美國政府爲什麼對債務人這麼狠

Chances are that if you're a debtor, you owe some of that debt to the federal government.

如果你是美國的一名債務人，你有一部分債務的債主可能就是美國聯邦政府。

Two major changes to federal Policy following the financial crisis -- ousting private banks from the provision of federally backed student loans and the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- mean that the Feds now own or guarantee several trillions of dollars in mortgage loans and student loan debt.

金融危機之後，美國聯邦政策的兩個主要變化分別是，禁止私人銀行提供聯邦支持的助學貸款，以及接管房利美（Fannie Mae）和房地美（Freddie Mac），這意味着美國聯邦政府擁有數萬億美元的抵押貸款和助學貸款債務。

This puts the federal government in a great position to eliminate one of the biggest obstacles to the economic recovery, namely the indebtedness of consumers. Online real estate database company Zillow released numbers Tuesday, estimating that nearly 10 million Americans -- or 18.8% of those with home loans -- still owe more on their mortgages than their real estate is worth. Furthermore, Zillow estimates that, nationwide, one-third of Americans who own homes in the bottom third of home values have underwater mortgages (the balance of the mortgage is greater than the market value of the home).

這一點使美國政府在消除經濟復甦最大的障礙之一、也就是消費者的債務時，處在了有利地位。在線房地產數據庫公司Zillow上週二公佈了一組數據，數據顯示，約有1,000萬美國人或美國住房貸款的18.8%，所欠的抵押貸款超過了房地產的價值。此外，據Zillow估計，房屋價值在後三分之一的美國房主，有三分之一面臨的是資不抵債型的房貸（抵押貸款的餘額超過了房屋的市場價值）。

These are the kind of homes that first-time homebuyers tend to seek out, and they are being held off the market because their current owners are unable to offload the mortgages associated with them. Zillow's Chief Economist Stan Humphries told CNBC that he believes this is partly why the inventory of homes on the market is so low, a dynamic that has held back the real estate recovery in recent months.

首次購房者往往中意這類房屋，但它們卻無法上市，因爲它們目前的所有人無法剝離與其相關的抵押貸款。Zillow首席經濟師斯坦o漢弗萊斯告訴美國全國廣播公司消費者新聞與財經頻道（CNBC），他相信這正是市場上房屋庫存量低的原因，而低庫存在近幾個月延緩了房地產市場的復甦。

The fastest growing segment of consumer debt, however, is student loans. And the federal government dominates the student loan business, as it owns hundreds of millions of dollars in student loan debt.

但在消費者債務中，增長最快的是助學貸款。在助學貸款領域，聯邦政府占主導地位，持有數以億計的助學貸款債務。

Economists are in near-unanimous agreement that too much consumer debt isn't good for the economy. That's one of most important lessons of economists Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhardt's recent work on the effects of financial crises: That following such events, countries tend to grow slowly in part because of the existence of too much debt in the system. As Adam Hersch, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, wrote last month:

經濟學家們幾乎一致認爲，過多的消費者負債對經濟不利。這是經濟學家肯o羅戈夫和卡門o萊因哈特研究金融危機的影響得出的最重要的教訓之一：金融危機之後，國家增長放緩，一定程度上是由於系統中存在太多的債務。正如美國進步中心（Center for American Progress）高級經濟師亞當o赫爾施在上個月所寫的那樣：

Compared to the prior three U.S. expansions, going back to 1982, the economy is recovering at merely 60% of that pace. Whereas at this point in past recoveries, the economy expanded by an average of 19%, today, the U.S. economy has grown just 11% overall since the economy's June 2009 trough.

美國從1982年開始經歷了三次經濟擴張，而此次美國經濟復甦的速度僅有之前的60%。在過往經濟復甦的這個點，經濟平均按照19%的速度擴張，但自2009年6月的經濟低谷以來，美國經濟僅增長了11%。

The first key difference is what caused this economic mess in the first place, namely, the depth of the real estate collapse and the wicked hangover of debts left in its wake. The burden of these debts on families — who were already feeling an income squeeze before the recession — has taken a heavy toll on individuals and households' personal consumption.

