NYTの記事、'Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis' By MARTIN FACKLER (February 27, 2012)から。
'TOKYO — In the darkest moments of last year’s nuclear accident, Japanese leaders did not know the actual extent of damage at the plant and secretly considered the possibility of evacuating Tokyo, even as they tried to play down the risks in public, an independent investigation into the accident disclosed on Monday.
The investigation by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a new private policy organization, offers one of the most vivid accounts yet of how Japan teetered on the edge of an even larger nuclear crisis than the one that engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. A team of 30 university professors, lawyers and journalists spent more than six months on the inquiry into Japan’s response to the triple meltdown at the plant, which followed a powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that shut down the plant’s cooling systems.
* teeter 〔悪い方に向かう〕瀬戸際にある、危うい立場にいる
The team interviewed more than 300 people, including top nuclear regulators and government officials, as well as the prime minister during the crisis, Naoto Kan. They were granted extraordinary access, in part because of a strong public demand for greater accountability and because the organization’s founder, Yoichi Funabashi, a former editor in chief of the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun, is one of Japan’s most respected public intellectuals.
An advance copy of the report describes how Japan’s response was hindered at times by a debilitating breakdown in trust between the major actors: Mr. Kan; the Tokyo headquarters of the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco; and the manager at the stricken plant. The conflicts produced confused flows of sometimes contradictory information in the early days of the crisis, the report said.
* debilitating 弱らせる、衰弱させる
It describes frantic phone calls by the manager, Masao Yoshida, to top officials in the Kan government arguing that he could get the plant under control if he could keep his staff in place, while at the same time ignoring orders from Tepco’s headquarters not to use sea water to cool the overheating reactors. By contrast, Mr. Funabashi said in an interview, Tepco’s president, Masataka Shimizu, was making competing calls to the prime minister’s office saying that the company should evacuate all of its staff, a step that could have been catastrophic.
The 400-page report, due to be released later this week, also describes a darkening mood at the prime minister’s residence as a series of hydrogen explosions rocked the plant on March 14 and 15. It says Mr. Kan and other officials began discussing a worst-case outcome if workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were evacuated. This would have allowed the plant to spiral out of control, releasing even larger amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere that would in turn force the evacuation of other nearby nuclear plants, causing further meltdowns.
* spiral out of control 手に負えない状況に陥る
The report quotes the chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yukio Edano, as having warned that such a “demonic chain reaction” of plant meltdowns could result in the evacuation of Tokyo, 150 miles to the south.
“We would lose Fukushima Daini, then we would lose Tokai,” Mr. Edano is quoted as saying, naming two other nuclear plants. “If that happened, it was only logical to conclude that we would also lose Tokyo itself.”
The report also describes the panic within the Kan administration at the prospect of large radiation releases from the more than 10,000 spent fuel rods that were stored in relatively unprotected pools near the damaged reactors. The report says it was not until five days after the earthquake that a Japanese military helicopter was finally able to confirm that the pool deemed at highest risk, near the No. 4 reactor, was still safely filled with water.
“We barely avoided the worst-case scenario, though the public didn’t know it at the time,” Mr. Funabashi, the foundation founder, said.
Mr. Funabashi blamed the Kan administration’s fear of setting off a panic for its decision to understate the true dangers of the accident. He said the Japanese government hid its most alarming assessments not just from its own public but also from allies like the United States. Mr. Funabashi said the investigation revealed “how precarious the U.S.-Japan relationship was” in the early days of the crisis, until the two nations began daily informational meetings at the prime minister’s residence on March 22.
The report seems to confirm the suspicions of nuclear experts in the United States — inside and outside the government — that the Japanese government was not being forthcoming about the full dangers posed by the stricken Fukushima plant. But it also shows that the United States government occasionally overreacted and inflated the risks, such as when American officials mistakenly warned that the spent fuel rods in the pool near unit No. 4 were exposed to the air and vulnerable to melting down and releasing huge amounts of radiation.
* being forthcoming about 《be ～》～について公表される
Still, Mr. Funabashi said, it was the Japanese government’s failure to warn its people of the dangers and the widespread distrust it bred in the government that spurred him to undertake an independent investigation. Such outside investigations have been rare in Japan, where the public has tended to accept official versions of events.
He said his group’s findings conflicted with those of the government’s own investigation into the accident, which were released in an interim report in December. A big difference involved one of the most crucial moments of the nuclear crisis, when the prime minister, Mr. Kan, marched into Tepco’s headquarters early on the morning of March 15 upon hearing that the company wanted to withdraw its employees from the wrecked nuclear plant.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
幸せ度と経済の関係
The Economistの記事、'Measures of well-being Chilled out:A poll contradicts what we thought we knew about income and happiness'(Feb 25th 2012) から。
'DESPITE global economic gloom, the world is a happier place than it was before the financial crisis began. That is the counterintuitive conclusion of a poll of 19,000 adults in 24 countries by Ipsos, a research company. Some 77% of respondents now describe themselves as happy, up three points on 2007, the last year before the crisis. Fully 22% (up from 20%) describe themselves as very happy—a more important measure, says Ipsos’s John Wright, since whenever three-quarters of people agree on anything, “you need to pay attention to intensity in the results.”
All such polls come with a health warning. The level of happiness is self-reported—and the term means different things to different people. The Ipsos poll, measuring degrees of happiness, is not strictly comparable with those that ask about “well-being” (such as Gallup) or “life satisfaction” (the World Values survey), so it is hard to test the validity of the conclusions against other efforts. The margin of error is wide, at plus or minus 3.1 points for most countries. Still, Ipsos has been doing its survey regularly for five years and the figures have proved fairly stable during that time, not wildly volatile which they would have been if they had been flaky.
* flaky 当てにならない
Two conclusions emerge. Large, fast-growing emerging markets do not share rich industrialised countries’ pessimism. The already large “very happy” cohort rose 16 points in Turkey, ten points in Mexico and five points in India. Even rich-country pessimism is uneven. The share of “very happy” people rose six points in—of all places—Japan, defying tsunami and nuclear accidents. But growth amid global misery does not explain everything: the biggest falls in happiness also occurred in large emerging markets, in Indonesia, Brazil and—a perennial miseryguts—Russia.
* perennial 何度も繰り返される
* miseryguts 不平［文句］ばかり言っている人
The second conclusion challenges the received notions of mankind’s moods. A tenet of political science is that happiness levels rise with wealth and then plateau, usually when a country’s national income per head reaches around $25,000 a year. “The richer a country gets,” argued Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in “The Spirit Level”, an influential book of 2009, “the less getting still richer adds to the population’s happiness.” Many on the left have concluded that pursuing further economic growth is pointless. Even right-wing politicians such as Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, have set up projects to study “gross national happiness”.
* tenet 〔宗教や政治の基本的な〕教義、信条
But the Ipsos study shows the highest levels of self-reported happiness not in rich countries, as one would expect, but in poor and middle-income ones, notably Indonesia, India and Mexico. In rich countries, happiness scores range from above-average—28% of Australians and Americans say they are very happy—to far below the mean. The figures for Italy and Spain were 13% and 11% (Greece was not in the sample). Most Europeans are gloomier than the world average. So levels of income are, if anything, inversely related to felicity. Perceived happiness depends on a lot more than material welfare.
'DESPITE global economic gloom, the world is a happier place than it was before the financial crisis began. That is the counterintuitive conclusion of a poll of 19,000 adults in 24 countries by Ipsos, a research company. Some 77% of respondents now describe themselves as happy, up three points on 2007, the last year before the crisis. Fully 22% (up from 20%) describe themselves as very happy—a more important measure, says Ipsos’s John Wright, since whenever three-quarters of people agree on anything, “you need to pay attention to intensity in the results.”
All such polls come with a health warning. The level of happiness is self-reported—and the term means different things to different people. The Ipsos poll, measuring degrees of happiness, is not strictly comparable with those that ask about “well-being” (such as Gallup) or “life satisfaction” (the World Values survey), so it is hard to test the validity of the conclusions against other efforts. The margin of error is wide, at plus or minus 3.1 points for most countries. Still, Ipsos has been doing its survey regularly for five years and the figures have proved fairly stable during that time, not wildly volatile which they would have been if they had been flaky.
* flaky 当てにならない
Two conclusions emerge. Large, fast-growing emerging markets do not share rich industrialised countries’ pessimism. The already large “very happy” cohort rose 16 points in Turkey, ten points in Mexico and five points in India. Even rich-country pessimism is uneven. The share of “very happy” people rose six points in—of all places—Japan, defying tsunami and nuclear accidents. But growth amid global misery does not explain everything: the biggest falls in happiness also occurred in large emerging markets, in Indonesia, Brazil and—a perennial miseryguts—Russia.
* perennial 何度も繰り返される
* miseryguts 不平［文句］ばかり言っている人
The second conclusion challenges the received notions of mankind’s moods. A tenet of political science is that happiness levels rise with wealth and then plateau, usually when a country’s national income per head reaches around $25,000 a year. “The richer a country gets,” argued Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in “The Spirit Level”, an influential book of 2009, “the less getting still richer adds to the population’s happiness.” Many on the left have concluded that pursuing further economic growth is pointless. Even right-wing politicians such as Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, have set up projects to study “gross national happiness”.
