2016考研英語經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人熱點(diǎn)：商業(yè)組織聯(lián)合體 機(jī)制正被打破

• 2025考研復(fù)試標(biāo)準(zhǔn)班
• 26考研全科上岸規(guī)劃營(yíng)「擇校▪規(guī)劃▪備考」
• 2026考研專業(yè)課復(fù)習(xí)資料「真題▪筆記▪講義▪題庫」

Cartel-busting

商業(yè)組織聯(lián)合體機(jī)制正被打破

Boring can still be bad

無趣之勢(shì)依舊呈現(xiàn)糟糕狀態(tài)

Market-rigging in unsexy industries costs consumersa lot. More can be done to detect and deter it.

無聊行業(yè)在操縱市場(chǎng)方面使得消費(fèi)者耗資巨大。對(duì)此，政府可以施行更多的措施檢測(cè)和阻止這一現(xiàn)象的發(fā)生。

MENTION price cartels and many people will think of big, overt ones like the one OPEC runs foroil and the now-extinct one for diamonds. But at least as damaging are the many secret cartelsin such unglamorous areas as ball-bearings and cargo rates, which go on unnoticed for years,quietly bumping up the end cost to consumers of all manner of goods and services.

提到價(jià)格壟斷，很多人會(huì)想到一些大型和公開明顯的壟斷企業(yè)，如歐佩克石油輸出國(guó)家組織以及現(xiàn)今已經(jīng)退出市場(chǎng)的鉆石壟斷公司。然而，至少在單調(diào)乏味的領(lǐng)域，有很多秘密運(yùn)營(yíng)的壟斷企業(yè)，諸如軸承和貨運(yùn)費(fèi)率領(lǐng)域里也同樣具有損害性，這些企業(yè)數(shù)年未被關(guān)注，最近在各大產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)方面，迅速增長(zhǎng)其對(duì)客戶的所需產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)的首尾成本。

Collusion among producers to rig prices and carve up markets is thriving, with the cartelsgrowing ever more intricate and global in scope. Competition authorities have uncoveredseveral whopping conspiracies in recent years, including one in which more than 20 airlinesworldwide had fixed prices on perhaps 20 billion of freight shipments. They were fined a total of3 billion; and so far the compensation claims from ripped-off customers comfortably exceed 1billion. One academic study found that the typical cartel raised the price of the goods orservices in question by 20%. Another suggested that cartels were robbing poorcountries'consumers of tens of billions of dollars a year: if so, negating all the aid that richcountries'governments send them.

隨著卡特爾壟斷更為復(fù)雜地增長(zhǎng)并且呈全球范圍擴(kuò)展的趨勢(shì)，生產(chǎn)者共同謀求操縱以及劃分市場(chǎng)的現(xiàn)象正逐漸興盛起來。競(jìng)爭(zhēng)當(dāng)局發(fā)現(xiàn)近年來存在一些巨大的陰謀，包括超過二十多條的國(guó)際航線之一的一家公司，私定200億元的貨物裝運(yùn)價(jià)格。他們因此被處以30億元的罰款;并且到目前為止那些確定為敲消費(fèi)者竹杠的公司被處以的賠償金超出了10億元。一個(gè)學(xué)術(shù)研究表明典型的卡特爾壟斷使得有疑問的商品和服務(wù)增長(zhǎng)了20%。另一個(gè)研究表明卡特爾壟斷是從貧困國(guó)家的消費(fèi)者中剝奪了他們平均一年上百億美元的錢財(cái)：如果正如這樣所說，否定所有富有國(guó)家政府對(duì)他們施行的援助是有道理的。

Investigators are still unravelling a huge global network of cartels among suppliers of a widerange of car parts. Makers of seat belts, radiators and foam seat-stuffing have had hefty finesslapped on them. Earlier this month the European Commission fined five makers of automotivebearings a total of 953m (1.32 billion). This week its investigators raided a bunch of makers ofcar exhausts. Also in recent days, Brazilian prosecutors have charged executives from a dozenforeign train-makers accused of rigging bids for rail and subway contracts in the country's maincities. Price-fixing has infected high finance, too. Some of banking's biggest names standaccused of fiddling interest-rate and foreign-exchange benchmarks.

研究調(diào)查者仍然在試圖解決一項(xiàng)關(guān)于大量汽車零部件供應(yīng)商的巨大國(guó)際壟斷網(wǎng)絡(luò)問題。汽車座位安全帶、散熱器和泡沫座位填充物的生產(chǎn)者，已經(jīng)被處以了巨額的罰款。這個(gè)月早些時(shí)候，歐洲委員會(huì)對(duì)汽車軸承的制造商處以了總計(jì)13.2億元的罰款。這個(gè)星期，調(diào)查者們突襲了一群汽車尾氣的制造商。并且在最近幾天，巴西的告發(fā)者起訴了十幾個(gè)國(guó)外火車制造商的高管，緣由是他們?cè)趪?guó)家主要的城市壟斷鐵軌和地鐵合同的競(jìng)標(biāo)。操縱價(jià)格也已經(jīng)同樣影響到了巨額的投資。銀行的大腕們也面臨著人們對(duì)其擺弄利率和銀行基準(zhǔn)的指責(zé)。

The good news is that enforcement has got tougher, smarter and more co-ordinated. Gone arethe days when price-fixers got a slap on the wrist. Firms can expect swingeing fines, andbosses can go to jail. Since many cartels now operate across borders, so do investigators:American and Japanese trustbusters joined forces to flush out the car-parts cartels. Andincentives for whistleblowers have also increased: around 50 countries now offer immunity orreduced penalties for snitches.

