经济学人财经 || “两房”改革悄然而至

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

房利美和房地美（简称“两房”）

Home truths

令人不愉快的事实

注：An uncomfortable or unpleasant fact, especially one that is hard to hear or acknowledge. Often used in the plural.

这里会有疑问，题目为什么翻译成令人不愉快的事实，看了网页版就秒懂了，即两房是后金融危机时代的最后一件未竟之事，就是令人不愉快的事实了，所以这也是小编为什么推荐大家订阅经济学人阅读网页版的原因之一，其他原因如下：

1.主副标题以及摘要与app版以及pdf版中的不同

2.网页版中有很多超链接，会有其他相关联的文章加深理解

3.消失了的评论区，曾经每篇文章都有comments，而且是来自全世界人民的自由评论，可以听听大家的一些想法，现在没有了

Steven Mnuchin begins reforming America’s giant mortgage-guarantee firms

史蒂芬·姆努钦对美国大型抵押担保巨头的改革正悄然而至

“The last unfinished business of the financial crisis”: that is the rallying cry of those seeking to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant government-sponsored enterprises (gses) that back much of America’s mortgage industry. In 2008, amid the wreckage of the housing market, they were bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $188bn and placed in “conservatorship”, a form of government control. On September 5th Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, published a long-awaited plan to reprivatise them. “We want to make sure they are not in conservatorship on a permanent basis,” he told the Senate on September 10th.

“两房”改革者高唱“后金融危机时代的最后一件未竟之事”的战斗口号（“两房”是两大政府资助企业巨头，支撑着美国大部分抵押贷款行业)。2008年房产市场崩盘之际，两房不得不接受美国政府多达1880亿美元的援助，并由政府接管。而在9月5日，美国财政部长斯蒂芬·姆努钦发表了一份众人期望已久的“两房”私有化方案，并在9月10日对参议院的会议上说道：“我们想确保它们不会一直处于被接管状态。”

注：

1. The rallying cry 集体呼声/振奋人心的呼吁

2. To the tune of   按照/达到…之多/随着…节奏（引申为惟命是从）

3.  Fannie and Freddie 房利美和房地美

房利美(Federal National Mortgage Association，简称：Fannie Mae)，即联邦国民抵押贷款协会，成立于1938年，是最大的“美国政府赞助企业”，从事金融业务，用以扩大资金在二级房屋消费市场上流动的资金的专门机构。2008年9月发生次贷危机以来由美国联邦住房金融局接管，从纽约证交所退市。

房地美(Freddie Mac，NYSE：FRE，即联邦住宅贷款抵押公司)，是第二大的美国政府赞助企业(GSE，Government Sponsored Enterprise)，商业规模仅次于房利美。1970年由国会批准成立，作为旨在开拓美国第2抵押市场，增加家庭贷款所有权与房屋贷款租金收入。

4.bail-out

（经济上的）紧急援助；跳伞；应急措施；纾困；保释出来

Mr Mnuchin set out two alternatives. The first, more sweeping, would need congressional approval. The second could be carried out by the Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (fhfa). Mr Mnuchin says passing reform through Congress is his preferred option. A senior Treasury official says administrative actions will start promptly, in part to lay the groundwork for legislation. But the administration will proceed whether or not Congress acts. The Trump administration is presenting America’s housing-finance industry with a “fork in the road”, says Jim Parrott of the Urban Institute, a think-tank.

姆努钦提出了两个备选方案。第一个更为全面透彻的方案将需要国会的批准。第二个方案则可以由财政部和联邦住房金融局来执行，而姆努钦的首选是前者，即一份需要国会批准的全面改革。据美国财政部的一名高级官员称：行政措施将会迅速展开，从而为日后的立法奠定基础。因此无论国会是否有所表示，政府都将积极行动。城市研究所（一家智库）的吉姆·帕罗特也表示，特朗普政府正将美国住房金融产业领向了岔路口。

注：

1. Sweep 影响广泛的/清扫/大范围的 sweeping reform 全面改革

2. Fork in the road 岔路口

3. Promptly 迅速的/及时的 promptly and effectively 及时有效的

The two GSEs have been central to America’s housing market for decades. Fannie was founded as a government agency in 1938, during the Great Depression, and rechartered in 1968 with private capital and shareholders. Freddie was set up by Congress as a competitor in 1970. Both buy mortgages, mainly from banks, add a guarantee to repay the principal and interest if borrowers default, and bundle them into securities. These they either retain on their own balance-sheets or sell to investors.

几十年来，这两家政府资助企业一直是美国房地产市场的中枢。于1938年大萧条时期设立的房利美，起初为一家政府机关。1968年后分拆成为完全私有的股份制公司。1970年由国会立法成立的房地美，定位为房利美的竞争对手。它们业务模式均为：主要从银行购买抵押贷款，并做出在借款人违约时，偿还本金和利息的担保，同时将这些贷款捆绑为证券销售或作为资产留存于自己的资产负债表中。

注：

GSE-Government Sponsored Enterprise 政府资助企业

Their guarantees transfer some credit risk from the private sector to the government. In the run-up to the financial crisis, that transfer started to balloon. In the 1970s Fannie and Freddie held less than 10% of single-family mortgages in America. Now they hold more than $5trn of housing-related securities and guarantees, nearly half the total (see chart).