* tenet 〔宗教や政治の基本的な〕教義、信条
But the Ipsos study shows the highest levels of self-reported happiness not in rich countries, as one would expect, but in poor and middle-income ones, notably Indonesia, India and Mexico. In rich countries, happiness scores range from above-average—28% of Australians and Americans say they are very happy—to far below the mean. The figures for Italy and Spain were 13% and 11% (Greece was not in the sample). Most Europeans are gloomier than the world average. So levels of income are, if anything, inversely related to felicity. Perceived happiness depends on a lot more than material welfare.
'European Crisis Realities'
NYTの記事、’European Crisis Realities’ by Paul Krugman（February 25, 2012）から。
’This is not original, but for reference I find some ＊charts useful. In what follows I show data for the euro area minus Malta and Cyprus — 15 countries. I use red bars for the GIPSIs — Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Ireland — and blue bars for everyone else.
＊チャートは実際の記事で見られます。
There are basically three stories about the euro crisis in wide circulation: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth.
The Republican story is that it’s all about excessive welfare states. How does that hold up? Well, let’s look at public social expenditures as a share of GDP in 2007, before the crisis, from the OECD Factbook:
Hmm, only Italy is in the top five — and Germany’s welfare state was bigger.
OK, the German story is that it’s about fiscal profligacy, running excessive deficits. From the IMF WEO database, here’s the average budget deficit between 1999 (the beginning of the euro) and 2007:
＊ fiscal profligacy 財政浪費
Greece is there, and Italy (although its deficits were not very big, and the ratio of debt to GDP fell over the period). But Portugal doesn’t stand out, and Spain and Ireland were models of virtue.
Finally, let’s look at the balance of payments — the current account deficit, which is the flip side of capital inflows (also from the IMF):
＊ inflows 流入額
We’re doing a lot better here — especially when you bear in mind that Estonia, a recent entrant to the euro, had an 18 percent decline in real GDP between 2007 and 2009. (See Edward Hugh on why you shouldn’t make too much of the bounceback.)
＊ entrant 新加入者
What we’re basically looking at, then, is a balance of payments problem, in which capital flooded south after the creation of the euro, leading to overvaluation in southern Europe. It’s not a perfect fit — Italy managed to have relatively high inflation without large trade deficits. But it’s the main way you should think about where we are.
And the key point is that the two false diagnoses lead to policies that don’t address the real problem. You can slash the welfare state all you want (and the right wants to slash it down to bathtub-drowning size), but this has very little to do with export competitiveness. You can pursue crippling fiscal austerity, but this improves the external balance only by driving down the economy and hence import demand, with maybe, maybe, a gradual “internal devaluation” caused by high unemployment.
＊ slash 削減する
Now, if you’re running a peripheral nation, and the troika demands austerity, you have no choice except the nuclear option of leaving the euro, coming soon to a Balkan nation near you. But non-GIPSI European leaders should realize that what the GIPSIs really need is a general European reflation. So let’s hope that they get this, and also give each of us a pony.
＊ reflation 通貨再膨張
’This is not original, but for reference I find some ＊charts useful. In what follows I show data for the euro area minus Malta and Cyprus — 15 countries. I use red bars for the GIPSIs — Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Ireland — and blue bars for everyone else.
＊チャートは実際の記事で見られます。
There are basically three stories about the euro crisis in wide circulation: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth.
The Republican story is that it’s all about excessive welfare states. How does that hold up? Well, let’s look at public social expenditures as a share of GDP in 2007, before the crisis, from the OECD Factbook:
Hmm, only Italy is in the top five — and Germany’s welfare state was bigger.
OK, the German story is that it’s about fiscal profligacy, running excessive deficits. From the IMF WEO database, here’s the average budget deficit between 1999 (the beginning of the euro) and 2007:
＊ fiscal profligacy 財政浪費
Greece is there, and Italy (although its deficits were not very big, and the ratio of debt to GDP fell over the period). But Portugal doesn’t stand out, and Spain and Ireland were models of virtue.
Finally, let’s look at the balance of payments — the current account deficit, which is the flip side of capital inflows (also from the IMF):
＊ inflows 流入額
We’re doing a lot better here — especially when you bear in mind that Estonia, a recent entrant to the euro, had an 18 percent decline in real GDP between 2007 and 2009. (See Edward Hugh on why you shouldn’t make too much of the bounceback.)
＊ entrant 新加入者
What we’re basically looking at, then, is a balance of payments problem, in which capital flooded south after the creation of the euro, leading to overvaluation in southern Europe. It’s not a perfect fit — Italy managed to have relatively high inflation without large trade deficits. But it’s the main way you should think about where we are.
And the key point is that the two false diagnoses lead to policies that don’t address the real problem. You can slash the welfare state all you want (and the right wants to slash it down to bathtub-drowning size), but this has very little to do with export competitiveness. You can pursue crippling fiscal austerity, but this improves the external balance only by driving down the economy and hence import demand, with maybe, maybe, a gradual “internal devaluation” caused by high unemployment.
＊ slash 削減する
Now, if you’re running a peripheral nation, and the troika demands austerity, you have no choice except the nuclear option of leaving the euro, coming soon to a Balkan nation near you. But non-GIPSI European leaders should realize that what the GIPSIs really need is a general European reflation. So let’s hope that they get this, and also give each of us a pony.
＊ reflation 通貨再膨張
Saturday, February 25, 2012
大学って何のためにあるの？
The guardianの記事、'The threat to our universities' by Stefan Collini (Friday 24 February 2012 22.56 GMT)から。
'What are universities for? Should they be businesses 'competing on price'? Are students 'consumers', concerned only with getting jobs? A half-baked market ideology informs official thinking about higher education, and it undermines an ideal that a vast number of people cherish.
Take one job centre. Add several apprenticeship programmes. Combine with an industrial lab (fold in a medical research centre for extra flavour). Throw in some subsidised gigs and a large dollop of cheap beer. Don't stir too much. Decorate with a forward-looking logo. And hey presto! – you've got a university.
At this point, I should be able to say (according to the formula): "Here's one I made earlier." In reality, of course, no one has ever successfully created a university by following this recipe. But if you simply go by what is now said about universities in official pronouncements from government departments or funding agencies or employers' associations, you could be forgiven for thinking that this recipe pretty much describes what these institutions are all about.
*pronouncements 公式見解
In recent years, universities have been in the news as perhaps never before, but increasingly in public discourse in Britain, they are said to serve two purposes – and two purposes only. The first is to "equip" "young people" to get jobs in "the fast-moving economy of tomorrow". The other is to contribute to "growth", to develop the "cutting-edge products" needed in "today's competitive global marketplace" (and preferably to discover the odd miracle drug, too).
I realise that by merely raising a quizzical eyebrow about the self-evident priority of these goals I am going to be damned for being out of touch with "the real world". What's even more curious is that everyone who expresses the slightest reservation about this vocabulary turns out to live at the same address. Simply to suggest that universities might have other purposes is immediately to be classed as someone who "lives in the ivory tower".
* quizzical いぶかしげな
'What are universities for? Should they be businesses 'competing on price'? Are students 'consumers', concerned only with getting jobs? A half-baked market ideology informs official thinking about higher education, and it undermines an ideal that a vast number of people cherish.
Take one job centre. Add several apprenticeship programmes. Combine with an industrial lab (fold in a medical research centre for extra flavour). Throw in some subsidised gigs and a large dollop of cheap beer. Don't stir too much. Decorate with a forward-looking logo. And hey presto! – you've got a university.
At this point, I should be able to say (according to the formula): "Here's one I made earlier." In reality, of course, no one has ever successfully created a university by following this recipe. But if you simply go by what is now said about universities in official pronouncements from government departments or funding agencies or employers' associations, you could be forgiven for thinking that this recipe pretty much describes what these institutions are all about.
*pronouncements 公式見解
In recent years, universities have been in the news as perhaps never before, but increasingly in public discourse in Britain, they are said to serve two purposes – and two purposes only. The first is to "equip" "young people" to get jobs in "the fast-moving economy of tomorrow". The other is to contribute to "growth", to develop the "cutting-edge products" needed in "today's competitive global marketplace" (and preferably to discover the odd miracle drug, too).
I realise that by merely raising a quizzical eyebrow about the self-evident priority of these goals I am going to be damned for being out of touch with "the real world". What's even more curious is that everyone who expresses the slightest reservation about this vocabulary turns out to live at the same address. Simply to suggest that universities might have other purposes is immediately to be classed as someone who "lives in the ivory tower".
* quizzical いぶかしげな
OnLive Desktop Plus
NYTの記事、'Windows on the iPad, and Speedy' By DAVID POGUE(February 22, 2012)から。
'You’re probably paying something like $60 a month for high-speed Internet. I’m paying $5 a month, and my connection is 1,000 times faster.
Your iPad can’t play Flash videos on the Web. Mine can.
Your copy of Windows needs constant updating and patching and protection against viruses and spyware. Mine is always clean and always up-to-date.
No, I’m not some kind of smug techno-elitist; you can have all of that, too. All you have to do is sign up for a radical iPad service called OnLive Desktop Plus.
It’s a tiny app — about 5 megabytes. When you open it, you see a standard Windows 7 desktop, right there on your iPad. The full, latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader are set up and ready to use — no installation, no serial numbers, no pop-up balloons nagging you to update this or that. It may be the least annoying version of Windows you’ve ever used.
