University bonds: An education in finance

　　Less well known is the increasing willingness of colleges to borrow in the markets, too. On May 15th, for example, Cornell University sold $250m-worth of bonds.In recent weeks both Harvard and the University of Texas have also raised hundreds of millions of dollars in this way.

　　Such debt-raising is becoming more common. There are abundant reasons to believe that the market will grow much bigger yet.

　　Largely this is because colleges are only belatedly becoming aware of how useful the financial markets can be. No doubt some of their hesitation has been cultural: academics may have been reluctant to look at their universities as businesses; or they may have misunderstood what was needed to help those businesses grow.

　　If they did look at their institutions in economic terms, people in education tended not to think that universities lacked capital. Rather, they thought that they had a structural inability to use capital and labour more efficiently. Unlike the car industry, many schools felt that they must maintain, or even increase, the ratio of employees (teachers) to customers (students). Small class sizes are taken as a signal of high quality, so investing money to save on teachers’ salaries is not an attractive strategy.

　　Schools had other reservations as well. Poor schools were worried about being unable to service debt. Rich schools with huge endowments may have seen no need.

　　So much for an academic perspective. A growing number of investors saw things differently. Those lovely buildings on rolling campuses, the better universities’ reputations, taxpayers’ backing of state-owned institutions: all this looked to them like a deep pool of assets against which lots of money could be borrowed. The money raised could be used to attract more customers, who are choosy about the product and whose demand varies little with the price (loudly though they may complain).

　　Some of the richest universities may be using another tactic too, although they would be loth to admit it. To understand this, it helps to know that America has three types of university-public ones; private, not-for-profit institutions; and private schools run for profit. Both public and not-for-profit universities often issue tax-exempt debt. This tends to be cheap. They can then invest the money they raise in the higheryielding taxable market but, because of their non-profit status, avoid taxes.

　　This is not quite a licence to print money, but it is not far off. Under a 1986 law, money has to be raised for a purpose, such as a building.However, this is a matter of substance rather than form. Money is fungible. As long as the tax authorities are happy that the promised sum is being spent on the stated projects, a university can borrow cheaply and, in effect, earn a spread. Reflecting just how complex this market has become, most universities borrow at variable rates and then hedge their interest-rate risk through swaps.It is all pretty clever.

　　Outside America, schools have been hesitant to take this approach largely because their operations and spending are more closely tied to the state, but they too are changing, if slowly.

　　考研詞匯：

　　willingness [ˈwiliŋnis]

　　n.自愿，樂意

　　abundant [əˈbʌndənt]

　　a.豐富的, 充裕的, 豐富, 盛產(chǎn), 富于

　　financial [fəˈnænʃəl]

　　a.財(cái)政的;金融的

　　hesitation [ˌheziˈteiʃən]

　　n.猶豫, 躊躇

　　institution [ˌinstiˈtju:ʃən]

　　n.公共機(jī)構(gòu), 協(xié)會(huì), 制度

　　perspective[pəˈspektiv]

　　n.①視角;②透視法;③(in~)正確地

　　[真題例句](63) The emphasis on data gathered first�瞙and, combined with a cross�瞔ultural perspective (①) brought to the analysis of cultures past and present, makes this study a unique and distinctly important social science.[2003年翻譯]

　　[例句精譯](63)強(qiáng)調(diào)收集第一手資料，加上在分析過去和現(xiàn)在文化形態(tài)時(shí)采用跨文化視角，使得這一研究成為一門獨(dú)特并且非常重要的社會(huì)科學(xué)。

　　[真題例句]Not everyone sees that process in (28：perspective) (③).It is important to do so.[2002年完形]

　　[例句精譯] 并不是所有人都能正確看待這一進(jìn)程，雖然了解這一點(diǎn)非常重要。

　　背景常識介紹：

　　在美國，1995年發(fā)行債券的高等院校已經(jīng)達(dá)到160所，債券總額達(dá)26.7億美元。1996年，發(fā)行債券的學(xué)校又增加到189所，債券總額達(dá)到41.4億美元。債券的形式有兩種，一種是普通債券，一種是免稅債券。債券償還期分中長期和長期兩種。中長期債券的還貸期在25—30年間，利息在5—6%之間。而長期債券的還貸期要長得多，利率也要稍高一些。發(fā)行債券的用途有哪些?概括地說：(1)為了周轉(zhuǎn)資金;(2)為了償還當(dāng)前的其他債務(wù);(3)為了用于學(xué)校大型項(xiàng)目的建設(shè)。

