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
80
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.
To counter the coming economic crisis, many are expecting to seek help from_________.
选项
答案
the Internationa Monetary Fund
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/vLr7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Thewomandoesn’tlikesmoking.B、Theplaceisair-conditioned.C、Thisisanon-smokingarea.D、Nobodysmokeshere.C
Weoftenhearthe【B1】______,"Everybodytalksaboutweather,butnobodydoesanythingaboutit."Thisisreallynot【B2】______to
Weoftenhearthe【B1】______,"Everybodytalksaboutweather,butnobodydoesanythingaboutit."Thisisreallynot【B2】______to
Weoftenhearthe【B1】______,"Everybodytalksaboutweather,butnobodydoesanythingaboutit."Thisisreallynot【B2】______to
Weoftenhearthe【B1】______,"Everybodytalksaboutweather,butnobodydoesanythingaboutit."Thisisreallynot【B2】______to
Weoftenhearthe【B1】______,"Everybodytalksaboutweather,butnobodydoesanythingaboutit."Thisisreallynot【B2】______to
A、Itcreateddesignproblemsforarchitects.B、Itmadeskyscrapersmoreexpensivetobuild.C、Itwasneededfortransportingcon
随机试题
下列关于瞳孔大小的叙述,正确的是()
A、低流量、低浓度持续给氧B、高流量给氧C、高压氧舱D、高流量通过50%乙醇湿化后给氧E、低流量通过30%乙醇湿化后给氧重症哮喘吸氧原则是()
期前收缩三联律是指
两个以上的申请人分别就同样的发明创造申请专利的,专利权授予()。
甲公司2017年1月1日发行三年期可转换公司债券,实际发行价款200000万元,其中负债成分的公允价值为180000万元。假定发行债券时另支付发行费用600万元。不考虑其他因素,甲公司发行债券时应确认的“其他权益工具”科目的金额为()万元。
纳税人欠缴应纳税款,采取转移或者隐匿财产的手段,致使税务机关无法追缴欠缴的税款,数额在1万元以上的,应追究其刑事责任。( )
阅读下列材料,完成教学设计。材料1:《普通高中化学课程标准(实验)》的“内容标准”:“通过实例了解人体必需的维生素的主要来源及其摄入途径。了解维生素在人体中的作用。”“认识微量元素对人体健康的重要作用。”材料2:普通
教师在讲授古代诗歌鉴赏时强调,“借景抒情”是诗人常用来抒情的重要表现手法,并列举了一些例句,下列没有使用“借景抒情”的手法的诗句是()。
有以下程序main(){inti,s=0,t[]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};for(i=0;i<9;i+=2)s+=*(t+i);printf("%d\n",s);}程序执行后的输出结果是
Peopleliketothinkthatlifewasbetterinthepast.Theairwascleaner,thewaterwasclearer,people【C1】______friendlier,l
最新回复
(
0
)