That’s pretty impressive — but not as impressive as what’s going on behind the scenes. The PC that’s driving your iPad Windows experience is, in fact, a “farm” of computers at one of three data centers thousands of miles away. Every time you tap the screen, scroll a list or type on the on-screen keyboard, you’re sending signals to those distant computers. The screen image is blasted back to your iPad with astonishingly little lag.
There’s an insane amount of technology behind this stunt — 10 years in the making, according to the company’s founder. (He’s a veteran of Apple’s original QuickTime team and Microsoft’s WebTV and Xbox teams.) OnLive Desktop builds on the company’s original business, a service that lets gamers play high-horsepower video games on Macs or
low-powered Windows computers like netbooks.
* stunt 離れ業、妙技
The free version of the OnLive Desktop service arrived in January. It gives you Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a few basic Windows apps (like Paint, Media Player, Notepad and Calculator), and 2 gigabytes of storage.
Plenty of apps give you stripped-down versions of Office on the iPad. But OnLive Desktop gives you the complete Windows Office suite. In Word, you can do fancy stuff like tracking changes and high-end typography. In PowerPoint, you can make slide shows that the iPad projects with all of the cross fades, zooms and animations intact.
* stripped-down 必要最低限のものだけを装備した
Thanks to Microsoft’s own Touch Pack add-on, all of this works with touch-screen gestures. You can pinch and spread two fingers to zoom in and out of your Office documents. You can use Windows’ impressive handwriting recognition to enter text (although a Bluetooth keyboard works better). You can flick to scroll through a list.
Instead of clicking the mouse on things, you can simply tap, although a stylus works better than a fingertip; many of the Windows controls are too tiny for a finger to tap precisely. (On a real Windows PC, you could open the Control Panel to enlarge the controls for touch use — but OnLive’s simulated PC is lacking the Control Panel, which is one of its few downsides.)
* stylus タッチペン
OnLive Desktop is seamless and fairly amazing. And fast; on what other PC does Word open in one second?
But the only way to get files onto and off OnLive Desktop is using a Documents folder on the desktop. To access it, you have to visit OnLive’s Web site on your actual PC.'
'You’re probably paying something like $60 a month for high-speed Internet. I’m paying $5 a month, and my connection is 1,000 times faster.
Your iPad can’t play Flash videos on the Web. Mine can.
Your copy of Windows needs constant updating and patching and protection against viruses and spyware. Mine is always clean and always up-to-date.
No, I’m not some kind of smug techno-elitist; you can have all of that, too. All you have to do is sign up for a radical iPad service called OnLive Desktop Plus.
It’s a tiny app — about 5 megabytes. When you open it, you see a standard Windows 7 desktop, right there on your iPad. The full, latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader are set up and ready to use — no installation, no serial numbers, no pop-up balloons nagging you to update this or that. It may be the least annoying version of Windows you’ve ever used.
That’s pretty impressive — but not as impressive as what’s going on behind the scenes. The PC that’s driving your iPad Windows experience is, in fact, a “farm” of computers at one of three data centers thousands of miles away. Every time you tap the screen, scroll a list or type on the on-screen keyboard, you’re sending signals to those distant computers. The screen image is blasted back to your iPad with astonishingly little lag.
There’s an insane amount of technology behind this stunt — 10 years in the making, according to the company’s founder. (He’s a veteran of Apple’s original QuickTime team and Microsoft’s WebTV and Xbox teams.) OnLive Desktop builds on the company’s original business, a service that lets gamers play high-horsepower video games on Macs or
low-powered Windows computers like netbooks.
* stunt 離れ業、妙技
The free version of the OnLive Desktop service arrived in January. It gives you Word, Excel and PowerPoint, a few basic Windows apps (like Paint, Media Player, Notepad and Calculator), and 2 gigabytes of storage.
Plenty of apps give you stripped-down versions of Office on the iPad. But OnLive Desktop gives you the complete Windows Office suite. In Word, you can do fancy stuff like tracking changes and high-end typography. In PowerPoint, you can make slide shows that the iPad projects with all of the cross fades, zooms and animations intact.
* stripped-down 必要最低限のものだけを装備した
Thanks to Microsoft’s own Touch Pack add-on, all of this works with touch-screen gestures. You can pinch and spread two fingers to zoom in and out of your Office documents. You can use Windows’ impressive handwriting recognition to enter text (although a Bluetooth keyboard works better). You can flick to scroll through a list.
Instead of clicking the mouse on things, you can simply tap, although a stylus works better than a fingertip; many of the Windows controls are too tiny for a finger to tap precisely. (On a real Windows PC, you could open the Control Panel to enlarge the controls for touch use — but OnLive’s simulated PC is lacking the Control Panel, which is one of its few downsides.)
* stylus タッチペン
OnLive Desktop is seamless and fairly amazing. And fast; on what other PC does Word open in one second?
But the only way to get files onto and off OnLive Desktop is using a Documents folder on the desktop. To access it, you have to visit OnLive’s Web site on your actual PC.'
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
ラッド再び
オーストラリア政変、ラッド前首相が再び大変なことになっていますが、The Ageの記事、'And the jostling for numbers begins in Labor leadership battle'by Jessica Wright and Judith Ireland (February 23, 2012)から。
'The numbers battle for the Labor leadership has begun in earnest with the former attorney-general Robert McClelland breaking ranks to declare his support for Kevin Rudd.
* begin in earnest 本格化する、熱が入る
* break ranks〔同一組織内のメンバーに〕反対する、逆らう
Earlier this afternooon resources minister Martin Ferguson became the first cabinet minister to throw his weight behind Mr Rudd in a day where one after the other of his colleagues have lined up to trash the former foreign minister.
* throw one's weight behind ... 自分の地位を利用してまで～を支援する
* trash ... ～を激しく非難する
Mr Rudd's campaign has also been bolstered by Kim Carr - another former cabinet minister and Left faction heavyweight - and the outspoken Victorian Senator Doug Cameron.
* bolster 支援する
Mr McClelland, who was demoted to emergency services minister last year in a cabinet reshuffle, told The Pulse: "I'll be supporting Kevin again on the basis that he's our best prospect to win the next federal election. Kevin is the only Labor leader to win in his own right in 17 years.
* demote 〔人や物を〕降格させる
"In circumstances where the party's primary vote has been flatlining for 12 months, we have an obligation to put forward our best leader to the voters."
* flatline〔上下変動せずに〕水平になる
It comes as it was revealed that Mr Rudd sought to contact the Greens Leader, Bob Brown and key independent MPs immediately after his shock resignation in Washington DC late last night.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Ferguson said he believed Mr Rudd was the best candidate to take on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at the next federal election.
The announcement is the latest in a swinging pendulum of senior MPs to declare their support for Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd although the Prime Minister has claimed the lion's share of public caucus support to date.'
'The numbers battle for the Labor leadership has begun in earnest with the former attorney-general Robert McClelland breaking ranks to declare his support for Kevin Rudd.
* begin in earnest 本格化する、熱が入る
* break ranks〔同一組織内のメンバーに〕反対する、逆らう
Earlier this afternooon resources minister Martin Ferguson became the first cabinet minister to throw his weight behind Mr Rudd in a day where one after the other of his colleagues have lined up to trash the former foreign minister.
* throw one's weight behind ... 自分の地位を利用してまで～を支援する
* trash ... ～を激しく非難する
Mr Rudd's campaign has also been bolstered by Kim Carr - another former cabinet minister and Left faction heavyweight - and the outspoken Victorian Senator Doug Cameron.
* bolster 支援する
Mr McClelland, who was demoted to emergency services minister last year in a cabinet reshuffle, told The Pulse: "I'll be supporting Kevin again on the basis that he's our best prospect to win the next federal election. Kevin is the only Labor leader to win in his own right in 17 years.
* demote 〔人や物を〕降格させる
"In circumstances where the party's primary vote has been flatlining for 12 months, we have an obligation to put forward our best leader to the voters."
* flatline〔上下変動せずに〕水平になる
It comes as it was revealed that Mr Rudd sought to contact the Greens Leader, Bob Brown and key independent MPs immediately after his shock resignation in Washington DC late last night.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Ferguson said he believed Mr Rudd was the best candidate to take on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at the next federal election.
The announcement is the latest in a swinging pendulum of senior MPs to declare their support for Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd although the Prime Minister has claimed the lion's share of public caucus support to date.'
Sunday, February 19, 2012
借金地獄
Reutersの記事、'Insight: Japan slowly wakes up to doomsday debt risk' By Tetsushi Kajimoto, Leika Kihara and Tomasz Janowski (Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:36am EST)から。
'(Reuters) - Capital flight, soaring borrowing costs, tanking currency and stocks and a central bank forced to pump vast amounts of cash into local banks -- that is what Japan may have to contend with if it fails to tackle its snowballing debt.
* tank〈俗〉駄目になる、大失敗する、暴落する
Not long ago such doomsday scenarios would be dismissed in Tokyo as fantasies of ill-informed foreigners sitting on loss-making bets "shorting Japan."
* doomsday 最後の審判の日、この世の終わり、地球最後の日
* short...《証券》～を空売りする
Today this is what is on bureaucrats' minds in Japan's centre of political and economic power.