　　參考譯文：

　　大學(xué)債券：教育經(jīng)費(fèi)的新窗口

　　不為人知的是，越來越多的大學(xué)開始熱衷于向市場貸款。例如，康奈爾大學(xué)于5月15日出售了價(jià)值2億5千萬美元的債券。比較近幾周，哈佛大學(xué)和德克斯大學(xué)也通過這樣的途徑獲取了數(shù)以億計(jì)的資金。

　　像這種貸款集資的方式已經(jīng)越來越普遍，我們有足夠的理由相信市場會(huì)得到大幅度的擴(kuò)張。

　　這主要是因?yàn)�，很多大學(xué)才剛剛發(fā)現(xiàn)金融市場的用處有多大。當(dāng)然，受傳統(tǒng)文化的影響，一部分人還持懷疑態(tài)度：學(xué)術(shù)派不愿看到學(xué)校過于商業(yè)化;或者他們沒有看清幫助這種商業(yè)擴(kuò)張需要的是什么。

　　如果他們從經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)的觀點(diǎn)來看這些學(xué)校，教育者們難以接受這些大學(xué)會(huì)缺乏資金。他們更傾向于認(rèn)為，學(xué)校有足夠的組織能力來駕馭資金和勞動(dòng)力。與汽車行業(yè)不同的是，很多學(xué)校愿意為了消費(fèi)者(學(xué)生)的需要而保持，甚至增加員工(教師)的比率。小型的課堂教育被認(rèn)為是高質(zhì)量的標(biāo)志，因此投入資金來節(jié)省教師薪水并不是有吸引力的方案。

　　各個(gè)學(xué)校也有其他方面的限制。普通學(xué)校擔(dān)心自己無法償還債務(wù)。名牌大學(xué)由于有巨額的資金捐贈(zèng)或許沒有必要向市場貸款。

　　學(xué)術(shù)派的觀點(diǎn)暫且討論到這里。更多的投資者們持不同的看法。校園里面漂亮的教學(xué)樓，更佳的學(xué)校聲望，國有機(jī)構(gòu)的納稅者支持：所有這些對于他們而言，借來的資金就像丟進(jìn)了一個(gè)無底洞。更多的資金可以吸引到更多的消費(fèi)者(學(xué)生)，這些消費(fèi)者對產(chǎn)品之間的微小差別會(huì)吹毛求疵，而不會(huì)太在意價(jià)格的不同。

　　一些比較有錢的大學(xué)或許會(huì)采用另一種方法，雖然他們不愿承認(rèn)。要理解這一方法，我們首先要清楚美國的大學(xué)分為三類——公立、私立和非盈利型;私立學(xué)校為了利潤而經(jīng)營，而公立學(xué)校和非盈利學(xué)校常常發(fā)行一種免稅債券，而這種債券并不昂貴。他們可以在高稅收的領(lǐng)域投入資金，然而，由于他們的非盈利性質(zhì)，常常避開納稅。

　　這雖談不上像拿到印鈔許可證一樣，但實(shí)質(zhì)上也差的不遠(yuǎn)。根據(jù)1986年的法律，籌集資金需要一定的理由，比如修一棟樓之類的。然而，這只是其實(shí)質(zhì)并非表面。貨幣是可替換物。只要稅務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)對這些花費(fèi)在國有工程的許諾金額滿意，大學(xué)就能相對便宜地借到資金，有效地贏得其中的差額。這就反應(yīng)出了市場變得是多么的復(fù)雜，很多大學(xué)貸款的比例都不一樣，然后通過交換來保護(hù)利率風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。這些想法都相當(dāng)聰明。

　　在美國以外的學(xué)校對于全面采用這種方式集資還徘徊不前，因?yàn)閷W(xué)校的運(yùn)作和開銷與國家的聯(lián)系更為緊密，但是他們也在慢慢轉(zhuǎn)變。