The threat of impending financial disaster concentrates political minds wonderfully. On Thursday a group of Congressional leaders heard Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, paint a dire economic scenario if they did not approve a more sweeping remedy for the financial crisis. Student and car loans, not just mortgages, would all be harder to get. The economy would sink into a severe recession.

    迫在眉睫的金融灾难引起了相当多的政治关注。上周四，一群国会领袖听了财长保尔森和美联储主席伯南克所描述的，当国会不通过这项全面拯救金融危机的方案，经济上将会出现的可怕场面。那时，不仅仅是抵押贷款，甚至连助学贷款和买车贷款可能都很难获得。经济将陷入严重的衰退。

    For this reason, ad hoc responses will still be critical, such last week’s federal guarantees for money-market funds, Fed loans to banks to purchase asset-backed commercial paper and, on Sunday, approval of the remaining two big independent investment banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, to become Fed-regulated bank holding companies whose investment bank units can now borrow from the Fed on the same terms as other banks.

    基于这样的原因，特别的拯救措施仍然非常关键，上周对货币市场的联邦担保，通过美联储购买资产抵押的商业票据对银行的贷款，以及在周日允许剩下的两家大型投行——摩根斯坦利和高盛变为美联储监管银行控股公司，使其投行部分现在也可以向其它银行一样向美联储借钱。

    It could be some time before the Treasury is able to purchase mortgages en masse, and longer still before that starts to affect the broader financial system and economy. In the meantime, the crisis could claim other victims.

    财政部完成购买所有的抵押贷款可能还需一段时间，而此举对整个金融系统和经济发挥作用则更需时日。其间，金融危机的危害可能会波及更多的机构。

有用的单词和句子：

The financial crisis金融危机

A break in the clouds黑云裂日，曙光显现

But questions abound over a $700 billion rescue plan for Wall Street

有关7000亿美元华尔街拯救计划的问题仍然不少。

Mr Paulson’s plan is stunning in its brevity (two-and-a-half pages) and audacity.

保尔森计划的简洁（只有两页半纸）和大胆令人惊讶不已。