The IMF basically had to reinvent itself with the breakdown of the Bretton Woods, for which it was established. In the 1970s and 80s it was seeking out a new rationale for its existence and , more recently, it's taken on a role more akin to the traditional role that it had, and that is to arrange funds for countries experiencing difficulties with the balance of payments and exchange rate.
梅金教授说，随着使它诞生的布雷顿森林货币体制的崩溃，国际货币基金组织必需重新确立自己的地位。在一九七十和八十年代，它不断为自己的存在寻求新的依据。近些年它又扮演起更象它传统上曾扮演过的角色，也就是为在国际收支平衡和兑换率方面遇到困难的国家提供资金。
But the nature of its activities now has changed quite significantly from what it used to be. It used to be the case that the IMF had to arrange funds to economies that could not sustain exchange rates at the given fixed levels, now its role is to provide funds to countries that have experienced currency crises, and economies experiencing liquidity problems.
但是国际货币基金组织工作的性质与过去相比却有了巨大的变化。过去它需要为那些无法把货币比率维持在商定的固定水平的国家筹措资金。现在它需要为遭受货币危机或流动资产问题困扰的国家提供资金。
It plays the part of a fire rescue team, if you like. There's been a firestorm in the financial markets of an economy and the IMF is akin to the fire brigade, they're coming along and they diagnose the situation and apply remedies.
可以说国际货币基金组织扮演的是消防队的角色。某个国家的金融市场发生“火灾”，国基组织就如同消防队到现场对火情作出判断并加以抢救。
梅金教授在谈话中使用了这样几个英语词汇：
1 reinvent 彻底改造，重新确立
2 rationale 合理性，依据
3 akin 类似的
4 liquidity 流动资产，清偿债务能力
接下来我们再把澳大利亚昆士兰大学梅金教授的这段谈话连起来听一遍。(略)
尽管国际货币基金组织不断遇到金融危机的国家伸出援手，在帮助这些国家渡过难关方面发挥积极的作用。但它采取的方式也受到一些经济学家的批评。美国密执安大学的克雷宁教授对国基组织在一九九十年代的亚洲金融危机中采取的行动就提出了看法。他说：
IMF advice has been all too uniform across countries. In other words, countries vary a great deal. Some of them really should have a Keynesian expansionary type policy, rather than contractionary type policy, while the IMF always places the same kind of requirements on all countries. By the way, I get the feeling that this is changing, in other words that the IMF management is changing its view about macro-policies and we will see greater variety in its recommendations now.
下面我们听一遍克雷宁教授谈话的中文翻译：
克雷宁教授说，国际货币基金组织对各国提出的建议总是一成不变。换句话说，各国的情况有很大的不同，一些国家实际上需要的是凯恩斯式的扩张性金融政策而不是收缩性的政策，但国基组织总是对所有国家都提出同样的要求。不过我感觉到这种情况正在发生变化，也就是说国基组织的管理层正在改变他们对宏观经济政策的观点，我们现在将会看到它提出更多不同的建议。
接下来我们再听一遍克雷宁教授谈话的原文。(略)
在节目的最后，我们再复习一下这一讲中遇到的一些英文词汇：
1 devalue 贬值
2 revalue 调整币值
3 vis-a-vis 相比
4 awash with dollars 美元泛滥
5 reinvent 彻底改造，重新确立
6 rationale 合理性，依据
7 akin 类似的
8 liquidity 流动资产，清偿债务能力
责任编辑：mman