"It's scary when you think what could happen if there's triple-selling of bonds, stocks and the yen. The chance of this happening is bigger than markets think," says a senior official.
Leaning back in a leather sofa in his office, the official appears relaxed, but the way he wastes no time answering questions about a debt meltdown, suggests it is an all too familiar topic.
The official, like many others interviewed by Reuters, declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject and his alarm over Japan's $10 trillion-plus debt overhang has yet to be reflected in public debate or action. But these officials would be the ones pulling the levers in the command center if Japan were to be hit by a debt crisis.
* debt overhang 過剰債務
The government borrows more than it raises in taxes, and its debt pile amounts to two years' worth of Japan's economic output, the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world.
It costs Japan half of the country's tax income just to service its debt. Each year, Japan's debt level increases by more than the combined gross domestic product of Greece and Portugal.
* service〔負債を〕返済［償還］する、〔負債の利子を〕払う
Yet Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's plan to double the 5 percent sales tax to 10 percent over the next three years is seen as far too timid to stop debts from piling up.
Furthermore, he has yet to win over many in his own party and half of the public while the opposition threatens to scupper the plan, which it supports in principle, to force snap elections.
* scupper 〔計画などを〕駄目にする、破滅させる
* snap elections 解散総選挙
Technocrats who might have once dismissed worst-case scenarios are now beginning to take them seriously as doubts grow over whether Japan is ready to act and as Greece's budget meltdown stokes the euro zone's debt crisis.
Conventional wisdom is that Japan is safe as long as it keeps covering about 95 percent of its borrowing needs at home. What emerges from a dozen or so interviews with fund managers and officials versed in monetary and fiscal policy is that a risk of domestic investors going on a strike is what makes them particularly nervous.'
'(Reuters) - Capital flight, soaring borrowing costs, tanking currency and stocks and a central bank forced to pump vast amounts of cash into local banks -- that is what Japan may have to contend with if it fails to tackle its snowballing debt.
* tank〈俗〉駄目になる、大失敗する、暴落する
Not long ago such doomsday scenarios would be dismissed in Tokyo as fantasies of ill-informed foreigners sitting on loss-making bets "shorting Japan."
* doomsday 最後の審判の日、この世の終わり、地球最後の日
* short...《証券》～を空売りする
Today this is what is on bureaucrats' minds in Japan's centre of political and economic power.
"It's scary when you think what could happen if there's triple-selling of bonds, stocks and the yen. The chance of this happening is bigger than markets think," says a senior official.
Leaning back in a leather sofa in his office, the official appears relaxed, but the way he wastes no time answering questions about a debt meltdown, suggests it is an all too familiar topic.
The official, like many others interviewed by Reuters, declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject and his alarm over Japan's $10 trillion-plus debt overhang has yet to be reflected in public debate or action. But these officials would be the ones pulling the levers in the command center if Japan were to be hit by a debt crisis.
* debt overhang 過剰債務
The government borrows more than it raises in taxes, and its debt pile amounts to two years' worth of Japan's economic output, the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world.
It costs Japan half of the country's tax income just to service its debt. Each year, Japan's debt level increases by more than the combined gross domestic product of Greece and Portugal.
* service〔負債を〕返済［償還］する、〔負債の利子を〕払う
Yet Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's plan to double the 5 percent sales tax to 10 percent over the next three years is seen as far too timid to stop debts from piling up.
Furthermore, he has yet to win over many in his own party and half of the public while the opposition threatens to scupper the plan, which it supports in principle, to force snap elections.
* scupper 〔計画などを〕駄目にする、破滅させる
* snap elections 解散総選挙
Technocrats who might have once dismissed worst-case scenarios are now beginning to take them seriously as doubts grow over whether Japan is ready to act and as Greece's budget meltdown stokes the euro zone's debt crisis.
Conventional wisdom is that Japan is safe as long as it keeps covering about 95 percent of its borrowing needs at home. What emerges from a dozen or so interviews with fund managers and officials versed in monetary and fiscal policy is that a risk of domestic investors going on a strike is what makes them particularly nervous.'
Thursday, February 16, 2012
オリンパス：損失隠し 粉飾容疑、前会長ら逮捕
NYTの記事、'7 Arrested in Olympus Accounting Cover-Up' By HIROKO TABUCHI（Published: February 16, 2012）から。
'TOKYO — Arrests of seven people Thursday accused of involvement in the $1.7 billion accounting scandal at Olympus, including the company’s former chairman and executive vice president, point to a widening investigation into a cover-up ostensibly carried out by top management with the help of a group of former bankers.
* ostensibly うわべは、表向きは、表面上は
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who was the company’s chairman until the scandal broke last fall, was arrested in Tokyo as were two other former executives on suspicion of having falsified financial statements, Tokyo prosecutors said. Two former Nomura investment bankers who had been previously mentioned by investigators were also taken into custody, accused of violating securities laws. And so were two of the bankers’ apparent associates, whose names had not be previously publicized.
* the scandal broke 不祥事が浮上する
By aiming a spotlight on what critics say is Japan’s lax corporate governance, and casting a shadow over one of the country’s former blue-chip companies, the Olympus scandal has become a test of how far Japan is willing to go to fight white-collar crime.
* lax 〔規律などが〕緩い、手ぬるい
* cast a shadow over ... ～の上に（暗い）影を落とす［投じる・投げ掛ける］、～に暗影を投じる
Under Japanese securities laws, the men arrested Thursday could each serve up to 10 years if found guilty. But convictions for white collar-crime have been rare in Japan, and courts have been known to hand down suspended sentences even in egregious cases.
* serve 刑期を務める、服役する
Executives linked to a $350 million accounting scandal at the major Japanese brokerage firm Nikko Cordial in 2006 never served any jail time, for example.
* serve jail time 服役する
The former Olympus executives arrested, besides Mr. Kikukawa, according to the prosecutor’s office, were Hisashi Mori, the former executive vice president, who was fired after the scandal broke; and Hideo Yamada, a former internal auditor, who resigned in the scandal’s wake.
* in the ...’s wake ～の結果（として）、～があった［起こった・分かった］今［この時点で］
The Japanese authorities also arrested the two former Nomura bankers, Akio Nakagawa and Nobumasa Yokoo, who ran Global Company, an investment firm. The firm’s receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars in advisory fees from Olympus in the early 2000s, according to investigators, raised questions that eventually led to the accounting fraud’s being detected.
Two men who authorities described as the bankers’ associates, Taku Hada and Hiroshi Ono, were also arrested. Both had served on the board of Global. Mr. Hada was also listed as a director for three companies that Global is accused of helping Olympus to acquire, as part of the accounting fraud.
Efforts to reach lawyers for the arrested executives for comment were not successful.
The irregular accounting came to light in October after Olympus fired Michael C. Woodford, a Briton who was the company’s president and chief executive. At the time, Mr. Kikukawa, still the chairman, attributed the dismissal to Mr. Woodford’s aggressive Western management style.
* come to light 明るみに出る
* dismissal 〔人の〕免職、解職、解雇
But Mr. Woodford subsequently went public saying he had been fired for questioning a series of payouts made by the company from 2006 to 2008, and he provided what he said was evidence to the news media. Investigation by securities and law enforcement agencies in Japan, Britain and the United States ensued, as did an internal inquiry by an outside panel hired by Olympus.
* go public 公表する
Mr. Woodford then began a campaign to return and lead a turnaround at Olympus, whose share price has collapsed since the scandal broke. But he abandoned that effort in December after the company’s biggest domestic shareholders sided against him — an opposition that that some foreign investors have said confirms their worst fears of corporate Japan’s resistance to outsiders and change.
Mr. Woodford said Thursday in an e-mail that he felt vindicated by the arrests. “After going to hell and back, this is a day to remember,” he wrote.
* feel vindicated 正しさを立証されたと感じる、報われた気がする
Olympus said that it was aware of the gravity of the situation and was cooperating fully with the authorities.
The arrests, particularly of Mr. Hada and Mr. Ono, place new scrutiny on the obscure companies Olympus acquired in Japan from 2006 to 2008 for a total of almost $800 million.
Those companies — Altis, a medical waste recycling company; Humalabo, a facial cream maker; and News Chef, which makes plastic containers — were unprofitable and had little in common with Olympus’s main lines of business, which are cameras and medical equipment. Olympus wrote down the bulk of their value within the same fiscal year of the acquisitions.
* write down 値下げする、価額を切り下げる、減額する、評価損を計上する
Mr. Yokoo’s Global Company advised Olympus to make those acquisitions. But company filings show Mr. Yokoo himself had set up the three companies, in two cases using entities that had long gone dormant. According to Olympus’s investigative panel, the purchases and write-downs were used to account for earlier financial losses Olympus had never formally acknowledged.
* go dormant 休眠状態に入る［陥る］
Police officials are also investigating almost $700 million in fees Olympus paid to Global Company as an adviser on Olympus’s acquisition of Gyrus, a British medical equipment maker, in 2008. That fee amounted to more than a third of the $2 billion acquisition price, an advisory payment more than 30 times the norm. The Olympus panel has linked Mr. Nakagawa to that transaction.
Investors are now focusing on how Olympus will shore up its finances, as well as who will lead the company as it battles to regain credibility. In December, it restated five years’ worth of earnings, exposing a $1.1 billion hole in its balance sheet. That has led to speculation that it would need to merge with or sell itself to a competitor to stay afloat.
