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Tim Geithner says he would have supported a US Federal Reserve loan to help Barclays buy Lehman Brothers on the weekend in September 2008 that ended with the largest bankruptcy in US history.
曾任美国财长的蒂姆•盖特纳(Tim Geithner)表示，在2008年9月份那个周末，他原本支持美联储(Fed)发放一笔贷款，帮助巴克莱银行(Barclays)收购雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)。那一天后来以出现了美国历史上最大规模的破产案收场。
In his memoir of the financial crisis, Stress Test, to be published today, Mr Geithner, the former New York Fed president and Treasury secretary, reveals divisions among officials trying to save Lehman.
盖特纳周一出版了关于金融危机的回忆录《压力测试》(Stress Test)。这位曾经的纽约联邦储备银行(New York Fed)行长及美国财政部长在书中披露了那些试图拯救雷曼的美国官员之间的分歧。
His book raises the tantalising possibility of Fed support that might have persuaded UK regulators to let Barclays go ahead with buying Lehman, thus avoiding its bankruptcy and changing the course of the financial crisis, although Mr Geithner says that was unlikely.
他的书令人忍不住要去考虑这样一种可能性（尽管盖特纳表示这种情况不太可能发生）：美联储的支持也许会说服英国监管机构，令他们批准巴克莱对雷曼的收购，从而避免雷曼破产，改变金融危机的进程。
“In the end, I’m confident the Fed would have helped finance a deal with a willing buyer, and I think Hank [Paulson, then Treasury secretary] would have supported that, no matter what his people had told the press,” writes Mr Geithner.
盖特纳写道：“我相信美联储本来是可以为有收购意愿的买家提供相应资金的，而且我认为不管（时任美国财长的）汉克•保尔森(Hank Paulson)手下的人对媒体说了什么，他原本是会支持这一方案的。”
“But Fed assistance would not have eliminated the risk to Barclays, much less the British requirement for a shareholder vote, and I don’t see how it would have changed the British position.”
“不过美联储的援手可能不会消除巴克莱银行面临的风险，更不会影响英国让股东投票的要求。此外，我也看不出这么做会改变英国人的立场。”
Mr Geithner was known to be more willing to save Lehman than Mr Paulson or the then Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, but previous accounts of the crisis have emphasised that public money was off the table.
众所周知，盖特纳比保尔森或时任美联储主席本•伯南克(Ben Bernanke)更愿意拯救雷曼，不过在此之前人们对危机的解读，始终在强调动用公共资金解救雷曼不在磋商的范围之内。
“This was one of the few times during the crisis when there was any distance between Hank and me,” writes Mr Geithner. “There was even some distance between Ben and me.”
盖特纳写道：“这是危机期间汉克与我之间存在的少数分歧之一。在这个问题上，本和我之间也存在更大分歧。”
In the end, Mr Geithner’s willingness to use public money was moot, because UK regulators opposed the Barclays deal and time ran out. Barclays was the last remaining bidder for Lehman after Bank of America decided to pursue Merrill Lynch instead.
最终，盖特纳动用公共资金拯救雷曼的想法不了了之，原因是英国监管机构反对巴克莱对雷曼的收购，而且时间也来不及了。在美国银行(BoA)决定转而收购美林(Merrill Lynch)之后，巴克莱银行成为雷曼仅剩的唯一竞购方。
Lehman was insolvent and, without a buyer, the Fed had no authority to lend, writes Mr Geithner. That echoes what Mr Bernanke has said about the Lehman weekend.
盖特纳写道，雷曼因此陷入破产。由于没有买家收购雷曼，美联储也无权发放贷款。盖特纳这种说法与伯南克对雷曼破产的那个周末的描述一样。
By and large, Stress Test does not rewrite the history of the financial crisis. Mr Geithner’s main theme is the wisdom of propping up the financial system rather than punishing bankers. He attacks the “Old Testament populism and moral hazard fundamentalism” of those who opposed bailouts for fear they would encourage future irresponsibility.
大体上说，《压力测试》一书并未改写金融危机的历史。盖特纳写此书的主旨是表达如何以极大的智慧支持整个金融体系，而不是惩罚银行家。他大力批判了人们持有的那些“旧约式民粹主义及道德风险原教旨主义”——因担心会鼓励不负责任的行为而反对纾困。
Among insider details, Mr Geithner writes that he was put forward for chief executive of Citigroup in November 2007 but declined. The job went to Vikram Pandit. He recalls an awkward moment when John Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, appeared not to know the name of his own chief risk officer; and recounts how his staff gave a snippet of false information to aides to Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to see if it would leak to the press. “It quickly did,” he writes.
盖特纳还在书中披露了一些内幕细节，他写道2007年11月他曾被提名为花旗集团(Citigroup)首席执行官，不过这一提名被否决了，这一岗位后来被指派给潘伟迪(Vikram Pandit)。他还记得一些十分难堪的场面，比如美林首席执行官约翰•塞恩(John Thain)似乎不知道自己的首席风险官的名字；此外，盖特纳的员工层曾故意向美国联邦存款保险公司(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)主席希拉•拜尔(Sheila Bair)的助手泄露过一段虚假信息，以考察这段信息是否会被泄露给媒体，“消息很快就被泄露出去了”。
But Mr Geithner saves his harshest criticism for Congress during the effort for financial reform and in rows over the debt ceiling.
不过，盖特纳并未像在他试图开展金融改革及与国会陷入一系列关于债务天花板的争端时那样，尖锐地批评美国国会。