他们的担保将一些信用风险从私营部门转移到政府。在金融危机爆发之前，这种转移开始迅速膨胀。在20世纪70年代，房利美和房地美仅仅持有不到10%的美国独栋住户抵押贷款。而现在他们持有超过5万亿美元的房地产相关证券和担保，几乎占到总数的一半(见图表)。

Politicians often say they want the government to get out of the mortgage business entirely. But that is a distant prospect. Taxpayers’ assumption of some of the credit risk in mortgage lending is what drives the mortgage-backed-securities market (particularly since the financial crisis, which devastated private-label issuance). Investors are keen on the gses’ securities because they isolate the interest-rate risk associated with mortgages, allowing 30-year fixed-rate loans, which are almost unknown outside America. These are hugely popular with consumers (and voters).

政客们常说，他们希望政府彻底退出抵押贷款业务。但这是一个遥远的憧憬。推动抵押贷款证券化市场的一大动力正是纳税人对抵押贷款中部分信贷风险的承担（特别是金融危机以来，金融危机摧毁了私人部门的证券发行）。投资者热衷于政府资助企业发行的证券，因为它们隔离了与抵押贷款相关的利率风险，允许30年期的固定利率贷款，这在美国之外几乎是闻所未闻的。这些产品深受消费者（和选民）的欢迎。

With exit politically untenable, the priority is cutting the pair down to size. Before the bail-out they operated as private companies with a public charter, implying that the government would bail them out if they ran into trouble. Rather than nationalising them during the crisis, the Treasury guaranteed to keep their net worth above zero. In return it took warrants representing 80% of their common stock.

由于退出在政治上是站不住脚的，当务之急是缩小这两家企业的规模。在政府援助之前，他们是获得政府特许经营权的私营公司，这意味着如果他们陷入困境，政府将为他们提供援助。在经济危机期间，财政部没有将他们国有化，并且保证他们的净资产为正。作为回报，财政部获得了代表其80%普通股的认股权证。

The result is an even odder hybrid, with private shareholders but government-run. Under public control they have been forced to hand the Treasury the bulk of their profits—and, since 2012, the lot—to repay the bail-out. Since 2008 Fannie has returned $181bn, and Freddie $120bn. Their capital buffers have also been run down and handed to the government. Last year these fell so low that both gses required an injection of taxpayer cash. They now have just $3bn-worth of capital apiece.

结果产生了一种更为奇怪的混合物: 私人投资者持股而政府运营。在政府管控下，它们被迫向财政部上交大量利润，且自2012年以来，上交全部利润。2008年以来，房利美已经偿还了1810亿美金，而房地美还了1200亿。它们的缓冲资本也大幅削减并上交给政府。去年这两家政府资助企业的缓冲资本已经跌至需要纳税人资金注入。现在，它们各自的资本仅为30亿美元。

注：
apiece：副词 If a number of similar things are for sale at a certain price apiece, that is the price for each >各

例：Entire roast chickens were sixty cents apiece. 烤全鸡每只60美分。

Shareholders, whose rights were suspended in 2008, sued the government. On September 6th a panel of federal judges in New Orleans overturned a ruling that had backed the government’s appropriation of Fannie’s and Freddie’s profits. The arrangement had been made in a time of “dire calamity”, the judges acknowledged. But they added that “expedience does not license omnipotence”. When markets reopened on September 9th the gses’ share prices jumped by 40%. Mr Mnuchin has said he may appeal to the Supreme Court.

自2008年被中止权利的股东们起诉了政府。9月6日，新奥尔良的一个联邦法官小组推翻了一项支持政府占用房利美和房地美的利润的裁决。法官们承认，这一安排是在“可怕的灾难”时期做出的。但他们补充称，“权宜之计并非万全之策”。9月9日市场重新开盘后，这两家政府资助企业的股价飙升了40%。姆努钦先生（Mr Mnuchin）表示，他可能会向最高法院提起上诉。

注：

1. calamity /kəˈlæmɪtɪ/

有变体名词 A calamity is an event that causes a great deal of damage, destruction, or personal distress. 灾难

例：He described drugs as the greatest calamity of the age.

他形容毒品是这个时代最大的灾难。

2. expedience n. 私利；权宜；方便

3. omnipotence /ɒmˈnɪpətəns/

不可数名词 Omnipotence is the state of having total authority or power. 全能

例：...the omnipotence of God.  ...上帝的无所不能。

By the time the legal wrestling is over, however, the profit sweep may be, too. Instead of the government getting the lot, Mr Mnuchin wants Fannie and Freddie to pay an explicit fee for their government guarantees. For the past three years they have paid, on average, $18.2bn each year. Under the new system they would retain any earnings above the agreed amount.