* shore up 補強する、強化する、てこ入れをする、建て直す
* balance sheet 貸借対照表【略】B/S
On Monday, Olympus forecast a $410 million loss for its financial year, which ends in March. Still, the current president, Shuichi Takayama, a longtime Olympus executive, said the company’s mainstay medical equipment business remained robust and that the company might not need to raise outside capital.
Also clouding Olympus’s outlook is the possibility of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, an action that could devastate its already battered share price. The exchange decided last month to keep Olympus listed for the time being, saying a cover-up orchestrated by a few executives did not merit a delisting. But the exchange indicated Thursday that it could revisit that decision based on fresh evidence.
* cloud 〔評判などを〕落とす、悪くさせる
Mr. Takayama is expected to step down at a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April. He has been sued by Olympus over the scandal, along with 18 other former and current executives.'
'TOKYO — Arrests of seven people Thursday accused of involvement in the $1.7 billion accounting scandal at Olympus, including the company’s former chairman and executive vice president, point to a widening investigation into a cover-up ostensibly carried out by top management with the help of a group of former bankers.
* ostensibly うわべは、表向きは、表面上は
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who was the company’s chairman until the scandal broke last fall, was arrested in Tokyo as were two other former executives on suspicion of having falsified financial statements, Tokyo prosecutors said. Two former Nomura investment bankers who had been previously mentioned by investigators were also taken into custody, accused of violating securities laws. And so were two of the bankers’ apparent associates, whose names had not be previously publicized.
* the scandal broke 不祥事が浮上する
By aiming a spotlight on what critics say is Japan’s lax corporate governance, and casting a shadow over one of the country’s former blue-chip companies, the Olympus scandal has become a test of how far Japan is willing to go to fight white-collar crime.
* lax 〔規律などが〕緩い、手ぬるい
* cast a shadow over ... ～の上に（暗い）影を落とす［投じる・投げ掛ける］、～に暗影を投じる
Under Japanese securities laws, the men arrested Thursday could each serve up to 10 years if found guilty. But convictions for white collar-crime have been rare in Japan, and courts have been known to hand down suspended sentences even in egregious cases.
* serve 刑期を務める、服役する
Executives linked to a $350 million accounting scandal at the major Japanese brokerage firm Nikko Cordial in 2006 never served any jail time, for example.
* serve jail time 服役する
The former Olympus executives arrested, besides Mr. Kikukawa, according to the prosecutor’s office, were Hisashi Mori, the former executive vice president, who was fired after the scandal broke; and Hideo Yamada, a former internal auditor, who resigned in the scandal’s wake.
* in the ...’s wake ～の結果（として）、～があった［起こった・分かった］今［この時点で］
The Japanese authorities also arrested the two former Nomura bankers, Akio Nakagawa and Nobumasa Yokoo, who ran Global Company, an investment firm. The firm’s receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars in advisory fees from Olympus in the early 2000s, according to investigators, raised questions that eventually led to the accounting fraud’s being detected.
Two men who authorities described as the bankers’ associates, Taku Hada and Hiroshi Ono, were also arrested. Both had served on the board of Global. Mr. Hada was also listed as a director for three companies that Global is accused of helping Olympus to acquire, as part of the accounting fraud.
Efforts to reach lawyers for the arrested executives for comment were not successful.
The irregular accounting came to light in October after Olympus fired Michael C. Woodford, a Briton who was the company’s president and chief executive. At the time, Mr. Kikukawa, still the chairman, attributed the dismissal to Mr. Woodford’s aggressive Western management style.
* come to light 明るみに出る
* dismissal 〔人の〕免職、解職、解雇
But Mr. Woodford subsequently went public saying he had been fired for questioning a series of payouts made by the company from 2006 to 2008, and he provided what he said was evidence to the news media. Investigation by securities and law enforcement agencies in Japan, Britain and the United States ensued, as did an internal inquiry by an outside panel hired by Olympus.
* go public 公表する
Mr. Woodford then began a campaign to return and lead a turnaround at Olympus, whose share price has collapsed since the scandal broke. But he abandoned that effort in December after the company’s biggest domestic shareholders sided against him — an opposition that that some foreign investors have said confirms their worst fears of corporate Japan’s resistance to outsiders and change.
Mr. Woodford said Thursday in an e-mail that he felt vindicated by the arrests. “After going to hell and back, this is a day to remember,” he wrote.
* feel vindicated 正しさを立証されたと感じる、報われた気がする
Olympus said that it was aware of the gravity of the situation and was cooperating fully with the authorities.
The arrests, particularly of Mr. Hada and Mr. Ono, place new scrutiny on the obscure companies Olympus acquired in Japan from 2006 to 2008 for a total of almost $800 million.
Those companies — Altis, a medical waste recycling company; Humalabo, a facial cream maker; and News Chef, which makes plastic containers — were unprofitable and had little in common with Olympus’s main lines of business, which are cameras and medical equipment. Olympus wrote down the bulk of their value within the same fiscal year of the acquisitions.
* write down 値下げする、価額を切り下げる、減額する、評価損を計上する
Mr. Yokoo’s Global Company advised Olympus to make those acquisitions. But company filings show Mr. Yokoo himself had set up the three companies, in two cases using entities that had long gone dormant. According to Olympus’s investigative panel, the purchases and write-downs were used to account for earlier financial losses Olympus had never formally acknowledged.
* go dormant 休眠状態に入る［陥る］
Police officials are also investigating almost $700 million in fees Olympus paid to Global Company as an adviser on Olympus’s acquisition of Gyrus, a British medical equipment maker, in 2008. That fee amounted to more than a third of the $2 billion acquisition price, an advisory payment more than 30 times the norm. The Olympus panel has linked Mr. Nakagawa to that transaction.
Investors are now focusing on how Olympus will shore up its finances, as well as who will lead the company as it battles to regain credibility. In December, it restated five years’ worth of earnings, exposing a $1.1 billion hole in its balance sheet. That has led to speculation that it would need to merge with or sell itself to a competitor to stay afloat.
* shore up 補強する、強化する、てこ入れをする、建て直す
* balance sheet 貸借対照表【略】B/S
On Monday, Olympus forecast a $410 million loss for its financial year, which ends in March. Still, the current president, Shuichi Takayama, a longtime Olympus executive, said the company’s mainstay medical equipment business remained robust and that the company might not need to raise outside capital.
Also clouding Olympus’s outlook is the possibility of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, an action that could devastate its already battered share price. The exchange decided last month to keep Olympus listed for the time being, saying a cover-up orchestrated by a few executives did not merit a delisting. But the exchange indicated Thursday that it could revisit that decision based on fresh evidence.
* cloud 〔評判などを〕落とす、悪くさせる
Mr. Takayama is expected to step down at a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April. He has been sued by Olympus over the scandal, along with 18 other former and current executives.'
食品新規制値で放射線審前会長 関係学会へ投稿要請
Japan Timesの記事、'Panel OKs lower cesium limit for food' Kyodo (Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012)から。
'A government panel approved Thursday a proposal for far stricter limits on radioactive cesium found in food, paving the way for the health ministry to enforce the new limits in April.
* pave the way for ... ～の地固めをする、～の下地を作る
The Radiation Council under the science ministry said that to provide a generous safety margin, the new limits are based on the false assumption that most food products are contaminated with cesium following the explosions last March at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
* safety margin 安全（性）の限界
The panel also said food with cesium levels slightly above the new limits would have little effect on human health.
Because the new limits could impede sales of farm products from Fukushima Prefecture, the government should respect the views of producers as much as possible in enforcing them, it said.
* impede 遅らせる、妨げる、邪魔をする
The new limits, which come between one-twentieth and one-quarter of the present tentative limits depending on the food category, are set at 100 becquerels per kilogram for regular food items such as rice and meat, compared with the current 500 becquerels , 50 becquerels for milk and infant food, and 10 becquerels for drinking water.
Otsura Niwa, head of the Radiation Council, said 100 becquerels is a safe enough level and there's no need to separate food for infants in a family with small kids.
The new limits are intended to curb the total internal exposure to cesium from food to less than 1 millisievert per year. The current limit is 5 millisieverts a year.
* curb 抑制する、抑える、阻止する、食い止める、防止する、制限する、～に歯止めをかける
The health ministry proposed the new limits in December after debating the matter, then asked the Radiation Council to judge if the proposal was appropriate.'
'A government panel approved Thursday a proposal for far stricter limits on radioactive cesium found in food, paving the way for the health ministry to enforce the new limits in April.
* pave the way for ... ～の地固めをする、～の下地を作る
The Radiation Council under the science ministry said that to provide a generous safety margin, the new limits are based on the false assumption that most food products are contaminated with cesium following the explosions last March at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
* safety margin 安全（性）の限界
The panel also said food with cesium levels slightly above the new limits would have little effect on human health.
Because the new limits could impede sales of farm products from Fukushima Prefecture, the government should respect the views of producers as much as possible in enforcing them, it said.
* impede 遅らせる、妨げる、邪魔をする
The new limits, which come between one-twentieth and one-quarter of the present tentative limits depending on the food category, are set at 100 becquerels per kilogram for regular food items such as rice and meat, compared with the current 500 becquerels , 50 becquerels for milk and infant food, and 10 becquerels for drinking water.
