1. China's economy, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and the biggest contributor to global growth, grew 9.9 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, according to official figures released on Monday, showing a trend of a slowdown amid the current global financial crisis. In the third quarter, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slowed down to 9 percent, the lowest in five years, from 10.6 percent in the first quarter, 10.1 percent for the second quarter and 10.4 percent in the first half of 2008. China's economic growth has been on a steady decline since peaking in the second quarter of 2007. The slowing world economy pummeled by the global financial crisis and weaker demand for Chinese exports on international markets heavily weighted on the Chinese economy, according to Li Xiaochao, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics. Another widely watched indicator, the consumer price index (CPI) -- an important measure of inflation -- rose 4.6 percent in September, over the same period last year. The figure, coupled with 7.1 percent in June, 6.3 percent in July, 4.9 percent in August and a nearly 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February, shows the CPI in a downward spiral. Analysts mainly attribute the decline in the CPI to ample grain supply and lower-thanexpected income growth of Chinese residents, as the housing and stock markets take heavy toll, which dented residents' desire to consume. Chinese stocks have shed nearly 70 percent of their value from the last year's peak at 6,124 points due to weak investor confidence. The stock market rose more than two percent on Monday amid expectation the government would unveil more measures to stimulate economy. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 43.36 points to close at 1,974.01 points. Exports, one of the three major drivers of the Chinese economy along with investment and consumption, are taking hit from the global financial turmoil and economic slowdown. In the first three quarters exports grew 22.3 percent, 4.8 percent points lower than the same period last year. Fixed assets investment totaled 11.6246 trillion yuan ($1.66 trillion) in the first three quarters of 2008, up 27.0 percent over the same period last year, according to the bureau. The growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than the first half of this year, or 1.3 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level. Another key economic indicator, retail sales, increased by 22 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters and climbed 23.2 percent in September alone. Analysts say China would have to further stimulate domestic consumption in order to push the economy forward amid an export slump. "China still has huge potential and leeway to expand domestic consumption," Li said. The combination of an economic slowdown and easing inflation may give rise to louder calls for loosening the monetary policy and adopting a more proactive fiscal policy. Analysts expect more monetary easing, building on two cuts in interest rates and banks' required reserves since mid-September. The State Council said on Sunday China's economy can weather the effects of the global financial turmoil, but growthwill decline as business profits and public revenues slow. In a statement at the end of an executive meeting presided by Premier Wen Jiabao, it said the global turmoil and economic instability will have a "gradual" effect on the country. It said China's economic growth will slow along with corporate profits and public revenues, and as capital markets continue to fluctuate. "Unfavorable international factors and the serious natural disasters at home have not changed the basic growth situation of our country's economy," said the statement posted on a government website. "Our country's economic growth has the ability and vigor to resist risks." China must "adopt flexible and cautious macroeconomic policies" to maintain stable growth, the statement said. The State Council said that in the fourth quarter, China should focus on developing the rural economy, while striving to control inflation. Global Financial Crisis：全球金融危机international market 国际市场gross domestic product 国内生产总值consumer price index 消费者物价指数housing and stock markets 房地产和证劵市场investor confidence 投资者信心stimulate economy 刺激经济easing inflation 缓解通货膨胀investment and consumption maintain stable growth投资和消费保持稳定增长2. Macroeconomics is a sub-field of economics that examines the behavior of the economy as a whole, once all of the individual economic decisions of companies and industries have been summed. Economy-wide phenomena considered by macroeconomics include Gross Domestic Product and how it is affected by changes in unemployment, national income, rate of growth, and price levels. In contrast, microeconomics is the study of the economic behaviour and decision-making of individual consumers, firms, and industries. Macroeconomics can be used to analyze how to influence government policy goals such as economic growth, price stability, full employment and the attainment of a sustainable balance of payments. Macroeconomics is sometimes used to refer to a general approach to economic reasoning, which includes long term strategies and rational expectations in aggregate behavior. Until the 1930s most economic analysis did not separate out individual economics behavior from aggregate behavior. With the Great Depression of the 1930s, suffered throughout the developed world at the time, and the development of the concept of national income and product statistics, the field of macroeconomics began to expand.Particularly influential were the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, who formulated theories to try to explain the Great Depression. Before that time, comprehensive national accounts, as we know them today, did not exist . One of the challenges of economics has been a struggle to reconcile macroeconomic and microeconomic models. Starting in the 1950s, macroeconomists developed micro-based models of macroeconomic behavior. Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen developed the first comprehensive national macroeconomic model, which he first built for the Netherlands and later applied to the United States and the United Kingdom after World War II. The first global macroeconomic model, Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates LINK project, was initiated by Lawrence Klein and was mentioned in his citation for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1980. Macroeconomics 宏观经济学Price stability 价格稳定balance ofpayments 国际收支平衡表individual economics behavior 个体经济行为product statistics 产品统计individual economic decisions 个体经济决策full employment 充分就业rational expectations 理性预期long termstrategies 长期战略microeconomic models 微观经济模型3.The annual review of American company board practices by Korn/Ferry, a firm of 3. headhunters, is a useful indicator of the health of corporate governance. This year’s review, published on November 12th, shows that the Sarbanes-Oxley act, passed in 2002 to try to prevent a repeat of corporate collapses such as Enron’s and WorldCom’s, has had an impact on the boardroom--albeit at an average implementation cost that Korn/Ferry estimates at $5.1m per firm.Two years ago, only 41% of American firms said they regularly held meetings of directors without their chief executive present; this year the figure was 93%. But some things have been surprisingly unaffected by the backlash against corporate scandals. For example, despite a growing feeling that former chief executives should not sit on their company’s board, the percentage of American firms where they do has actually edged up, from 23% in 2003 to 25% in 2004. Also, disappointingly few firms have split the jobs of chairman and chief executive. Another survey of American boards published this week, by A.T. Kearney, a firm of consultants, found that in 2002 14% of the boards of S&P 500 firms had separated the roles, and a further 16% said they planned to do so. But by 2004 only 23% overall had taken the plunge. A survey earlier in the year by consultants at McKinsey found that 70% of American directors and investors supported the idea of splitting the jobs, which is standard practice in Europe. Another disappointment is the slow progress in abolishing "staggered" boards--oneswhere only one-third of the directors are up for re-election each year, to three-year terms. Invented as a defence against takeover, such boards, according to a new Harvard Law School study by Lucian Bebchuk and Alma Cohen, are unambiguously "associated with an economically significant reduction in firm value".corporate governance 企业管制splitting the jobs 分裂的工作4.taken the plunge 采取果断行动corporate scandals 公司丑闻4. The dollar's tumble this week was attended by predictable shrinks from the markets; but as it fell to a 20-month low of $1.32 against the euro, the only real surprise was that it had not slipped sooner. Indeed, there are good reasons to expect its slide to continue, dragging it below the record low of $1.36 against the euro that it hit in December 2004. The recent decline was triggered by nasty news about the American economy. New figures this week suggested that the housing market's troubles are having a wider impact on the economy. Consumer confidence and durable-goods orders both fell more sharply than expected. In contrast, German business confidence has risen to a 15-year high. There are also mounting concerns that central banks in China and elsewhere, which have been piling up dollars assiduously for years, may start selling. So, contrary to popular perceptions, America's economy has not significantly outperformed Europe's in recent years. Since 2000 its structural budget deficit (after adjusting for the impact of the economic cycle) has widened sharply, while American households' saving rate has plunged, causing the current-account deficit to swell. Over the same period, the euro-area economies saw no fiscal stimulus and household saving barely budged. Yet cyclical factors only partly explain why the dollar has been strong. At bottom, its attractiveness is based more on structural factors---or, more accurately, on an illusion about structural differences between the American and European economies. The main reason for the dollar's strength has been the widespread belief that the American economy vastly outperformed the world's other rich country economies in recent years. But the figures do not support the hypothesis. Sure, America's GDP growth has been faster than Europe's, but that is mostly because its population has grown more quickly too. Official figures of productivity growth, which should in theory be an important factor driving currency movement, exaggerate America's lead. If the two are measured on a comparable basis, productivity growth over the past decade has been almost the same in the euro area as it has in America. Even more important, the latest figures suggest that, whereas productivity growth is now slowing in America, it is accelerating in the euro zone. America's growth, thus, has been driven by consumer spending. That spending, supported by dwindling saving and increased borrowing, is clearly unsustainable; and the consequent economic and financial imbalances must inevitably unwind. As that happens, thecountry could face a prolonged period of slower growth. As for Europe, the old continent is hobbled by inflexible product and labor markets. But that, paradoxically, is an advantage: it means the place has a lot of scope for improvement. Some European countries are beginning to contemplate (and, to a limited extent, undertake) economic reforms. If they push ahead, their growth could actually speed up over the comingyears. Once investors spot this, they are likely to conclude that the euro is a better bet than the dollar. dollar's tumble 美元下跌durable-goods 耐用商品popular perceptions 流行观点structural budget 结构性预算current-account deficit 现有项目赤字currency movement 资本流通comparable basis 可比基础consumer spending 消费性开支financial imbalances 财政失衡inflexible product 缺乏弹性的产品labor markets 劳力市场5. At its heart, logistics deals with satisfying the customer. This implies that management must first understand what those requirements are before a logistics strategy can be developed and implemented to meet them. Customer service is the most important output of an organization’s logistics system. In a more practical sense, logistics refers to the systematic management of the various activities required to move benefits from their point of production to the customer. Often these benefits are in the form of a tangible product that must be manufactured and moved to the user; sometimes these benefits are intangible and are known as services. They too must be produced and made available to the final customer. But logistics encompasses much more than just the transport of goods. The concept of benefits is a multifaceted one that goes beyond the product or service itself to include issues regarding timing, quantity, supporting services, location and cost. So a basic definition of logistics is the continuous process of meeting customer needs by ensuring the availability of the fight benefits for t he right customer, in the quantity and condition desired by that customer, at the time and place the customer