聯合翻譯引用自 世界公民文化中心：http://blog.udn.com/corecorner/4628211
Pity the Irish. In the past 18 months, Dublin has repeatedly unveiled commendably bold measures to fight financial crisis. First, it offered to guarantee the banks. Then it replaced its top regulator and central bank governor, and embarked on an unusually forceful effort to inject transparency into its troubled banks.
愛爾蘭人真可憐。18個月以來，愛爾蘭政府一再祭出抗衡金融危機的措施。先是提供銀行擔保，然後撤換了最央行最高首長，繼而又採取非常手段，讓陷入困境的銀行透明。
More remarkable still, it has also imposed a painful austerity plan, in a bid to reduce debt. This has hitherto been largely accepted by long-suffering voters; social cohesion still appears surprisingly high.
愛爾蘭政府還實施了痛苦的財政緊縮計畫，以求降低債務水準。到目前為止，長期受苦的選民們基本上己接受該計畫，社會凝聚力似乎仍然高得驚人。
Yet, instead of being rewarded by the markets, Ireland is now in the cross-hairs. Is there anything more that the Irish government can do to fight back? In essence, Dublin is now pinning its hopes on a combination of pragmatism and grit.
然而，愛爾蘭非但沒有得到市場的回報，反而成為眾矢之的。愛爾蘭政府還能怎麼反擊？都柏林現在也只能夠務實和堅忍度過。
While yields might have jumped this month, they could also drop equally sharply, if only Dublin could find a formula to produce that crucial psychological tipping point. Moreover, Ireland does not need to find that magic formula today: since it is not due to refinance government bonds until next summer, there are – theoretically – a few months to play with.
愛爾蘭債券收益率本月大幅躍升，但它們隨時可能迅速下降，只要愛爾蘭政府能夠找到一種方案來創造出關鍵的心理轉捩點。再者，愛爾蘭不需要立刻找出那個神奇的方案：因為政府債券要到明年夏季才需要再融資，從理論上說還有幾個月的時間。
How might it use that time? The parliament is expected to pass a budget plan next month. Once in place, this should reassure investors. Or so it is hoped. Then early next year, Irish regulators plan another big audit of the banks’ books, probably using a high-profile external company to add credibility.
政府會如何利用這段時間呢？預期議會將於下月通過一項預算計畫。一旦計畫到位，便應該能夠消除投資者的疑慮。或者說政府是這麼希望的。然後到明年初，愛爾蘭監管機構計畫對銀行帳目再進行一次大規模審計，或許會聘請一家知名的外部機構以增加審計的可信度。
The logic – or hope – behind this is that Ireland will win more investor confidence if it can show that it is not acting like Japan in the 1990s, namely sweeping problems under the carpet. In particular, Irish officials know that American investors (among others) are fretting that Ireland could suffer a US-style “jingle mail” problem, where homeowners start defaulting en masse on homes as prices fall. Thus the plan is to get outside experts to properly audit the mortgage books – and model the jingle mail risk.
這麼做背後的邏輯（或者說希望）是：如果愛爾蘭能夠證明自己並沒有像上世紀90年代的日本那樣隱暪問題，就能贏得投資者信心。尤其是，愛爾蘭官員知道，美國等地的投資者正擔心，愛爾蘭可能會遭遇美國式的“叮噹郵件”問題，即隨著房價下跌，住房擁有者開始集體拖欠房屋抵押貸款（因此用郵件將房屋鑰匙寄給銀行）。因此，愛爾蘭政府計畫聘請外部專家，對銀行抵押貸款帳簿進行嚴格審計——並建立叮噹郵件風險模型。
關鍵閱讀點：
- 1. in the cross-hairs：眾矢之的
crosshairs是一個射擊用字，步槍瞄準器就叫做crosshairs。也可以分開寫成cross-hairs。又叫做cross wires。這個字就出現在美國電影《Rushmore--青春年少》中，其中影片中的台詞是這樣的“Get them in the crosshairs and take them down" --"緊跟住這些人，有機會就拿下”。注意用的是複數 "crosshairs"，而不是“crosshair"。
為什麼叫做cross hairs很容易想，因為有兩道軸線交錯。當我們說一個人in the crosshairs，是指大家都把關注放在這個人身上，相等於"center of interest"，但這種關注，基本上都不是好事。例如：The war on terrorism has put Osama Bin Laden in the crosshairs. 恐怖主義讓賓拉登成為為眾矢之的。
- 2. Pin one’s hope on：把希望寄託在
這個詞不難理解，但取代性高，所以少用。Pin本來的意思是大頭針，當動詞意象明顯，很好用，例如pin down是敲定，這種敲定有當對方游移不定，想辦法讓它做決定的意味。I tried to pin him down on a time and place, but he was very evasive. 我想敲定時間、地點，他卻一直避開問題。
入人於罪也用這個字，例如：Don't try to pin the blame on me; I didn't do it! 別想把過錯推在我身上，那不是我幹的！
- 3. Tipping point：引爆點
常常有人問，tipping point和turning point有何不同。Turning point很常見，顧名思義。Tipping Point原來指劃火柴的時候，火柴頭一直在升溫，升溫，直到有一個點，忽然就燃燒起來，生成很大的火焰。這個點就是tipping point，也就是我們說的由量變到質變的過程。 其實說是一個關鍵轉折點也可以。
- 4. Jingle mail：叮噹郵件
金融風暴後衍生出來的新字。全這個新英語詞彙Jingle mail，意思是會發出叮噹聲的郵件。在次貸危機中，很多美國人無力還房貸，乾脆來個一走了之，把房子鑰匙裝進信封寄還給銀行，這些裝著金屬鑰匙的信封堆在一起相互碰撞，於是發出了聲音。我們來看看投資百科Investopedia 怎麼解釋Jingle mail這個現象：
If a homeowner has difficulty making mortgage payments and is limited in his or her ability to refinance the mortgage - especially if there is no equity in the home or the value of the home has fallen in the market to less than the value of the outstanding loan - there is often little an owner can do but foreclose. This usually occurs when a weak housing market occurs during economic weakness in which job losses increase and salaries stagnate or fall.
This term was first used to describe the surprise mailings that mortgage lenders received following the savings and loan debacle of 1990-1991. This term resurfaced during the housing and subprime mortgage collapse, which began in 2006.
聯合翻譯引用自 世界公民文化中心：http://blog.udn.com/corecorner/4628211
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