Otsura Niwa, head of the Radiation Council, said 100 becquerels is a safe enough level and there's no need to separate food for infants in a family with small kids.
The new limits are intended to curb the total internal exposure to cesium from food to less than 1 millisievert per year. The current limit is 5 millisieverts a year.
* curb 抑制する、抑える、阻止する、食い止める、防止する、制限する、～に歯止めをかける
The health ministry proposed the new limits in December after debating the matter, then asked the Radiation Council to judge if the proposal was appropriate.'
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
As Japan Works to Patch Itself Up, a Rift Between Generations Opens
NYTの記事、'As Japan Works to Patch Itself Up, a Rift Between Generations Opens'
By NORIMITSU ONISHI (February 12, 2012)から。
'ONAGAWA, Japan — At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March’s tsunami, oversees a community where the votes, money and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to those of his generation and younger.
* graying residents 高齢化
* in such a way as to ... ...という方法で、...するように
“That’s the most difficult problem,” Mr. Suda said. “For whom are we rebuilding?”
The reconstruction of Onagawa and the rest of the coast where the tsunami hit is a preview of what may be the most critical test Japan will face in the decades ahead. In a country where power rests disproportionately among older people, how does Japan, which has the world’s most rapidly aging population, use its dwindling resources to build a society that looks to the future as much as to the past?
* dwindling 〔徐々に〕減少する、小さくなる
The clashing generational interests are perhaps most striking here in Onagawa, a town of 8,500 residents whose average age of 49.5 is above the national average of 45. The evolving debate over the shape of Onagawa’s reconstruction underscores how older Japanese, more attached to their land and customs, are wielding disproportionate influence and swaying local governments into issuing reconstruction blueprints at odds with Tokyo’s stated goal of creating long-term sustainable communities.
* at odds with ... ～と不和で、～と争って、～と意見が食い違って、～との関係が悪化して
The debate here centers on the future of Onagawa’s rapidly aging and depopulated fishing villages, which, reachable only by twisting mountain roads, dot peninsulas that spread east and south of the town center here. Three other villages, located on two nearby islands, depend on a ferry that runs only three days a week for access to the mainland.
So after the tsunami destroyed all 15 of the fishing villages that make up part of Onagawa, Nobutaka Azumi, then the mayor, proposed a reconstruction plan that seemed sensible enough: consolidate the villages. Having just a few centralized communities would save the town money, Mr. Azumi said, and perhaps increase their chances of long-term survival.
* consolidate 合同する、合併する、統合する
But the village elders fought back, saying they wanted the government to rebuild their ancestral villages so that they could spend their last years there. Younger residents, many of whom supported consolidation but were vastly outnumbered, were left grumbling among themselves.
* outnumber ～に数で勝る、数で凌駕する、～の数を上回る、～より数が多い
After the mayor persisted, he was pushed out of office by Mr. Suda, who was backed by opponents of consolidation. Mr. Suda now says that all the villages will be rebuilt, including a hamlet with just 22 inhabitants and an island village whose residents are on average 74 years old.
“There were 15 locations, so there will be 15 locations,” Mr. Suda said. “We’re moving forward under the premise that there will be no centralization, though I’m thinking of asking them one last time if this is really O.K., whether their young relatives are in agreement.”
In Tokyo, reconstruction officials say they are aware that the voices of young people are not being heard on the ground.
* on the ground 現場で
“It’s an extremely difficult problem,” said Yoshio Ando, an official at Reconstruction Headquarters.
But the governing Democratic Party — as sensitive to the power of aging rural voters as its predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party — contributed to the problem. National ministries are overseeing most of the tsunami-hit area’s large reconstruction projects out of a recently approved $120 billion budget.
But Tokyo is handing $25 billion directly to regional and local governments to refashion their communities, a boon to politically connected construction companies. The thinking is that local officials understand their communities best, but local politicians and bureaucrats are also less likely to make tough decisions like sacrificing some villages to make others stronger — and to lower the reconstruction costs that are likely to sap already strained financial resources.
* boon 〔時宜にかなった〕恩恵、恵み
boon to ... ...にとって恩恵となるもの
* sap ～を弱らせる、〔活力などを〕徐々に奪う
Mr. Ando said that Tokyo was counting on local governments to come up with plans that were in keeping with the affected zone’s demographic realities.
* count on ... to 〜 ...に〜するのを期待する、頼る
* in keeping with... ～と一致［調和］して、～と調子を合わせて、～と足並みをそろえて、～を順守して、～に沿って［従って］、～を踏まえて
“Local governments may be unable to persuade their residents, but the national government is not considering going in and doing so forcibly,” Mr. Ando said. “To put it negatively, we’re passing the buck. To put it positively, it’s not for the national government to judge.”
* pass the buck 責任転嫁する
After the disaster, even as debris from the tsunami was still being cleared, Onagawa’s officials addressed head-on what other local governments barely whispered: rebuilding communities that had been dying before the tsunami made no sense.
* head-on 真っ正面（から）の
“I understand that you want to remain in your villages, but what will happen in 10 years?” Mr. Azumi, the former mayor, asked in May, according to the minutes of a meeting.'
By NORIMITSU ONISHI (February 12, 2012)から。
'ONAGAWA, Japan — At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March’s tsunami, oversees a community where the votes, money and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to those of his generation and younger.
* graying residents 高齢化
* in such a way as to ... ...という方法で、...するように
“That’s the most difficult problem,” Mr. Suda said. “For whom are we rebuilding?”
The reconstruction of Onagawa and the rest of the coast where the tsunami hit is a preview of what may be the most critical test Japan will face in the decades ahead. In a country where power rests disproportionately among older people, how does Japan, which has the world’s most rapidly aging population, use its dwindling resources to build a society that looks to the future as much as to the past?
* dwindling 〔徐々に〕減少する、小さくなる
The clashing generational interests are perhaps most striking here in Onagawa, a town of 8,500 residents whose average age of 49.5 is above the national average of 45. The evolving debate over the shape of Onagawa’s reconstruction underscores how older Japanese, more attached to their land and customs, are wielding disproportionate influence and swaying local governments into issuing reconstruction blueprints at odds with Tokyo’s stated goal of creating long-term sustainable communities.
* at odds with ... ～と不和で、～と争って、～と意見が食い違って、～との関係が悪化して
The debate here centers on the future of Onagawa’s rapidly aging and depopulated fishing villages, which, reachable only by twisting mountain roads, dot peninsulas that spread east and south of the town center here. Three other villages, located on two nearby islands, depend on a ferry that runs only three days a week for access to the mainland.
So after the tsunami destroyed all 15 of the fishing villages that make up part of Onagawa, Nobutaka Azumi, then the mayor, proposed a reconstruction plan that seemed sensible enough: consolidate the villages. Having just a few centralized communities would save the town money, Mr. Azumi said, and perhaps increase their chances of long-term survival.
* consolidate 合同する、合併する、統合する
But the village elders fought back, saying they wanted the government to rebuild their ancestral villages so that they could spend their last years there. Younger residents, many of whom supported consolidation but were vastly outnumbered, were left grumbling among themselves.
* outnumber ～に数で勝る、数で凌駕する、～の数を上回る、～より数が多い
After the mayor persisted, he was pushed out of office by Mr. Suda, who was backed by opponents of consolidation. Mr. Suda now says that all the villages will be rebuilt, including a hamlet with just 22 inhabitants and an island village whose residents are on average 74 years old.
“There were 15 locations, so there will be 15 locations,” Mr. Suda said. “We’re moving forward under the premise that there will be no centralization, though I’m thinking of asking them one last time if this is really O.K., whether their young relatives are in agreement.”
In Tokyo, reconstruction officials say they are aware that the voices of young people are not being heard on the ground.
* on the ground 現場で
“It’s an extremely difficult problem,” said Yoshio Ando, an official at Reconstruction Headquarters.
But the governing Democratic Party — as sensitive to the power of aging rural voters as its predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party — contributed to the problem. National ministries are overseeing most of the tsunami-hit area’s large reconstruction projects out of a recently approved $120 billion budget.
But Tokyo is handing $25 billion directly to regional and local governments to refashion their communities, a boon to politically connected construction companies. The thinking is that local officials understand their communities best, but local politicians and bureaucrats are also less likely to make tough decisions like sacrificing some villages to make others stronger — and to lower the reconstruction costs that are likely to sap already strained financial resources.
* boon 〔時宜にかなった〕恩恵、恵み
boon to ... ...にとって恩恵となるもの
* sap ～を弱らせる、〔活力などを〕徐々に奪う
Mr. Ando said that Tokyo was counting on local governments to come up with plans that were in keeping with the affected zone’s demographic realities.
* count on ... to 〜 ...に〜するのを期待する、頼る
* in keeping with... ～と一致［調和］して、～と調子を合わせて、～と足並みをそろえて、～を順守して、～に沿って［従って］、～を踏まえて
“Local governments may be unable to persuade their residents, but the national government is not considering going in and doing so forcibly,” Mr. Ando said. “To put it negatively, we’re passing the buck. To put it positively, it’s not for the national government to judge.”
* pass the buck 責任転嫁する
After the disaster, even as debris from the tsunami was still being cleared, Onagawa’s officials addressed head-on what other local governments barely whispered: rebuilding communities that had been dying before the tsunami made no sense.
