首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Time To Panic? Nobody needed to read George Bush’s lips when he visited Russia recently as the guest of Goldman Sachs to ma
Time To Panic? Nobody needed to read George Bush’s lips when he visited Russia recently as the guest of Goldman Sachs to ma
admin
2013-03-11
62
问题
Time To Panic?
Nobody needed to read George Bush’s lips when he visited Russia recently as the guest of Goldman Sachs to mark the opening of the U.S. investment bank’s Moscow outpost. Bush declared his faith in "the power of freedom" and of free markets. "I am optimistic," he proclaimed. "I believe Russia is going to thrive. "Bush may yet be proved right. But coming as the country’s stock market hit a new record low and interest rates leapt skyward, the former President’s speech was ill-timed. For anyone who has invested in Russia, this is the summer of sleepless nights as the dreaded word deval’vatsiya--Russian for devaluation— makes an unwelcome comeback. "It’s taboo to say it," says one prominent Russian banker, "but this threat hangs over us like a nightmare." Last week, Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov declared devaluation unavoidable unless tax collection improves "by a third" in the coming months. With billions of dollars in unpaid taxes, the government has launched yet another desperate crackdown on tax evaders, even freezing the assets of the country’ s top debtor, gas giant Gazprom which owes some $ 2.5 billion. The showdown was dramatic, with the tax police storming Gazprom’s Moscow skyscraper and salivating over its vast collection of yachts, planes and holiday villas. But within hours, the confrontation was over. On Friday, Gazprom’s CEO Rem Vyakhirev won a private audience with President Boris Yeltsin, where he defused attempts to rip up the agreement granting him control of 35 % of the state’s 40% stake in Gazprom and promised, in due time, to pay off the debt.
But as every sentient observer knows, the clock is ticking fast. "When treasury bill rates rise to 80 %, it means we’ re in a pre-collapse state," says Vladimir Potanin, so-called oligarch and founder of Unexim Bank, one of Russia’s largest. "It’s logical what could come next: devaluation, the crash of the banking system, huge’ lines of people trying to get their money out, unpaid wages and heightened social tension." Everybody agrees that a devaluation would devastate Russia as it struggles to retain its fragile financial credibility earned over six years of haphazard reform. Particularly hard hit would be Russia’ s banking system, which has debts of at least $ ,200 billion and dangerously few assets. What assets the banks do have could be wiped out thanks to their exposure to so-called "dollar forward contracts" signed with Western banks. "If there’ s a devaluation," says Potanin, "it’ s clear that there is this massive amount of future obligations that will have to be paid off, and of course the method will be by defaulting."
Little wonder then that the crisis has reduced Russia’s financial elite, once a pride of chest-beating fat cats, to a threatened species screeching about the coming apocalypse. Their counterparts in the political arena are no less panicked. On June 23, Yeltsin warned his opponents in parliament that if an austerity package was not passed before they recessed on July 16, he would resort to "other means’--a hint that he would rule by decree. Yet last week, the Russian President informed his subjects and stunned international observers: "We have no crisis." Yeltsin may be the only person in Russia who believes that, as devaluation rumors hit fever pitch. "This week," predicts a top financial journalist, who boasts close ties to the Central Bank. Even as they brace for the coming storm, many are looking to the International Monetary Fund to save the day. After twice delaying it, on June 25 the IMF, citing its faith in the cabinet of Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, released a $ 670 million tranche of a previous $ 9.2 billion credit. But Russia’s chances for a world-class bailout--the $ 10-15 billion that Anatoli Chubais, Yeltsin’s envoy to the IMF talks, deems the bare minimum Russia needs to escape catastrophe--look slim.
In the meantime, Kiriyenko is fighting to hang on to his new job, and his blueprint for rescuing Russia. By midweek, the beleaguered Prime Minister had submitted his anti-crisis plan to the Duma including measures to cut corporate taxes and introduce a single value-added tax of’ 20%. The package, Western financial experts warned, is long on generalities, short on implementation. The Duma, however, has other ideas. Sergei Baburin, the Communist vice speaker, denounced the proposed laws as "lethal medicine cooked up by vengeful Western economists." Some optimists are looking to the long term. "We’ ve been able to get more cuts out of this new government," muses one IMF official in private, "than we did from the Chernomyrdin government in the last three years." But in the short term, the crisis threatens to consume everything in its path. Among those clamoring loudest for a bailout are the Western bankers who find themselves embarrassingly exposed. Of Russia’ s $ 72.2 billion in outstanding loans, German banks alone hold $ 30.5 billion.
