英语翻译This week,we continue our look back at the major economi

英语翻译
This week,we continue our look back
at the major economic stories of the
year.On September fifteenth,
Lehman Brothers,a one hundred
fifty-eight year-old investment bank,
sought legal protection from its
creditors.It had failed to find a buyer
after months of searching.
With over six hundred billion dollars in
debt,Lehman's failure was the largest
bankruptcy in United States history.
At the same time,the nation's biggest insurance company,
American International Group,had gotten into trouble selling credit
default swaps.These are contracts similar to insurance that protect
the holder against credit risk.
Credit rating agencies downgraded A.I.G.because of concerns it
could not honor its contracts.Unable to get new loans,A.I.G.asked
for government help.The Federal Reserve agreed to loan A.I.G.
eighty-five billion dollars in return for eighty percent of the company.
But it was not enough.By November,the government had extended
a total of about one hundred fifty billion dollars in aid to A.I.G — the
most to any single company during the crisis.
As banks refused to lend,Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a
plan to loosen credit markets by
buying risky assets.Congress
approved the Emergency Economic
Stabilization Act of Two Thousand
Eight on October third.The bill
provided seven hundred billion dollars o buy hard-to-value securities from
banks.
But within weeks,the government hanged plans.The Treasury moved to invest two hundred fifty
billion dollars directly in banks to help them lend money again.
ack of credit not only hurt banks but manufacturers,too.Falling ar sales threatened America's carmakers.The big three
automakers -- General Motors,Ford and Chrysler -- told Congress
hat they needed loans or they faced bankruptcy.In December,
President Bush offered G.M.and Chrysler over seventeen billion
dollars in loans.
As the year ended,the Federal Reserve tried to support economic
growth by lowering its main interest rate to nearly zero for the first ime.But there was one more bad surprise.New York money
manager Bernard Madoff admitted he had cheated investors out of ifty billion dollars.The news only added to the sense that two
housand eight was the worst economic year since the nineteen
hirties.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report,written by
Mario Ritter.I'm Steve Ember.

本周,我们继续我们的回顾
在主要经济新闻
一年.在9月15日(
雷曼兄弟,一个一百
58岁的投资银行,
从它寻求法律保护
债权人.政府没有去找一个买主
经过数月的搜索.
有超过6亿美元
债务,雷曼的失败是最大的
美国历史上破产的.
与此同时,国家最大的保险公司,
美国国际集团,