2023年经济学人 丢失的五千亿美元(2)

（单词翻译）

    But use of the facility has jumped in recent years, owing to vast quantitative¹ easing (QE) during covid-19 and regulatory tweaks which left banks laden² with cash.

    但近年来，由于新冠肺炎期间的大规模量化宽松以及监管方面的微调--这让银行背上了大量现金--该工具的使用大幅增加。

    QE creates deposits: when the Fed buys a bond from an investment fund, a bank must intermediate the transaction.

    量化宽松创造了存款：当美联储从投资基金购买债券时，银行必须为交易提供中介。

    The fund’s bank account swells³; so does the bank’s reserve account at the Fed.

    基金的银行账户膨胀，银行在美联储的储备账户也在膨胀。

    From the start of QE in 2020 to its end two years later, deposits in commercial banks rose by $4.5trn, roughly equal to the growth in the Fed’s own balance-sheet.

    从2020年量化宽松开始到两年后结束，商业银行存款增加了4.5万亿美元，大致相当于美联储自身资产负债表的增长。

    For a while banks could cope with the inflows because the Fed decided⁴ at the start of covid to ease a regulation known as the “supplementary leverage⁵ ratio” (SLR).

    在一段时间内，银行可以应对资金流入，因为美联储在疫情开始时决定放松一项被称为“补充杠杆率”的规定。

    This stopped the growth in commercial banks’ balance-sheets from forcing them to raise more capital, allowing them to safely use the inflow of deposits to increase holdings of Treasury⁶ bonds and cash.

    这阻止了商业银行因资产负债表的增长而被迫筹集更多资本，使它们能够安全地利用流入的存款增持美国国债和现金。

    Banks duly took the opportunity, buying $1.5trn of Treasury and agency bonds.

    银行及时抓住了这个机会，购买了1.5万亿美元的美国国债和机构债券。

    Then in March 2021 the Fed let the exemption⁷ from the SLR lapse⁸.

    然后，在2021年3月，美联储让对补充杠杆率的减免失效。

    As a result, banks found themselves swimming in unwanted cash.

    结果，银行发现自己被过多的现金淹没。

    They shrank by cutting their borrowing from money-market funds, which instead chose to park their cash at the Fed.

    它们减少了从货币市场基金的借款，而货币市场基金则选择将现金存放在美联储。

    By 2022 the funds had $1.7trn deposited overnight in the Fed’s reverse-repo facility, compared with a few billion a year earlier.

    到2022年，基金隔夜存入美联储逆回购工具的资金达到1.7万亿美元，而一年前只有数十亿美元。

    After the fall of SVB, America’s small and midsized banks fear deposit outflows.

    硅谷银行倒闭后，美国的中小型银行担心存款外流。

    The problem is that monetary⁹ tightening¹⁰ has made them still more likely.

    问题是，货币紧缩使得存款外流更有可能出现。

    Gara Afonso and colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York find that use of money-market funds rises along with rates, since returns adjust faster than those from bank deposits.

    纽约联邦储备银行的加拉·阿方索和他的同事发现，货币市场基金的使用随着利率上升而上升，因为回报的调整速度快于银行存款的调整速度。

    Indeed, the Fed has raised the rate on overnight-reverse-repo transactions from 0.05% in February 2022 to 4.8%, making it much more alluring¹¹ than the going bank-deposit rate of 0.4%.

    的确，美联储已经将隔夜逆回购交易的利率从2022年2月的0.05%上调至4.8%，使其比目前0.4%的银行存款利率更具吸引力。

    The amount money-market funds parked at the Fed through the reverse-repo facility--and thus outside the banking¹² system--jumped by half a trillion dollars in the same period.

    同期，货币市场基金通过逆回购工具存放在美联储的资金--也就是存放在银行系统以外的资金--跃升了5000亿美元。

    For those lacking a banking licence, leaving money in the repo facility is a better bet than leaving it in a bank.

    对于那些没有银行执照的机构来说，把钱留在回购工具里比把钱放在银行里更好。

    Not only is the yield considerably¹³ higher, but there is simply no reason to worry about the Fed going bust¹⁴.

    不仅收益率高得多，而且根本没有理由担心美联储会破产。

    Money-market funds could in effect become “narrow banks”: institutions that back consumer deposits with central-bank reserves, rather than higher-return but riskier¹⁵ assets.

    货币市场基金实际上可能变成“狭义银行”：用央行储备支持消费者存款的机构，而不是高回报高风险的资产。

    A narrow bank cannot make loans to firms or write mortgages. Nor can it go bust.

    狭义银行不能向公司发放贷款，也不能发放抵押贷款。它也不会破产。

    The Fed has long been sceptical of such institutions, fretting¹⁶ that they would undermine banks.

    长期以来，美联储一直对此类机构持怀疑态度，担心它们会削弱银行。

    In 2019 officials denied TNB USA, a startup aiming to create a narrow bank, a licence.

    2019年，官员们拒绝了给TNB USA发放执照，这是一家想要创建狭义银行的初创公司。

    A similar concern has been raised about opening the Fed’s balance-sheet to money-market funds.

    对于向货币市场基金开放美联储的资产负债表，人们也提出了类似的担忧。

    When the reverse-repo facility was set up, Bill Dudley, then the president of the New York Fed, worried it could lead to the “disintermediation of the financial system”.

    当逆回购工具设立时，时任纽约联邦储备银行行长的比尔·达德利担心，逆回购工具可能导致“金融体系的非中介化”。

    During a financial crisis it could exacerbate¹⁷ instability with funds running out of riskier assets and onto the Fed’s balance-sheet.

    在金融危机期间，这可能会加剧不稳定，因为资金会从风险较高的资产逃入美联储的资产负债表。

    There is no sign yet of a dramatic rush.

    目前还没有戏剧性的资金狂奔迹象。

    For now, the banking system is dealing¹⁸ with a slow bleed.

    目前，银行系统正在应对缓慢的资金流失。

    But deposits are growing scarcer as the system is squeezed--and America’s small and midsized banks could pay the price.

    但随着金融体系受到挤压，存款在变得越来越稀缺--美国的中小型银行可能会为此付出代价。