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翻译 | 冰淇淋
审核 | 公仔
编辑 | 明明
Buttonwood
梧桐树
Putting it all on red
让所有投资都上涨
The rules encourage public-sector pension plans to take more risk
法规激励私营企业养老基金承担更多风险
Pension：n. 退休金，抚恤金；养老金
Jul 30th 2016 | From the print edition
2016年7月30号|印刷版
IMAGINE two kinds of investment funds, both of which have the same aim: to provide pensions for their employees. You might think that they would invest in a similar way. But when it comes to American pension funds,you would be wrong. It turns outthat public funds have a rather different, and more aggressive, approach to risk from private ones (and indeed from their counterpartsin other countries).
设想两种类型的投资基金，两者都有相同的目标：为员工提供养老金。你或许会认为这两种基金将以类似的方式进行投资。但凡谈到的是美国养老基金，你的想法或许就错了。事实证明，公共基金有着与私有基金截然不同且更为积极的方法来承担风险（实际上与其他国家的同行也不同）。
investment funds：投资基金
pension funds：养老基金
turns out：结果是，最后是
counterpart：n. 副本；配对物；极相似的人或物
As a recent paper* by Aleksandar Andonov, Rob Bauer and Martijn Cremers shows, that different approach is driven bya regulatory incentive—the rules that determine how pension funds calculate how much they must put aside to meet the cost of paying retirement benefits. Usually, the bulk ofa pension fund’s liabilities occur well into the future, as workers retire. So that future cost has to be discountedat some rate to work out how much needs to be put aside today.
近期Aleksandar Andonov，Rob Bauer和Martijn Cremers发表的一篇论文指出，不同的方法是由一个规章监管激励机制所驱动的，由该规章确定养老基金如何计算预留多少资金才足以支付退休福利金的成本。通常，随着工人们的退休，大部分的养老基金在未来都要出现负债。因此，未来的成本必须以一定的速度贴现，以解决现在所需要预留的资金。
Be driven by：由…驱动
Incentive：n. 动机；刺激；激励
retirement benefits：退休金
the bulk of：大多数，大部分
discount：vi. 贴现；n. 折扣；贴现率
Private-sector pension funds in America and elsewhere (and Canadian public funds) regard a pension promise as a kind of debt. So they use corporate-bond yieldsto discount future liabilities. As bond yieldshave fallen, so the cost of paying pensions has risen sharply. At the end of 2007, American corporate pension funds had a small surplus; by the end of last year, they had a $404 billion deficit.
美国私营企业养老基金和其他的养老基金（以及加拿大的公共基金）将养老金承诺视作一种债务。因此他们利用企业债券的收益率来贴现未来债务。当债券收益下降，支付养老金的成本就急剧上升。在2007年底，美国企业养老基金有一个小的盈余。到去年年底，他们的赤字达到了404亿美元。
corporate-bond yields：企业债券的收益率
bond yields：公债利息；债券市场利息率
surplus：n. 剩余；盈余
deficit：n. 赤字
American public pension funds are allowed (under rules from the Government Accounting Standards Board) to discount their liabilities by the expected returnon their assets. The higher the expected return, the higher the discount rate. That means, in turn, that liabilities are lower and the amount of money which the employer has to put aside today is smaller.
美国公共养老基金被允许（在政府会计准则委员会的规章下）按他们的资产预期收益折现负债。预期收益越高，贴现率就越高。接下来，意味着负债越低，雇主现今不得不预留的资金数额就越低。
the Government Accounting Standards Board：会计准则委员会
expected return：预期收益
discount rate：贴现率，折现率
Investing in riskier assets is thus an attractive option for a public-sector employer, which can tap only two sources of funding. It can ask its workers to contribute more, but since they are well-unionised that can lead to friction(after all, higher pension contributions amount to a pay cut). Or the employer can take the money from the public purse—either by cutting other services or by raising taxes. Neither option is politicallypopular.
因此，对于只能挖掘两个资金来源的公营企业的雇主，投资更高风险的资产是一个如此有吸引力的选择。它可以要求员工做出更大的贡献，但是由于他们多活跃于工会组织，所以可能导致摩擦（毕竟，更高的养老金供款会使工资削减）。或者雇主可以从公库里取钱——削减其他服务或者提高税收。两种选择都不受政治上的欢迎。
Friction：n. 摩擦
public purse：国库，公库，公共资金
politically：adv.政治上地
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the academics found that American public pension funds choose a riskier approach. Theory suggests that as pension funds mature (ie, more of their members are retired), they should allocate their portfoliosmore conservatively, because the promised benefits need to be met sooner and funds cannot risk a sudden decline in the value of their assets. That is the case with private-sector pension funds, but public funds take more risk as they mature—putting more money into equities, alternative assets(like private equity) and junk bonds.