wants them, all for a price the buyer is willing to pay. These concepts apply equally well to for-profit industries and non-profit organizations. However, logistics can mean different things to different organization. Some firms are more concerned with producing the benefits: their management focus is on the flow of raw materials into the production process rather than on delivering the final goods to the user. Some companies are much more concerned with the flow of finished goods from the end of the production line to the customer. Logistics in this situation is sometimes referred to as physical distribution. Finally, somefirms view logistics as embracing both material management and physical distribution tasks into a single supply chain that links the customer with all aspects of the firm, sometimes it is referred to as supply chain management. logistics strategy 物流战略tangible product 有型产品continuous process 连续过程final goods 最终产品physical distribution 物资调运single supply chain单一供应链supply chain management 连锁供应管理系统Global house pricesHome truthsOur latest round-up shows that many housing markets are still in the dumpsTHE house-price boom that preceded the financial crisis was remarkable for its scope and scale. With a very few exceptions, there seemed only one way for prices to go: up. Things have been more diverse since, and our latest review of house prices is a picture with dramatic chiaroscuro. A brightening outlook for America stands out against the darkening tones of the beleaguered economies on the periphery of the euro area.In the countries we track, house prices are rising and falling in equal numbers. Over the past year prices have jumped most in Hong Kong (see table), prompting further government efforts to cool the market. They have dropped by 9.3% in Spain, the heaviest faller. The overall trend is down, however, since in three of the countries where prices are rising they are doing so at a slower pace than a year ago—in Canada, for example, they are up by 3.3% compared with 7.1% 12 months ago.A similar diversity characterises valuations. To gauge whether homes are cheap or expensive we use two measures, both of which compare current estimates with a long-run average (in most countries, going back to 1975). This average is our benchmark for “fair value”.The first gauge is a price-to-rents ratio. This is analogous to theprice-earnings ratio used for equities, with the rents going to property investors (or saved by homeowners) equivalent to corporate profits. The measure displays a massive range, from a whopping 78% overvaluation in Canada to an undervaluation of 37% in Japan. The other measure, the ratioof prices to disposable income per person, stretches from a 35% overvaluation in France to a 36% undervaluation, again in Japan. America’s housing-market revival looks sustainable in part because the sharp correction in house prices over the past few years has made homes cheap by historical standards. A year ago house prices were still falling, by 3.6%. There has been a turnaround since: the latest data show prices rising by 4.3%. But based on the ratio of prices to rents, houses are still 7% undervalued; judged by the price-to-income ratio, they are 20% below fair value. It also helps that mortgage rates are at historic lows and are likely to stay that way, since the Federal Reserve has promised to keep an extremely loose monetary stance for the next couple of years.Homeowners may be coming up for air in America, but their plight is deepening across much of Europe. The agony is most acute in Spain, where declines have gathered momentum (the 9.3% fall in our latest round-up follows a drop of 5.5% the previous year). Other big euro-zone economies are also heading in the wrong direction. In Italy and the Netherlands the pace of decline has quickened; in France prices are now edging down after a brief recovery.European valuations are most stretched in France, by as much as 50% judging by rents and by 35% on the basis of incomes. This compares with around 20% overvaluation on both counts in Spain, despite the price falls to date. But any house-price collapse in France is likely to be modest compared with Spain’s. Spain’s bust reflects a massive oversupply of housing built in the construction boom, and an unemployment rate that rose to 26.6% in November, the highest in Europe. France’s unemployment rate has edged up to 10.5% but that is in a different league to Spain’s; its banks are in better shape than Spanish ones, too.The anomaly among Europe’s big economies is Germany, where house prices are rising by a restrained 2.7%, the same pace as a year earlier. Thanks to their good fortune in missing the housing party before the financial crisis, German homeowners have a decent chance of making further gains. Homes there are 17% undervalued compared with historical averages on both our measures. German purchasers can benefit fromrock-bottom borrowing costs, unlike their counterparts in peripheral Europe. One of the lowest rates of unemployment (5.4%) in Europe further underpins the housing market.British house prices have posted only modest overall declines over the past five years (although rising rents and incomes have also helped bring things closer to fair value). But the British market may do rather better thanstill-stretched valuations suggest. For one thing, it does not suffer from the glut of empty homes that has created ghost towns in Ireland and Spain. Andaccording to the Bank of England’s latest credit-conditions survey lenders are more willing to make mortgage finance available than at any time since the financial crisis. The number of mortgage approvals for new purchases is at its highest for almost a year.Overvaluation is especially marked in Canada, particularly with respect to rents (78%) but also in relation to income (34%). Mark Carney, the country’s central-bank governor, who is soon to jump ship to join the Bank of England, where he takes over from Sir Mervyn King in July, may have shown good market timing with his move to London as well as a deft hand in negotiating his lavish remuneration. Singapore and Hong Kong also look vulnerable to a correction, given the overvaluation on their price-to-rents ratios.Misalignments with our gauges of fair value can persist for a long time, of course. That may spare countries where house prices have clearly overshot from a painful bust, but it may also mean that some markets end up mimicking Japan’s long descent and badly undershoot. At some point, central banks will have to take away the balm of easy money. If housing markets remain so fragile when they are getting so much help, they may break when it is removed.。
