device, has a periscope camera that its owner can access remotely.
ASTRO 是一款连接互联网的移动设备，拥有一台可供所有者远程访问的潜望镜摄像头。
In a nod to privacy concerns, it can be programmed to stay out of intimate spaces, such as the bedroom or bathroom.
考虑到隐私问题，它可以被设计成远离私密空间，比如卧室或浴室。
打开一个新世界 