《经济学人》英语热点文章精选8篇(中英文对照

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印度的救赎

IN MAY America’s Federal Reserve hinted that it would soon start to reduce its vast purchases of Treasury bonds. As global investors adjusted to a world without ultra-cheap money, there has been a great sucking of funds from emerging markets. Currencies and shares have tumbled, from Brazil to Indonesia, but one country has been particularly badly hit.

今年五月，美国联邦储备委员会(Federal Reserve)暗示，它将很快开始缩减大量购买国债的规模。随着全球投资者开始调整策略，以适应没有超廉价资金的世界，大量资金开始逃离新兴市场。从巴西到印度尼西亚，货币及股票纷纷暴跌，但有一个国家受创尤其严重。

Not so long ago India was celebrated as an economic miracle. In 2008 Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, said growth of 8-9% was India’s new cruising speed. He even predicted the end of the ―chronic poverty, ignorance and disease, which has been the fate of millions of our countrymen for centuries‖. Today he ad mits the outlook is difficult. The rupee has tumbled by 13% in three months. The stockmarket is down by a quarter in dollar terms. Borrowing rates are at levels last seen after Lehman Brothers’ demise. Bank shares have sunk. 不久前，印度还以经济奇迹而闻名。2008年，该国总理曼莫汉·辛格(Manmohan Singh)表示，8%至9%的增长率是印度新的‖巡航速度‖。他甚至预测，‖几个世纪来一直是我们无数同胞宿命的长期贫困、愚昧和疾病‖将宣告结束。现在他承认，前景不容乐观。卢比3个月内下跌了13%。以美元计算，股市下跌了四分之一。借款利率已处于雷曼兄弟倒闭后的水平。银行股票一片暴跌。

On August 14th jumpy officials tightened capital controls in an attempt to stop locals taking money out of the country (seearticle). That scared foreign investors, who worry that India may freeze their funds too. The risk now is of a credit crunch and a self-fulfilling panic that pushes the rupee down much further, fuelling inflation. Policymakers recognise that the country is in its tightest spot since the balance-of-payments crisis of 1991.8月14日，紧张不安的官员收紧了资本控制，试图阻止当地人把钱转移到国外。这一举措吓到了外国投资者，他们担心印度可能也会冻结他们的资金。现在的风险是信贷紧缩，以及自我实现的恐慌，后者将进一步推动卢比下跌，从而推高通货膨胀。政策制定者承认，该国正处于1991年国际收支差额危机以来的最紧急时刻。

How to lose friends and alienate people

India’s troubles are caused partly by global forces beyond its control. But they are also the consequence of a deadly complacency that has led the country to miss a great opportunity.

如何失去盟友并疏远人民

印度的麻烦部分源于其控制范围之外的全球性力量。但同时，它们又是印度致命的自满情绪造成的，后者让该国错过了一个很好的机会。

During the 2003-08 boom, when reforms would have been relatively easy to introduce, the government failed to liberalise markets for labour, energy and land. Infrastructure was not improved enough. Graft and red tape got worse. 在2003至2008年的繁荣中，实施改革会相对容易，但政府未能让劳动力、能源和土地市场自由化，基础设施也没有得到足够的改善，贪污和官僚风气则更加猖獗。

Private companies have slashed investment. Growth has slowed to 4-5%, half the rate during the boom. Inflation, at 10%, is worse than in any other big economy. Tycoons who used to cheer Indi a’s rise as a superpower now warn of civil unrest.如今，私营公司已削减了投资。经济增长率已放缓至4%至5%，只有繁荣时期的一半。通货膨胀达到10%，比任何其它大型经济体都严重。大亨们曾欢呼，印度将崛起成为一个超级大国，如今他们发出了关于国内动乱的警告。

As well as undermining 1.2 billion people’s hopes of prosperity, failure to reform dragged down the rupee. Restrictive labour laws and weak infrastructure make it hard for Indian firms to export. Inflation has led people to import gold to protect their savings. Both factors have swollen the current-account deficit, which must be financed by foreign capital. Add in the foreign debt that must be rolled over, and India needs to attract $250 billion in the next year, more than any other vulnerable emerging economy.未能改革不仅让12亿人对繁荣的希望破灭，它还导致卢比下跌。限制性的劳动法律和落后的基础设施让印度企业难以出口。通货膨胀促使人们进口黄金，以保护自己的储蓄。这两个因素都让国家的经常帐户赤字变得庞大，而这必须由外资提供资金。加上必须延缓付款的外债，印度明年需吸引2500亿美元，这超过了所有其它脆弱新兴经济体所需的规模。

