Useful phrases to memorize

to dent profits – вызвать снижение прибылей

in a bid to do smth – пытаясь( сделать ч-л)

Exercises

1. Paraphrase or explain the meaning of the following:

virtuous economic circle; the Fed’s room to cut interest rates; productivity growth outside information-technology industries; the increase in productivity was stronger than expected, given that growth in GDP slowed so sharply; the slowdown in productivity growth…does cast some doubt; IT investment would be relatively immune to the cycle; fancy computer systems; firms have been slow to shed workers; many “new economy” claims looked flawed; a bold claim; economists remain divided about whether this can last; the snag is that this fails to cut fixed costs.

2. Write out of the text phrases to match the following:

повсеместно считается, важна сама по себе, ежегодный рост производительности, экономисты по-прежнему не имеют (не разделяют) единого мнения по вопросу, данные за один квартал не решат эту проблему, инвестиции в сектор информационных технологий не будут подвержены цикличности, приведя к неизбежным сокращениям производства, своевременная информация, пытаясь улучшить свои собственные показатели, они будут иметь большее воздействие на экономику.

Don’t just read the news, understand it

Out of Steam?

A dip in U.S. productivity provokes anxious questions.

The biggest: does it signal the end of the global boom?

By Karen Lowry Miller

By all accounts, the new economy died three or four years ago. Business cycles do exist. Share prices can fall. Companies eventually have to make money. Bubbles burst. But one aspect of the roaring ‘90s survived and, indeed, thrived. Investment into new technology helped America produce twice as much per hour worked as it had in the previous quarter century. Productivity grew, on average, 1.5 percent annually from 1973 to 1995. It leaped to 2.4 percent in the second half of the ‘90s and continued to climb even after the boom ended in 2000. IT spending ground to a halt, but productivity rose a staggering annual 4.3 percent between 2001 and 2003. And then? On Feb.3, the U.S. Labor Department reported that productivity edged up in the fourth quarter by a mere 0.8 percent, after a weak third quarter. Suddenly, a familiar question is back in fashion: Has new technology truly raised the long-term productivity rate? Or could this signal the end of the U.S. miracle?

In a sea of economic statistics, productivity is one of the most pivotal numbers out there. Productivity growth feeds into planning for budgets and pensions. It is the crucial (if not the most important) factor in determining long-range interest-rate policy at the Federal Reserve. Robust productivity allows for the virtuous circle of high growth, low unemployment and low inflation that described the much-envied U.S. economy of the past decade. Without it, companies will have to start hiring again. That’s good for jobs, but could push up labor costs. The Fed would fight any hint of wage inflation by raising interest rates. That risks choking off growth by curtailing new investment and snapping shut the wallets of millions of free-spending American consumers.

Productivity seems like such a simple number: how many cars, loavs of bread or completed tax returns go out the door, compared with how many hours of work go into making them. But in fact, both the output numbers and the labor input numbers are not much more than educated guesses, which ar often revised for years afterwards.

The truth is, after a mere quarter or two, nobody knows for sure whether the tech boom is over. “But it is not at all foolish to ask,” says Brookings Institution economist Robert Litan. The Fed сhairman, he says, “wakes up every morning asking himself that question.” For one thing, productivity is notoriously volatile because it is linked with the business cycle. It rises at the start of a recovery as companies try to meet new demand for products or services by squeezing more out of the same number of workers. But at some point a company is maxed out and begins to hire. With more workers, simple math knocks the productivity rate down.

Roach, resident doomsayer at Morgan Stanley, fears the productivity slowdown may prove to be more than just a normal dip at the end of a business cycle. He believes corporate America has made the transition to a new technology platform, and worries that IT spending has reached a saturation point. From late 1995 to 2004, the IT share of total capital equipment bought by companies – faster computer or more efficient machine tools – rose from 36 percent to 58 percent and is beginning to slip back. Roach says only a spectacular breakthrough could pump up those rates so strongly again.

In the early 1990s, most of the credit went initially to tech investment alone. Then analysts understood the importance of business processes as companies rearranged their work methods around the technology. Soon it became clear that much of this happened outside the tech-producing industries, in sectors like transport, retail and finance. Most economists agree that more than half the jump in U.S. productivity growth came from better design of businesses to make use of technology.

Notes

1. the roaring ‘90s –десятилетие, отличавшееся огромными успехами в экономике США
2. IT – information technologies
3. U.S. Labor Department – Министерство труда США
4. Federal Reserve System( Fed, FRS ) – Федеральная резервная система: центральный банк США
5. virtuous circle – антонимичная фраза известного выражения vicious circle – порочный круг; варианты перевода: «благоприятное стечение обстоятельств” или “удачное сочетание таких факторов, как”
6. wage inflation– рост уровня инфляции в результате роста зарплаты
7. to snap shut the wallets of millions of free-spending American consumers - пример образной фразеологии; вариант перевода: «вызовет резкое сокращение расходов миллионов американцев, не привыкших экономить». Антонимичное выражение – “ to loosen the strings” – увеличить расходы (“развязать кошелек”)
8. tax return= tax declaration – налоговая декларация: информация о годовых доходах, предоставляемая в налоговые органы; здесь: «сколько поступило налоговых сборов в сравнении с тем, сколько…”
9. educated guesses -догадки ученых
10. Brookings Institution –Брукингский институт (Институт Брукингса)–некоммерческая исследовательская организация, занимающаяся изучением различных аспектов экономики и политики
11. for one thing –во-первых
12. to max out – достичь предела ( в использовании имеющихся людских ресурсов)
13. resident doomsayer – местный оракул. Фраза несет оттенок иронии: doomsday – судный день, конец света; doomsayer – прорицатель плохих событий
14. a new technology platform – новая политика в области технологий
15. to give credit to somebody (something), to credit somebody with something – отдать кому-либо должное, приписывать заслуги кому-либо

Vocabulary

a dip in productivity –снижение производительности; to dip – снижаться, падать

the global boom – бум в мировой экономике; tech boom – бум в области высоких технологий

to curtail investment = to cut, reduce investment

to grind to a halt – замедляться до полной остановки

to edge up – чуть подрасти, увеличиться

labor costs – издержки на оплату труда

to meet the demand for – удовлетворить спрос на

to saturate – насыщать; IT spending has reached a saturation point – расходы на ИТ достигли своего предела

to give credit to somebody – отдать должное кому-либо; most of the credit went to tech investment alone - в основном считалось, что производительность росла лишь за счет инвестиций в высокие технологии