第一個主要區別在於導致了經濟混亂的因素是房地產崩潰的嚴重程度及其負債殘留。美國家庭在經濟衰退之前已經感覺到收入縮水，危機之後，家庭承擔的債務負擔，對個人和家庭的個人消費產生了不利的影響，

Personal consumption, which accounts for close to 70% of overall GDP, is also expanding off the pace of prior recoveries. As families need to save more — to pay off debts and rebuild diminished retirement savings — they will consume at a lower rate.

個人消費佔美國GDP的70%，但它的擴張速度同樣低於之前的幾次擴張。由於家庭需要增加儲蓄來償還債務以及重新增加被削減的退休儲蓄，因此他們就會減少消費。

While the federal government took extraordinary action to shield large banks from the effects of a once-in-three-generations financial crisis, it has done much less to help the average consumer. For example, the Treasury Department has made significant progress in improving its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) -- which uses TARP funding to induce private lenders to write down the value of mortgages -- but there is still no program to reduce the principal owed by those with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac-backed home loans.

美國政府確實採取了一些臨時措施，避免大型銀行受到三代美國人才會遇到一次的金融危機的影響，但聯邦政府爲幫助普通消費者採取的措施卻少之又少。例如，美國財政部（Treasury Department）在完善住房可償付調整計劃（Affordable Modification Program，HAMP）方面取得了顯著進展，但在減少房利美或房地美背書的住房貸款的本金方面，卻沒有推出任何計劃。住房可償付調整計劃是指，使用TARP資金，引導私人貸款者減低抵押貸款的賬面價值。

There was hope that once Mel Watt, the new director of the FHFA (which is in charge of Fannie and Freddie), would back a program of partial loan forgiveness. But so far, Watt has focused on other priorities and hasn't made a move toward principal reduction.

人們一度希望美國聯邦住房金融局（FHFA，房利美與房地美的主管部門）新任局長梅爾o瓦特會支持貸款部分免除計劃。但到目前爲止，瓦特的工作重心依然是其他優先任務，在房貸本金減免方面沒有采取任何措施。

Peter Drier, director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, points out that though the real estate market seems to be recovering when you look at nationwide statistics, the underwater mortgage crisis is still current in many communities today. Drier helped craft a report released earlier this month that showed that one in 10 Americans live in one of the 100 cities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, places where 22% to 56% of the homeowners are underwater. Helping these people rebuild equity in their homes would pay huge dividends for those cities and the national economy.

美國西方學院（Occidental College）城市與環境政策協會研究所（Urban and Environmental Policy Institute）主任彼得o德利爾指出，從全國數據來看，房地產市場似乎正在復甦，但在許多社區依然存在資不抵貸型房貸危機。德利爾幫助起草了一份報告，已經在本月早些時候發佈。報告顯示，每十個美國人中，就有一個生活在受到喪失抵押品贖回權危機影響的100個城市之一，這些地區22%至56%的房主都面臨着資不抵貸的情況。幫助這些人重建他們在自己房屋中的權益，將給這些城市和整個國家經濟帶來鉅額紅利。

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have continued to block efforts to allow student loan borrowers to refinance at lower rates, preferring to keep the profits the government is making on those loans over finding other ways to pay the government's bills.

與此同時，國會中的共和黨人一再阻撓允許助學貸款人以更低的貸款獲得再融資的努力。他們更傾向於把政府從貸款中獲得的利潤留在手裏，而不是另外想別的辦法來支付政府賬單。

It's ironic that a debtor today would have a better shot getting better terms on his loan with a private Wall Street bank than the federal government, but this is the case for many borrowers.

具有諷刺意味的是，今天的債務人可以從華爾街的私人銀行獲得比聯邦政府更優惠的條件，但現實是，許多借款人不得不面對政府的苛刻條件。

Governments have been in the business of debt forgiveness since the beginning of recorded history for the simple reason that it benefits society overall. Financial crises like the one we suffered in 2008 come along once in a century, and they require extraordinary, once-in-a-century responses. We figured this out when it came to the big banks, but not for the rest of us.

自有史料記載以來，政府就一直在實行債務減免。原因很簡單，因爲這樣做對整個社會有益。2008年的金融危機百年一遇，因此，這也需要我們拿出百年一遇的特殊應對方法。很可惜，在面對大銀行的時候，我們想到了這一點，但對其他普通人卻沒有。（財富中文網）