At home, the so-called oligarchs are also running scared. With the conflagration encroaching, they have put aside personal rivalry to form a "cooperation council" to advise Kiriyenko. But Yeltsin has yet to give his blessing to this "shadow cabinet."
Although there have been no runs on Russian banks so far, there are reasons to fear a panic: the stock market has plunged by 63% since January; Russia’s debt pyramid of compounding treasury bills has grown dangerously; interest rates hover above 80%; while more than a third of the budget goes to service the government’s burgeoning debt. In July, Russia will have to pay out $ 6.5 billion to redeem maturing loans, while cash reserves have sunk to $ 11.5 billion. The government is finding it difficult to raise new funds and has had to cancel its latest treasury bill auctions. "No one believes in this paper," says the head of one of Russia’s largest banks.
Those fretting the loudest may be the foreigners--the fund managers and deal makers who rail against the "fools in Washington" who tend to Asia’ s woes while ignoring Russia’ s. They warn darkly of the danger of "losing Russia." Without help from abroad, they claim, the pro-reform Kiriyenko cabinet will fall and in the post-crash wake a "nationalist-patriot’ will rise. A dark scenario, but one taken seriously of late. As a senior IMF official, who’d love to see Western governments give large loans to Russia, puts it: "No doubt about it, a bailout is expensive, but it’ s our cheapest insurance policy." Maybe, but just the premiums on such a policy could prove extortionate.
If there’s a devaluation, the Russian banks will afford to pay off the massive, amount of future obligations.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/iLr7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
ThispassageisareportonthegrowingnumberofAmericanswhoadoptchildrenfromothercountries.GrowingnumberofAmerican
Spaceisadangerousplace,notonlybecauseofmeteors(陨星)butalsobecauseofraysfromthesunandotherstars.Theatmosphe
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledHavingaBoyfriendorGirlfriendonCampus.Youshould
Thegoldenruleyourparentsandteacherstaughtyouwasprettysimple:Dountoothersasyou’dhaveothersdountoyou.Imagine
In1812,inavillagenearParis,alittleboyhithimselfintheeyewithoneofhisfather’s【B1】______tools,andbecameblind.
OnlineEducation1.目前网络教育形成热潮2.形成这股热潮的原因是……3.我对网络教育的评价
A、Gatheringnon-relevantmaterials.B、Sharingnoteswithsomeoneelse.C、Stealinganotherperson’sideas.D、Handinginassignmen
WhenIwasatschool,my【B1】______wastobeapilotintheAirForce.Butmy【B2】______wasn’tgoodenough,soIhadtogiveupth
Acloseanalogytoastudydesignistheroughsketchmadebyanartistbeforehecommitshisvisiontocanvas(画布).Thebroadou
A、Washingplates.B、Cleaningtables.C、Shiningshoes.D、Sweepingthefloor.C四个选项都是工作,题目询问说话者的第一份工作是什么。关键是听到“我6岁时的第一份工作是给客人擦鞋”,可
随机试题
我国《专利法》规定,实用新型专利申请人应当向国务院专利行政部门提交的申请文件有()
细菌L型是指
下列情况除哪种情况外都能引起多尿
初始土地登记准备工作中应加强对基础干部、基层登记工作人员和用地量较大的单位和个人的培训,培训的内容包括()。
以下关于资本积累率指标说法正确的有( )。
甲公司为劳务派遣单位。2017年3月10日,钱某被甲公司招用,同日被派遣至乙公司工作6个月。期间钱某被乙公司派遣至丙公司(乙公司的子公司)工作15天,2017年9月钱某派遣期满,甲公司未为其安排工作。要求:根据上述资料,不考虑其他因素,分析回答
甲与商家乙订立了某品牌的电冰箱试用买卖合同,双方并没有对试用期间作出明确约定,下列关于该合同的说法正确的是()。
一个重公德、讲卫生、有礼貌的文明社会或文明城市,并不是靠“五讲四美”的群众运动或制订诸如吐痰罚款等措施所能建立起来的。倘使每个公民没有发自内心的需要,认为讲公德和自己的利益休戚相关,倘使没有这种公民意识的自觉,那么,无论依靠多么严厉的强制手段也是无济于事的
通过搜集和分析某人过去和现在有关方面的资料,以推知其行为原因的方法是()。
社会主义初级阶段实行按生产要素分配的依据是
最新回复
(
0
)