このところ気になるテーマは国内では普天間、海外ではギリシャです・・・
それでギリシャ関連を取り上げます、でもざっと眼を通して「分からないな」と
思う箇所が幾つかありますが、文脈を見ながら読んでみようと思います。
まず、長く分かりにくいので、一度全体に目を通してから、第一パラグラフに集中し、繰り返し読み構造を把握してゆきます。
May 11, 2010
Greece’s Newest Odyssey
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Athens
For a man whose country’s wobbly finances have kept the world on edge for months, the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, evinces an Obama-Zen-like calm. He is just back/ from meeting fellow European Union leaders, who decided to try to stave off /a Greek meltdown/ and an E.U. crackup /with a show of overwhelming force ― committing nearly $1 trillion/ to support the economy of any ailing member state. But over a lunch of Greek salad and grilled fish, Papandreou makes clear that/ he knows/ that the deal with the E.U. /was not your garden-variety bailout-for-budget-cuts. No, if you really look closely at /what it will take/ for Greece to mend its economy, this is actually a bailout-for-a-revolution. Greece’s entire economic and political system /will have to change /for Greeks to deliver their side of this bargain.
Papandreou says/ he is ready and so, too,( he insists), is his country: “People are saying to me, ‘change this country ― go ahead and change it.’ People realize that/ it needs change. You don’t want to miss /this opportunity.”
How Greece performs will not only affect Greeks, but the value of the euro and the whole 27-nation European Union. Yes, I know, the E.U. is the world’s most opaque and boring organization. But it is actually America’s not-so-identical twin and the world’s largest economy. It is, in fact, “the United States of Europe,” and, in my view, two United States are better than one. If this one over here fractures, it will affect everything from how many exports America has in the next year to how many allies America has in the next war.
Sitting in a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Acropolis, I ask Papandreou to put on his safari hat and tell me what it was like to be hunted by the electronic bond herd for six months.
“Because of the 2008 crisis, all the market players have become /much more risk-averse, so they are on a hair trigger,” explains /the center-left prime minister, who was voted in /by a large majority /in October /o fix this mess. Today’s market players are “like an animal/ that has been wounded, and so /it recoils /at the slightest motion. So/ any rumor about you /can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Comparing bond players to some kind of living beasts/ may be unfair to beasts, he suggests. These markets “are not even human anymore. Some of these things are computerized, and they just go /into automatic mode” when they see /a hint of trouble.
Because of their profligacy, Greeks have been living/ under this market scrutiny/ for so many months, he added, that today “every Greek from age 3 to 93 /knows /what a ‘bond spread’ means. ‘What’s the spread today? Are they widening?’ People had never heard/ about this/ before,” and it created a paralyzing uncertainty. “Should I buy, consume, save, invest, take my money out of the country?”
少し長いですが、音読を繰り返して区切りを入れてみてください。
ではおやすみなさい