The banking crisis had many causes, some of which are complex enough to make a quantum physicist's head spin. But a central cause is simple: banks relied far too much on debt to fund their activities - they used too much leverage. That's why a new study, quietly released by the Bank for International Settlements almost exactly five years after Lehman Brothers collapsed, makes for encouraging reading. It suggests that attempts to reduce leverage are paying off. The regulators' medicine is working - and with fewer side-effects than feared.
銀行業(yè)危機有很多原因，其中一些復(fù)雜得甚至讓量子物理學(xué)家頭暈。但一個核心原因卻很簡單：銀行過于依賴債務(wù)來支撐其業(yè)務(wù)活動，也就是說它們過度利用杠桿。這也是一份新出爐的研究報告鼓舞人心的原因。這份報告由國際清算銀行(BIS)在雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破產(chǎn)幾乎正好五年之后悄悄發(fā)布。該研究認(rèn)為，減少杠桿的努力正在得到回報。監(jiān)管者開出的藥方在奏效，并且副作用沒有人們擔(dān)憂的那么明顯。