A year ago the new finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, tried to kick-start the economy. He has attempted to push key reforms, clear bottlenecks and help foreign investors. But he has lukewarm support within his own party and faces obstructionist opposition. Obstacles to growth, such as fuel shortages for power plants, remain. Foreign firms find nothing has changed. Meanwhile, bad debts have risen at state-run banks:

10-12% of their loans are dud. With an election due by May 2014, some fear that the Congress-led government will now take a more populist tack. A costly plan to subsidise food hints at this. 一年前，新的财政部长帕拉尼亚潘·奇丹巴拉姆(Palaniappan

Chidambaram)试图强力推动经济。他努力推进关键性改革，清除发展瓶颈，为外国投资者提供帮助。但他在本党内得不到有力的支持，且面临着阻挠者的反对。发电厂的燃料短缺等增长障碍仍然存在。外国企业发现，一切都没有改变。同时，国有银行的坏账已大大增加，10%到12%的贷款已成为坏账。随着2014年5月大选的临近，一些人担心，现在这个由

国大党领导的政府将采取更民粹主义的行动方针。一个耗资巨大的食品补贴计划正暗示了这一点。

Stopping the rot

To prevent a slide into crisis, the government needs first to stop making things worse. Those capital controls backfired, yet the urge to tinker runs deep: on August 19th officials slapped duties on televisions lugged in through airports. The authorities must accept that 2013 is not 1991. Then the state nearly bankrupted itself trying to defend a pegged exchange rate. Now the rupee floats, and the state has no foreign debt to speak of. A weaker currency will break some firms with foreign loans, but poses no direct threat to the government’s solvency.

停止衰败

为了防止陷入危机，政府首先需要制止形势继续恶化。资本控制的结果事与愿违，而修修补补的冲动却根深蒂固。当局必须接受的是，现在是2013年，而非1991年。当时，为了稳

住盯住美元汇率制度，印度政府几乎破产。现在卢比在浮动，但国家却已没有值得担忧的外债。疲软的货币将让一些有国外贷款的企业破产，但对政府的偿付能力却没有直接威胁。

And so the Reserve Bank of India must let the rupee find its own level. The currency has not yet wildly overshot estimates of fundamental value. RaghuramRajan, the central bank’s incoming head, should aim to control inflation, not micromanage one of the world’s most traded currencies. 因此，印度储备银行(Reserve Bank of India)必须让卢比自己定位。该货币尚未过分超出对其基本价值的估测。该央行即将上任的行长格赫拉姆·拉扬(RaghuramRajan)应把目标放在控制通货膨胀上，而不是微观管理这个全球交易量最大的货币之一。

Second, the government must get its finances in order. The budget deficit has been as high as 10% of GDP in recent years. This year the government must hold down its deficit (including those of individual states) to 7% of GDP. It is already cutting fuel subsidies, and—notwithstanding the pressures in the run-up to an election—should do so faster. 其次，政府必须让其财政回到正轨。最近几年，印度预算赤字已高达国内生产总值(GDP)的10%。今年，政府必须让其赤字（包括各邦的赤字）有所下降，达到国内生产总值的7%。政府已经在削减燃油补贴，而且应该更快进行，哪怕有大选的压力。

This is not enough to fix the government’s finances, though. Only 3% of Indians pay income tax, so the government’s tax take is puny. A proposed tax on goods and services,

known as GST, would drag more of the economy into the net. It is stuck in endless cross-party talks. If the government can rally itself before the election to push for one long-term reform, this is the one it should go for. 虽然，要改善政府的财政状况，这还是不够的。只有3%的印度人缴纳所得税，因此，政府的税收收入极少。拟议中对商品和服务征收的消费税(GST)将会让更多的经济纳入税收体系之中。但该税收方案却因无休止的两党会谈而遥遥无期。如果政府能够在大选前团结起来，推动长期的改革，那么上述税收改革就是政府应该努力的方向。

Last, the government, with the central bank, should force the zombie public-sector banks to recapitalise. In 2009 America did ―stress tests‖ to repair its banks. India should follow. Injecting funds into banks would widen the deficit, but the surge in confidence would be worth it.最后，政府和中央银行应迫使僵化的国有银行进行资本重组。2009年，美国为恢复其银行状况，进行了‖压力测试‖。印度也应该效仿之。向银行注入资金会扩大赤字，但这样会让信心大增，这一结果是值得的。

