【段1】①Bankers have been blaming themselve

2024-08-18 10:38:05

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【段1】①Bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles in public. ②Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters. ③Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it’s just not fair. ④These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch.

【段2】①Unfortunately, banks’ lobbying now seems to be working. ②The details may be unknowable, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised. ③And, unless banks carry toxic assets at prices that attract buyers, reviving the banking system will be difficult.

【段3】①After a bruising encounter with Congress, America’s Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rushed through rule changes. ②These gave banks more freedom to use models to value illiquid assets and more flexibility in recognizing losses on long-term assets in their income statement. ③Bob Herz, the FASB’s chairman, cried out against those who “question our motives.” ④Yet bank shares rose and the changes enhance what one lobbying group politely calls “the use of judgment by management.”

【段4】①European ministers instantly demanded that the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) do likewise. ②The IASB says it does not want to act without overall planning, but the pressure to fold when it completes its reconstruction of rules later this year is strong. ③Charlie McCreevy, a European commissioner, warned the IASB that it did “not live in a political vacuum” but “in the real word” and that Europe could yet develop different rules.

【段5】①It was banks that were on the wrong planet, with accounts that vastly overvalued assets. ②Today they argue that market prices overstate losses, because they largely reflect the temporary illiquidity of markets, not the likely extent of bad debts. ③The truth will not be known for years. ④But bank’s shares trade below their book value, suggesting that investors are skeptical. ⑤And dead markets partly reflect the paralysis of banks which will not sell assets for fear of booking losses, yet are reluctant to buy all those supposed bargains.

【段6】①To get the system working again, losses must be recognized and dealt with. ②America’s new plan to buy up toxic assets will not work unless banks mark assets to levels which buyers find attractive. ③Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters. ④The FASB and IASB have been exactly that, cleaning up rules on stock options and pensions, for example, against hostility from special interests. ⑤But by giving in to critics now they are inviting pressure to make more concessions.

40. The author’s attitude towards standard-setters is one of

[A]satisfaction.

[B]skepticism.

[C]objectiveness.

[D]sympathy.

答案：D

问：根据如下哪几个选项可以判断出作者对standard-setters（准则制定者）的态度是sympathy（同情）？（多选）

A : the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised

B : Bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles in public

C : the changes enhance what one lobbying group politely calls “the use of judgment by management.”

D : Successful markets require independent and even combative standard-setters

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