全国高等农林院校“十一五”规划教材-英语阅读上册--课文三单元.docVIP

全国高等农林院校“十一五”规划教材-英语阅读上册--第三单元:Crisis in confidence: The China factor 2009-12-26 22:11Crisis in confidence: The China factor By Francesco Sisci The crisis in confidence in the US economy triggered by the creative accounting scandals involving Enron and others has highlighted important differences in the worlds two most powerful economies, the United States and Europe. But another emerging economic giant looms in Asia, and it is clear that here, too, confidence is the key. Here, however, security is the concern, and not so much misleading profit-and-loss figures. （2）In the United States, creative accounting permitted traditional companies to show performances similar to those in the new high-tech economy and thus compete with Microsoft and its peers for a share of investment from an ever-greedier public. （3）In this way, one could see the Enron case and the others as byproducts of the new economy. As the new companies showed performances and potentials that were crowding out the traditional companies, the latter lost investment on the stock market. To compete and stay afloat in a world of fast-shifting investment, the traditional companies had to improve their performance. To do that they had to streamline their business and make it more rewarding for the stockholder, who would otherwise shift his investment into new-economy stocks. （4）Furthermore, the new economy promised new avenues of growth, promises fueled by the uncertainty surrounding the real long-term effects of the computer revolution. Although no one could calculate how much efficiency would improve, everyone assumed such improvements would show up on the balance sheets sooner or later. The lack of clear calculations made the atmosphere heady and investors got carried away, as capitalists tend to do when they smell a period of strong growth. But when streamlining and consolidation failed to provide the numbers needed to lure greedy investors, business leaders concocted new accounting devices.