然而，当法律角力结束时，利润的大幅增长也可能随之结束。姆努钦先生（Mr Mnuchin）希望房利美和房地美为政府提供的担保支付一笔明确的费用，而不是政府获得全部利润。过去3年，他们平均每年支付182亿美元。在新制度下，他们将保留超过商定数额的所有收益。

Donald Layton of Harvard University says that the fhfa’s proposed capital rule for Fannie and Freddie would require them to hold (very) roughly $125bn-worth of capital. It would take at least seven years—longer if the government’s fee is high—to build this up through retained earnings. Though the Treasury could help by selling down its stakes, a balance will have to be struck between a fee that reflects the risk of default and allowing the gses to build up capital. Last May Mark Calabria, the fhfa’s boss, said that retained earnings might take too long and that an ipo might come in the first half of 2020. If it were to raise the $100bn-120bn needed, it would be four to five times the size of the largest initial public offering to date: Alibaba’s in 2014.

哈佛大学的唐纳德·莱顿（Donald Layton）指出，美国联邦住房金融局为房利美和房地美制定的资本法将要求它们持有大约1250亿美元的资本。通过留存收益方式达成这一目标至少需要七年，如果政府收费高，则需更长的时间。虽然财政部可以通过减持股份提供帮助，但政府的费用必须保持一个平衡，既要反应违约风险同时要足以使这些政府资助企业聚集资本。 去年5月，联邦住房金融署的董事马克·卡拉布里亚（Mark Calabria）表明，留存收益筹集所需的时间可能太长，新的IPO 可能会在2020年上半年。2014年阿里巴巴上市是迄今为止规模最大的首次公开募股，如果两房有1000亿至1200亿美元需要筹集，这个规模将是阿里巴巴的四到五倍。

However it is done, recapitalisation would be just the first step towards reprivatisation. Mr Mnuchin wants government support for the housing market to become explicit, rather than implied, as now. He wants the securities Fannie and Freddie issue to have a “full faith and credit” guarantee, meaning the securities, not the issuers, are state-backed. He also wants such guarantees to be offered by more firms. These putative rivals for the gses would be chartered and overseen by the fhfa.

然而，即便最终完成后，资本重组也只是走向再私有化的第一步。姆努钦先生希望政府对房地产市场发展的支持更加透明清晰化，而不是像现在这样模糊。他要求房利美和房地美发行的证券能够保证“完全信任和信誉”，这意味着是证券，而不是发行人由政府背书。他期望更多公司能有此类保证。而这些假定的政府资助企业的竞争对手公司会获得政府特许，并由联邦住房金融局认定和监督。

注：

putative: believed to be the person or thing mentioned 认定的，公认的

But all that would require congressional approval—hard when Congress is divided and elections are looming. More likely is that the administration will seek other ways to increase competition by lessening the privileges granted to the gses. They are exempt from onerous disclosure rules that apply to banks and issuers of mortgage-backed securities with private credit guarantees, for example. Their capital is a fraction of what banks must hold. Securitising loans with Fannie or Freddie protects banks from lawsuits brought by defaulting borrowers seeking to hold on to their properties by claiming failures of due diligence.

以上所有这些都需要得到国会批准，但考虑到选举逼近和国会分裂等因素，至今仍悬而未决。特朗普政府的计划是试图通过压低政府对资助性企业补贴，用于促进住房金融市场的竞争。不同于那些银行和由私人信贷担保的抵押支持证券的发行人，政府资助企业并不受繁琐的披露规定的限制。他们的资本只是银行必须持有的小部分。房利美或房地美将贷款证券化，可以保护银行免受违约借款者诉讼。这些借款者声以未尽职调查为由，来试图保住自己的房产。

注：
GSEs：政府资助型企业。

MBS：Mortgage-Backed Security， 抵押支持债券或者抵押贷款证券化。MBS是最早的资产证券化品种。公司会在二级市场上收购按揭贷款，组成一个资产池，然后以此为基础在公开市场向投资者发行证券，即“抵押支持证券”

These privileges helped the gses to grow so huge. It is within the administration’s power not just to end the profit sweep and conservatorship, but to level the playing field. If Congress disagrees with the administration’s vision for Fannie and Freddie, it can set out its own. Either way, the mortgage monsters will soon be finding a new home.

这些特权帮助政府资助性企业日渐扩大。政府不仅有权结束对其利润的清盘和接管，而且有权创造公平的竞争市场环境。如果国会不同意政府对房利美和房地美的私有化设想，政府依然可以制定自己的计划。不管怎样，抵押贷款巨头们很快就会找到新的立足点。

翻译组：

Olivia，教育从业者，经济学人粉丝

Leon,  男，金融专业研究生，经济学人铁粉

Lucia ，女，翻译学硕士三年制，经济学人粉丝

Summer（琚儿），女，QE在职，梦想能仗翻译/音乐/健康走天涯

校对组：

Jessie Lulu, 金融从业者，爱阳光，爱细雨，爱经济学人

Ashley，女，金融硕士，爱宠物，爱英语，爱旅游，经济学人粉丝