* head-on 真っ正面（から）の
“I understand that you want to remain in your villages, but what will happen in 10 years?” Mr. Azumi, the former mayor, asked in May, according to the minutes of a meeting.'
Japan: 2 Reactors Are Cleared to Restart
NYTの記事、'Japan: 2 Reactors Are Cleared to Restart' By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSから。
'Japan has cleared the way to restart two idled nuclear reactors in coming months for the first time since the nuclear crisis in Fukushima last year, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Monday. The decision was made after the two Ohi reactors in western Fukui Prefecture passed a set of stress tests. After an earthquake and tsunami caused reactors at the Fukushima reactor complex to melt down last March, the government shut down all of the country’s 54 reactors to test their ability to withstand similar disasters. Only three reactors are now operating.'
＊ clear the way [for someone] to ... (障害物を取り除いて)[人が]...する道を開く
＊ withstand ... ...に耐える、持ちこたえる
'Japan has cleared the way to restart two idled nuclear reactors in coming months for the first time since the nuclear crisis in Fukushima last year, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Monday. The decision was made after the two Ohi reactors in western Fukui Prefecture passed a set of stress tests. After an earthquake and tsunami caused reactors at the Fukushima reactor complex to melt down last March, the government shut down all of the country’s 54 reactors to test their ability to withstand similar disasters. Only three reactors are now operating.'
＊ clear the way [for someone] to ... (障害物を取り除いて)[人が]...する道を開く
＊ withstand ... ...に耐える、持ちこたえる
Monday, February 13, 2012
第4四半期、日本のGDP2.3%の縮小
CNNの記事、'Japan's GDP shrinks 2.3% in fourth quarter' By Ben McLannahan (February 13, 2012)から。
'Japan's economy shrank for the third time in four quarters between October and December, after floods in Thailand damaged production and a strong yen and subdued overseas demand hurt exports.
* subdued 抑制された
Cabinet Office figures on Monday showed that real GDP fell an annualized 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, much worse than consensus forecasts of a 1.3 per cent decline. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, output fell by 0.6 per cent, dragged down by exports -- which fell 3.1 per cent -- following a 1.7 per cent rise in the third quarter.
* annualized 年率換算で
* output 生産（高）
The nation's currency has eased only a little since hitting a postwar high of Y75.35 against the US dollar in October. The trade balance for 2011 showed a deficit of Y2.5 trillion ($32 billion) -- the first annual deficit in 31 years -- as exports to the eurozone and Asia, including China, fell sharply.'
* ease only a little 若干弱まる
'Japan's economy shrank for the third time in four quarters between October and December, after floods in Thailand damaged production and a strong yen and subdued overseas demand hurt exports.
* subdued 抑制された
Cabinet Office figures on Monday showed that real GDP fell an annualized 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, much worse than consensus forecasts of a 1.3 per cent decline. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, output fell by 0.6 per cent, dragged down by exports -- which fell 3.1 per cent -- following a 1.7 per cent rise in the third quarter.
* annualized 年率換算で
* output 生産（高）
The nation's currency has eased only a little since hitting a postwar high of Y75.35 against the US dollar in October. The trade balance for 2011 showed a deficit of Y2.5 trillion ($32 billion) -- the first annual deficit in 31 years -- as exports to the eurozone and Asia, including China, fell sharply.'
* ease only a little 若干弱まる
Sunday, February 12, 2012
ギリシャ、Austerity Planは有効なのか？
NYTの記事、Greek Parliament Passes Austerity Plan as Riots Rage By NIKI KITSANTONIS and RACHEL DONADIO （February 12, 2012）から。
ATHENS — After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country’s foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt.
＊ default on its debt （その当事者）の債務の不履行
Though it came after days of intense debate and the resignation of several ministers in protest, in the end the vote on the austerity measures was not close: 199 in favor and 74 opposed, with 27 abstentions or blank ballots. The Parliament also gave the government the authority to sign a new loan agreement with the foreign lenders and approve a broader arrangement to reduce the amount Greece must repay to its bondholders.
＊ abstentions 棄権／blank ballots 白紙投票
The new austerity measures include, among others, a 22 percent cut in the benchmark minimum wage and 150,000 government layoffs by 2015 — a bitter prospect in a country ravaged by five years of recession and with unemployment at 21 percent and rising.
But the chaos on the streets of Athens, where more than 80,000 people turned out to protest on Sunday, and in other cities across Greece reflected a growing dread — certainly among Greeks, but also among economists and perhaps even European officials — that the sharp belt-tightening and the bailout money it brings will still not be enough to keep the country from going over a precipice.
＊ a precipice 窮地、危機
Angry protesters in the capital threw rocks at the police, who fired back with tear gas. After nightfall, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, setting fire to more than 40 buildings, including a historic theater in downtown Athens, the worst damage in the city since May 2010, when three people were killed when protesters firebombed a bank. There were clashes in Salonika in the north, Patra in the west, Volos in central Greece, and on the islands of Crete and Corfu.
Greece and its foreign lenders are locked in a dangerous brinkmanship over the future of the nation and the euro. Until recently, a Greek default and exit from the euro zone was seen as unthinkable. Now, though experts say that the European Union is not prepared for a default and does not want one, the dynamic has shifted from trying to save Greece to trying to contain the damage if it turns out to be unsalvageable.
＊ brinkmanship 瀬戸際（外交）
“They’re trying to lay the ground for it, trying to limit the contagion from it,” said Simon Tilford, the chief economist at the Center for European Reform, a research institute in London. Still, he added, letting Greece go would set a dangerous precedent, and it would be “fanciful” to think otherwise.
＊ fanciful 非現実的な
Greece’s limping economy yields large trade and budget deficits, and none but the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund — known collectively as the troika — are willing to lend the nation the money it needs to stay afloat. The troika is demanding more concessions to placate Germany and other northern European countries, where the bailout of Greece is a hard sell to voters. For its part, Greece is trying to preserve social and political cohesion in the face of growing unrest, political extremism and a devastated economy that is expected to worsen with more austerity. And the feeling is growing here and abroad that the troika’s strategy for Greece is failing.
＊ stay afloat 何とか成り立っている
＊ placate 〜 〜をなだめる
ATHENS — After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country’s foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt.
＊ default on its debt （その当事者）の債務の不履行
Though it came after days of intense debate and the resignation of several ministers in protest, in the end the vote on the austerity measures was not close: 199 in favor and 74 opposed, with 27 abstentions or blank ballots. The Parliament also gave the government the authority to sign a new loan agreement with the foreign lenders and approve a broader arrangement to reduce the amount Greece must repay to its bondholders.
＊ abstentions 棄権／blank ballots 白紙投票
The new austerity measures include, among others, a 22 percent cut in the benchmark minimum wage and 150,000 government layoffs by 2015 — a bitter prospect in a country ravaged by five years of recession and with unemployment at 21 percent and rising.
But the chaos on the streets of Athens, where more than 80,000 people turned out to protest on Sunday, and in other cities across Greece reflected a growing dread — certainly among Greeks, but also among economists and perhaps even European officials — that the sharp belt-tightening and the bailout money it brings will still not be enough to keep the country from going over a precipice.
＊ a precipice 窮地、危機
Angry protesters in the capital threw rocks at the police, who fired back with tear gas. After nightfall, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, setting fire to more than 40 buildings, including a historic theater in downtown Athens, the worst damage in the city since May 2010, when three people were killed when protesters firebombed a bank. There were clashes in Salonika in the north, Patra in the west, Volos in central Greece, and on the islands of Crete and Corfu.
Greece and its foreign lenders are locked in a dangerous brinkmanship over the future of the nation and the euro. Until recently, a Greek default and exit from the euro zone was seen as unthinkable. Now, though experts say that the European Union is not prepared for a default and does not want one, the dynamic has shifted from trying to save Greece to trying to contain the damage if it turns out to be unsalvageable.
＊ brinkmanship 瀬戸際（外交）
“They’re trying to lay the ground for it, trying to limit the contagion from it,” said Simon Tilford, the chief economist at the Center for European Reform, a research institute in London. Still, he added, letting Greece go would set a dangerous precedent, and it would be “fanciful” to think otherwise.
＊ fanciful 非現実的な
Greece’s limping economy yields large trade and budget deficits, and none but the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund — known collectively as the troika — are willing to lend the nation the money it needs to stay afloat. The troika is demanding more concessions to placate Germany and other northern European countries, where the bailout of Greece is a hard sell to voters. For its part, Greece is trying to preserve social and political cohesion in the face of growing unrest, political extremism and a devastated economy that is expected to worsen with more austerity. And the feeling is growing here and abroad that the troika’s strategy for Greece is failing.
＊ stay afloat 何とか成り立っている
＊ placate 〜 〜をなだめる
福島２号機温度計の値上昇についてThe Guardian最新ニュース
'Fukushima reactor readings raise reheating concern:Temperature inside No 2 reactor may have risen to 82C, and Tepco reportedly steps up cooling efforts' by Justin McCurry (12/Feb/2012)から。
福島第一原子力発電所２号機で、原子炉の一部の温度計の値が上昇していることについて、The Guardianの最新ニュースです。
'Concern is growing that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan is no longer stable after temperature readings suggested one of its damaged reactors was reheating.