好消息是，執(zhí)法方面變得更為嚴(yán)格，更加智能，也更為協(xié)調(diào)。價(jià)格固定器被撞到腰的日子一去不復(fù)返了。企業(yè)可以預(yù)期被處以巨額的罰款，老板可能會(huì)進(jìn)監(jiān)獄。由于許多卡特爾壟斷組織從事跨國(guó)經(jīng)營(yíng)，調(diào)查者們也同樣是跨國(guó)合作的：美國(guó)和日本的反托拉斯者聯(lián)手改變汽車零部件壟斷現(xiàn)象。并使舉報(bào)人的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)也得以增加：約50個(gè)國(guó)家現(xiàn)在規(guī)定提供豁免權(quán)或?qū)Υ蛐��?bào)告減少處罰。

That is all for the better, but the penalties for price-fixing remain too mild. The best study ofthe issue so far concluded that, given the still-low risk of detection, collusion pays. Yetbeyond a certain point—which the fines now imposed by American and European regulatorshave probably reached—fines inflict so much damage on guilty companies that theyundermine competition instead of enhancing it. The answer is stiffer prison sentences,particularly for senior executives. American courts, only too ready to lock up other types ofmiscreants for a long time, have rarely jailed egregious price-fixers for anything like themaximum of ten years that the law allows. Other countries have even more scope to increasesentences.

這是為了能夠使得情況有所好轉(zhuǎn)，但是對(duì)于操縱價(jià)格的處罰仍然過于溫和。這個(gè)問題的最好的研究，就是到目前為止的結(jié)論是，鑒于檢測(cè)仍低風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，共謀會(huì)付出代價(jià)。然而，除這點(diǎn)之外，現(xiàn)在由美國(guó)和歐洲監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)處以的罰款可能已經(jīng)達(dá)到——罰款對(duì)于有罪責(zé)的公司所造成的破壞，相比提升其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力而言，反而削弱了該公司的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。答案就是嚴(yán)厲的監(jiān)獄服刑，特別是對(duì)于高級(jí)管理人員的處罰。美國(guó)法院很愿意關(guān)押其他類型的歹徒達(dá)更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間，他們很少對(duì)過分的價(jià)格制定者實(shí)行監(jiān)禁，比如法律所允許的最長(zhǎng)可達(dá)十年的監(jiān)禁期。其他國(guó)家擁有更多的增加刑罰的范圍權(quán)限。

Buy some geeks

購買一些技術(shù)型極客

More can be done to aid detection, too. Statistical tests to “screen” markets for unusualpricing patterns helped uncover the interest-rate and foreign-exchange scandals. Potentialconspirators may think twice if they suspect their market is being screened. European and LatinAmerican trustbusters are making good use of the technique; their American counterpartsshould do so, too. Deploying such cutting-edge technology is costly; and increased funding is abig ask at a time of public-sector parsimony. But cartel authorities in Europe and Americagenerally bring in far more than they cost to run, so extra money pushed in their direction islikely to be well spent.

同樣也有更多可以幫助檢測(cè)的辦法。統(tǒng)計(jì)測(cè)試表明屏蔽市場(chǎng)不尋常的定價(jià)模式有助于揭開利率和外匯丑聞。如果潛在的陰謀者他們懷疑自己的市場(chǎng)被屏蔽，可能會(huì)三思而后行。歐洲和拉丁美洲的反托拉斯人員正利用該技術(shù);他們的美國(guó)同行們應(yīng)該也這樣做。部署這種先進(jìn)的技術(shù)是昂貴的;而增加的資金對(duì)公共部門而言，每次都是一個(gè)很大的要求。但在歐洲和美國(guó)卡特爾當(dāng)局通常會(huì)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過他們的成本運(yùn)行，因此多余的錢促使他們朝著自己的方向，用得其所。

Another way to discourage the formation of cartels is to factor the increased risk ofcollusion into scrutiny of proposed mergers. Price-fixing is likelier, and easier to sustain, withfewer players. This could never be the primary determinant in competition decisions, but itshould be in the mix. Blocking a few more mergers—whose benefits anyway tend to be over-egged—might both save companies from themselves and spare their customers the costs ofcollusion.

另一種方法來阻止卡特爾的形成，是官商勾結(jié)因素的危險(xiǎn)性增加，被作為合并建議的審查考慮在內(nèi)。操縱價(jià)格是更有可能的，并且更容易維持，只需要較少的參與者。這不可能是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)決策的主要決定因素，但它應(yīng)加以進(jìn)行混合調(diào)整。阻止少數(shù)幾個(gè)兼并者——這種行動(dòng)所帶來的收益往往是在過度慫恿之下促成的—這樣既為企業(yè)節(jié)省了他們自己的開支，也使得企業(yè)對(duì)客戶活動(dòng)追蹤的成本得以減少。

【重點(diǎn)講解】

1.run for v.競(jìng)選

例句:Look. The train's in. We'll have to run for itnow.

看，火車進(jìn)站了，我們現(xiàn)在得趕緊朝那邊跑了。

2.carve up 瓜分;分割

例句:He wanted to go into the street and carvesomeone's face up.

他想上街去把別人的臉刮花。

3.ready to 樂于;時(shí)刻準(zhǔn)備

例句:Catherine was ready to explode. "I think you're contemptible!"

凱瑟琳氣得快要炸了。“我覺得你真是可鄙!”

4.tend to 傾向于;趨向

例句:The wind is tending to the south.

風(fēng)勢(shì)轉(zhuǎn)為南。