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Making banks safe Calling to accounts 罪魁祸首让银行变得更安全 The final article in our series on the financial crisis examines the best way to make banks safer without killing lending. 本篇重点：如何在不扼杀放贷的情况下，找到一条让银行变得更安全的最佳途径。 1 BANKS are a perplexing mix. The special institutions at the heart of capitalism, they provide an easy link between savers and borrowers: granting loans to those with the ideas and ambition to use them while at the same time providing peace of mind to squirrels who want to lock their cash away safely. Yet banks have a dark side too: they exist to manage risk, but often simply stockpile it. When they go bad they scythe away wealth and strangle economies. There is little argument that it was the banks that started the crisis five years ago. There is huge disagreement about how to put things right. 银行是一个矛盾的混合体。作为身处资本主义核心的一个特殊机构，银行为储蓄人和借款人搭建了一条便利的通道：她一方面可以将资金借给有想法有野心的人，另一方面又可以为想把现金安全地藏起来的小松鼠提供安全之选。然而，银行也有其黑暗的一面：它们原本是为了控制风险而存在，然而却经常成为风险累积之地。当他们露出其丑恶的一面时，它们会将你的财富席卷一空，会让经济体窒息而亡。毫无疑问，5年前的那场金融危机之所以会发生，银行是一个关键的因素。但是，怎样才能让银行的运作走上正规呢？各方议论纷纷，至今尚无统一的观点。 ??2 To see why banks are so vital, start with the finances of a typical household or firm. Their debts—mainly mortgages on homes, offices or factories—have fixed terms; they often have fixed interest rates too. In what is owed there is a lot of certainty. But firms and families financial assets are not bound by such rigid terms: deposits can be withdrawn with little notice, bonds and equity can be sold quickly if cash is needed or if investment tastes change. This combination of fixed-term debts and flexible assets is a comfortable set-up. 为了说明银行的重要性，不妨从家庭和企业的财政说起。对于一个典型的家庭或企业来说，他们的债务主要是按揭贷款，即为购买房产、办公场所或生产厂房而从银行获得的贷款，这些贷款都是受固定条款约束的，而且贷款的利率也经常是固定的，也就是说，债务是固定的，它有很多确定性因素在内。但是，家庭和企业的金融资产就有所不同了，上述的固定条款对它们没有约束力。如果你急需现金，可以在不引起别人注意的情况下从银行中提取存款；如果你急需现金投资偏好发生了变化，可以迅速地卖出债券和股票。债务是“死”的，资产是“活”的。两相搭配，就会让你拥有一个不错的前程。 ??3 But one partys asset is anothers liability. This means that corporate and personal finances have a mirror image i