因此，毫无意外地，专业学者发现美国养老基金选择了风险更高的方法。理论表明，随着养老基金的到期（更多成员退休），他们应该更加保守地分配他们的投资组合，因为承诺的福利需要更快得到满足，而且基金不可能承担资产价值突然下降的风险。这就是私有养老基金的情况，但是随着养老基金的到期，公共基金承担着更多的风险——要把更多的钱投入股票，另类资产（如私募股权）和高风险债券。
Portfolios：n.证券投资组合
Conservatively：adv. 谨慎地；保守地；适当地
Equity：n. 股票
alternative assets：另类资产
junk bond：垃圾债券
Public pension plans have also increased their allocation to risky assetclasses as interest rates and bond yields have declined. Again, this does not make sense in theory. The expected return on both risk-freeand risky assets should decline in tandem. But a fall in ten-year Treasury-bondyields of five percentage points has been associated with a 15-point increase in public funds’ allocation to risky assets.
公共养老金计划也提高了他们分配给风险资产类别的比例，随着利率和公债利息有所下降。此外，这在理论上是没有意义的。无风险资产和风险资产的预期收益两者都应该会同时降低。但是，十年期的国债收益率下降了5个百分点，与之相关，公共基金在风险资产上的分配比例上升了15个百分点。
risky asset：风险资产
risk-free：adj. 无风险的
in tandem：同时
Treasury-bond：国债
The academics also look at the trustees, the people who make the investment decisions. They find a relationship between the riskinessof a fund’s assets and the proportionof political trustees (such as state treasurers) and worker trustees elected by scheme members.Neither group will want to see contributions rise in the short term. So it makes sense that both groups bank on achieving higher investment returns, leaving any schemeshortfallto be cleared up later.
专业学者也关注作出投资决定的受托人。期待您的翻译，并将其留言在下方，第二天将会给出答案解析。两个团体都不愿看到短期内出资上涨。因此这两个团体指望以一些日后也难以澄清的手段来实现更高额的投资回报，也是可以讲得通的。
Trustee：n. [法] 受托人，受托者
Riskiness：n. 冒险的事；危险
Proportion：n. 比例，占比
investment returns：投资效益
scheme：n. 计划；诡计
shortfall：n. 差额；缺少；不足之数
Some people might argue that this is all for the good. Pension schemes have long-term liabilities and thus should take more risks. If public funds take more risk and earn higher returns, that is saving both their employees and taxpayersmoney. Alas, the academics find that, even if you allow for their asset-allocation decisions, public pension funds underperformtheir benchmarksby more than half a percentage point a year. This underperformanceis greatest in the alternative-asset categoriessuch as private equity. Even if their asset allocation might have beaten a bond-only portfolio, the overall strategy isn’t working. For example CalPERS, the Californian state pension fund, has underperformed its targeted 7.5% return over the past 3, 5, 10 and 20 years.
有些人或许会争论说，这都是好事。养老金计划有长期负债，因此应该承担更多的风险。如果公共基金承担更多风险且获得更高收益，那就节省了员工和纳税人的钱。专业学者Alas发现，即使允许他们的资产配置决策，养老基金走弱于他们的基准超过一年半个百分点。这种欠佳表现在另类资产中最为严重，如私募股权。即使他们的资产分配可能已经击败了单一债券的投资组合，总体战略还是行不通的。比如加州养老基金CalPERS（CaliforniaPublicEmployees’RetirementSystem，美国加州公共雇员养老基金）过去的3年、5年、10年和20年，表现不佳，没有达到7.5%回报率的目标。
Taxpayer：n 纳税人
Underperform：vt. （股票等）低于市场表现，走弱大盘
Benchmark：n. 基准；标准检查程序
Underperformance：n. 新股弱势；新股偏弱现象
Category：n. 种类，分类
CalPERS：CaliforniaPublicEmployees’RetirementSystem美国加州公共雇员养老基金
The paper demonstrates convincingly that American accounting regulations have created perverseincentives for public pension funds. And that can mean only one thing. The rules need to change.
该论文有说服力地论证了美国会计法规为公共养老基金创造了不正当的激励机制。这意味着一件事情。该法规需要改变。
Perverse：adj. 堕落的，不正当的；不合法的
往期精彩
Try to translate
They find a relationship between the riskinessof a fund’s assets and the proportionof political trustees (such as state treasurers) and worker trustees elected by scheme members.
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