* temperature readings 温度計読み取り
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the temperature inside No 2 reactor – one of three that suffered meltdown after last year's earthquake and tsunami – may have reached 82C on Sunday.
Tepco said there was no evidence that the melted fuel inside had reached criticality. The utility reportedly increased the amount of cooling water being injected into the reactor along with a boric acid solution, which is used to prevent the fuel from undergoing sustained nuclear reactions.
* melted fuel 溶けた燃料
* reach criticality 臨界に達する
* boric acid ホウ酸
Confirmation that the temperature has risen above 80C could force the government to reverse its declaration two months ago that the crippled plant was in a safe state known as cold shutdown.
* reverse 〜 〜を覆す、無効にする
reverse its declaration （政府の冷温停止の）宣言を無効にする
* cold shutdown 冷温停止
Cold shutdown is achieved when the temperature inside the reactors remains below 100C and there is a significant reduction in radiation leaks. Given that Tepco assumes a margin of error of 20C, the actual temperature could have risen to 102C.
* a margin of error of 〜 〜（前後）の誤差
Plant workers are unable to take accurate readings of the temperature inside the damaged reactor because radiation levels are still too high for them to enter and examine the state of the melted fuel, which is thought to be resting at the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel.
* be resting 休止している
restの動詞、進行形です。
The result has been a series of wildly different readings: two other thermometers positioned at the bottom of No 2 reactor showed the temperature at 35C, local media reported.
Tepco said it did not know the cause of the apparent temperature rise, but speculated that it might be due to problems with the supply of coolant or a faulty thermometer.
* a faulty thermometer 温度計の故障
"We believe the state of cold shutdown is being maintained," said Junichi Matsumoto, a company spokesman. ”Rather than the actual temperature rising, we believe there is high possibility that the thermometer concerned is displaying erroneous data."
* erroneous data 間違ったデータ
Tepco was forced to inject additional cooling water into the same reactor last week after the temperature started rising at the beginning of the month.'
福島第一原子力発電所２号機で、原子炉の一部の温度計の値が上昇していることについて、The Guardianの最新ニュースです。
'Concern is growing that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan is no longer stable after temperature readings suggested one of its damaged reactors was reheating.
* temperature readings 温度計読み取り
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the temperature inside No 2 reactor – one of three that suffered meltdown after last year's earthquake and tsunami – may have reached 82C on Sunday.
Tepco said there was no evidence that the melted fuel inside had reached criticality. The utility reportedly increased the amount of cooling water being injected into the reactor along with a boric acid solution, which is used to prevent the fuel from undergoing sustained nuclear reactions.
* melted fuel 溶けた燃料
* reach criticality 臨界に達する
* boric acid ホウ酸
Confirmation that the temperature has risen above 80C could force the government to reverse its declaration two months ago that the crippled plant was in a safe state known as cold shutdown.
* reverse 〜 〜を覆す、無効にする
reverse its declaration （政府の冷温停止の）宣言を無効にする
* cold shutdown 冷温停止
Cold shutdown is achieved when the temperature inside the reactors remains below 100C and there is a significant reduction in radiation leaks. Given that Tepco assumes a margin of error of 20C, the actual temperature could have risen to 102C.
* a margin of error of 〜 〜（前後）の誤差
Plant workers are unable to take accurate readings of the temperature inside the damaged reactor because radiation levels are still too high for them to enter and examine the state of the melted fuel, which is thought to be resting at the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel.
* be resting 休止している
restの動詞、進行形です。
The result has been a series of wildly different readings: two other thermometers positioned at the bottom of No 2 reactor showed the temperature at 35C, local media reported.
Tepco said it did not know the cause of the apparent temperature rise, but speculated that it might be due to problems with the supply of coolant or a faulty thermometer.
* a faulty thermometer 温度計の故障
"We believe the state of cold shutdown is being maintained," said Junichi Matsumoto, a company spokesman. ”Rather than the actual temperature rising, we believe there is high possibility that the thermometer concerned is displaying erroneous data."
* erroneous data 間違ったデータ
Tepco was forced to inject additional cooling water into the same reactor last week after the temperature started rising at the beginning of the month.'
Thursday, February 9, 2012
「残業と憂鬱の関係性」、さてその研究結果は？
The Ageの記事、'Can overtime cause depression?' by Anahad O'Connorから。
(February 7, 2012)
トピックは「残業は憂鬱を引き起こす要因なのか？」その研究結果について。
'Routinely working long hours is associated with a greater risk of depression, studies show.
Routinely putting in extra hours at the office can put a strain on your social life. But can too much overtime cause depression?
Scientists put the question to the test in a study of more than 2,000 white-collar workers. Previous research hinted at a link between long hours and depressed mood, and the researchers, at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, wanted to examine the issue in depth.
For about five years, they collected data on British civil servants. All of the workers, whose average age at the start was 47, had no mental health problems at the outset. And the researchers adjusted their results to rule out other risk factors, like socioeconomic status, social support, gender and substance use.
Ultimately, the men and women who routinely worked 11 hours a day or more had more than double the risk of developing depression compared with those who usually worked eight hours or less.'
* put a strain on ...
「...に負担をかける」
* put the question to ...
「その質問を...にかける」
* more than double ...
「２倍以上の...がある」
この場合は、「１日１１時間かそれ以上継続的に働いた男女は、１日８時間かそれ以下働いた人よりも憂鬱になるリスクが２倍以上ある」という意味で使われています。
(February 7, 2012)
トピックは「残業は憂鬱を引き起こす要因なのか？」その研究結果について。
'Routinely working long hours is associated with a greater risk of depression, studies show.
Routinely putting in extra hours at the office can put a strain on your social life. But can too much overtime cause depression?
Scientists put the question to the test in a study of more than 2,000 white-collar workers. Previous research hinted at a link between long hours and depressed mood, and the researchers, at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, wanted to examine the issue in depth.
For about five years, they collected data on British civil servants. All of the workers, whose average age at the start was 47, had no mental health problems at the outset. And the researchers adjusted their results to rule out other risk factors, like socioeconomic status, social support, gender and substance use.
Ultimately, the men and women who routinely worked 11 hours a day or more had more than double the risk of developing depression compared with those who usually worked eight hours or less.'
* put a strain on ...
「...に負担をかける」
* put the question to ...
「その質問を...にかける」
* more than double ...
「２倍以上の...がある」
この場合は、「１日１１時間かそれ以上継続的に働いた男女は、１日８時間かそれ以下働いた人よりも憂鬱になるリスクが２倍以上ある」という意味で使われています。
Monday, February 6, 2012
'Things Are Not O.K.' By PAUL KRUGMAN
The NYTの本日の記事、Op-Ed Columnist 'Things Are Not O.K.' By PAUL KRUGMANから。
(February 5, 2012)
The NYTの常連コラムニストPaul Krugmanは、アメリカの経済学者で、the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesの受賞者でもあります。
'In a better world — specifically, a world with a better policy elite — a good jobs report would be cause for unalloyed celebration. In the world we actually inhabit, however, every silver lining comes with a cloud. Friday’s report was, in fact, much better than expected, and has made many people, myself included, more optimistic. But there’s a real danger that this optimism will be self-defeating, because it will encourage and empower the purge-and-liquidate crowd.'
＊every silver lining comes with a cloud.
アルク社のオンライン辞書では、「楽あれば苦あり、どんなに良いときにでも悪いことは起きる、喜びの後には悲しみが訪れる」と説明されています。その逆の（というか、結局は同じことを示唆していますが）「苦あれば楽あり」は、Every cloud has a silver lining.です。
こちらのサイトでも日本語の説明が見られます。
＊purge-and-liquidate
それぞれの動詞の意味は、
purge 「（欲しくない人、モノ）を追放する、処分する」
liquidate 「〜を清算する」
ですので、purge-and-liquidate crowdと言えば、「自分たちの利権などを崩すような要因になる人やモノをシステムに取り入れないような集団」といったような意味で、利権を守ろうとする官僚や上部組織の人たちのことを示しています。
(February 5, 2012)
The NYTの常連コラムニストPaul Krugmanは、アメリカの経済学者で、the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciencesの受賞者でもあります。
'In a better world — specifically, a world with a better policy elite — a good jobs report would be cause for unalloyed celebration. In the world we actually inhabit, however, every silver lining comes with a cloud. Friday’s report was, in fact, much better than expected, and has made many people, myself included, more optimistic. But there’s a real danger that this optimism will be self-defeating, because it will encourage and empower the purge-and-liquidate crowd.'
＊every silver lining comes with a cloud.
アルク社のオンライン辞書では、「楽あれば苦あり、どんなに良いときにでも悪いことは起きる、喜びの後には悲しみが訪れる」と説明されています。その逆の（というか、結局は同じことを示唆していますが）「苦あれば楽あり」は、Every cloud has a silver lining.です。
こちらのサイトでも日本語の説明が見られます。
＊purge-and-liquidate
それぞれの動詞の意味は、
purge 「（欲しくない人、モノ）を追放する、処分する」
liquidate 「〜を清算する」
ですので、purge-and-liquidate crowdと言えば、「自分たちの利権などを崩すような要因になる人やモノをシステムに取り入れないような集団」といったような意味で、利権を守ろうとする官僚や上部組織の人たちのことを示しています。
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