There are glimmers of hope: exports picked up in July, narrowing the trade gap. But India faces a difficult year, with jittery global markets and an election to boot. Even if it scrapes past the election without a full-blown financial crisis, the next government must do much, much more to change India. Over the coming decade tens of millions of young people will have to find jobs where none currently exists. Generating the growth to create them will mean radical deregulation of protected sectors (of which retail is only the most obvious); breaking up state monopolies, from coal to railways; reforming restrictive labour laws; and overhauling India’s infrastructure of roads, ports and power.希望的曙光是存在的，7月的出口已有所回升，缩小了贸易差额。但印度面临着困难的一年，全球市场紧张不安，而大选又即将展开。即使在没有全面爆发金融危机的情况下大选顺利结束，下届政府也必须要做更多努力，才能改变印度。在未来十年内，数百万年轻人将需要就业机会，但当前毫无新工作机会可言。为创造就业机会而促进增长，这将意味着要对受保护的部门（其中零售业是最明显的）彻底放松管制，从煤炭到铁路都要打破国家垄断，此外还要改革限制性的劳动法，并对印度的道路、港口和电力基础设施进行大幅改善。

The calamity of 1991 led to liberalising reforms that ended decades of stagnation and allowed a spurt of fast growth. This latest brush with disaster could produce a positive legacy, too, but only if it persuades voters and the next government of the importance of a new round of reforms that deal with the economy’s flaws and unleash its mighty potential.1991年的灾难带来了自由化改革，这一改革结束了几十年的经济停滞，并促成了井喷式的快速增长。这次的灾难威胁也可能带来好的影响，但前提是它能让选民和下届政府认识到新一轮改革的重要性，让改革解决该经济的缺陷，并释放其巨大的潜力。

The adidas method

阿迪达斯模式

A German firm’s unusual approach to designing its products

TEN years ago sportswear-makers were cramming ever more features and futuristic designs into their products. They were convinced that the consumer bought, say, training shoes based on their technical specifications. But in 2004 James Carnes, today adidas’s creative director for sportswear, and a Danish consultant named Mikkel Rasmussen met at a conference in Oslo at which Mr Rasmussen challenged this notion. A mobile phone, he said, may have 72 functions, but that is 50 more than most people wanted, or used.十年前，运动用品生产商们一直往产品中填塞更多的功能和前卫设计。它们深信，消费者愿意购买它们的产品，比如训练鞋，是因为它们的技术规格。但在2004年，现任阿迪达斯(adidas)运动创意总监詹姆斯·卡恩斯(James Carnes)在奥斯陆的一次会议上遇见了丹麦顾问麦克尔·拉斯穆森(Mikkel Rasmussen)，此次会议上，拉斯穆森对卡恩斯的观点提出了质疑。他称，一部手机可能有72个功能，但其中有50多个是大多数人不想用或不会用的功能。

Mr Carnes was intrigued, and so began an almost decade-long engagement for ReD, the small consultancy Mr Rasmussen co-founded in Copenhagen. In that decade adidas’s sales and share price have grown steadily, alongside those of Nike, an American firm that is the global leader in sportswear (see chart). It remains far ahead of Puma, its crosstown rival. The two German firms, based in Herzogenaurach in Bavaria, were founded by brothers, AdiDassler (hence adidas’s name) and the older Rudolf (Puma), who fell out.这引起了卡恩斯的兴趣，于是在此后的十多年里，他开始与小型顾问公司ReD合作，该公司是由拉斯穆森在哥本哈根与他人共同创办的。其间，阿迪达斯的销售额及股价稳步增长，而全球运动用品领导品牌美国的耐克(Nike)也与其并驾齐驱。但它仍然遥遥领先于位于同城市另一区的竞

争对手彪马(Puma)。这两家德国公司的总部位于巴伐利亚黑措根奥拉赫市，创办人是兄弟俩，前者是由弟弟阿迪·达斯勒(AdiDassler)（阿迪达斯的名称由此而来）创立的，后者是由后来出走的哥哥鲁道夫(Rudolf)（彪马）创立的。

Nike’s brash marketing is based on offe ring big cheques to star athletes to endorse its products. Puma spends an even greater share of its revenues on marketing, and has pushed into non-sporting casual clothes. Its sales have grown, but they remain far behind its main rivals’. Adidas takes a qu ieter approach, spending less of its revenues on marketing than the other two. Although about a third of adidas’s sales are also ―lifestyle‖ goods, sportswear remains at the firm’s core.耐克浮华的营销策略是高价聘请明星运动员

来为产品代言。而彪马在市场营销方面的投入占其收入的比重则更大，并开始进军非运动类的休闲服领域。虽然其销售额不断增长，但仍远远落后于主要竞争对手。阿迪达斯采取的方式更为低调，与其它两家公司相比，其市场营销方面的投入占其收入的比重最低。虽

然‖lifestyle‖系列产品的销售额还是占阿迪达斯总销售额的三分之一左右，但运动用品仍然

是公司的核心业务。

To succeed in a business with tight margins, adidas has had to get the nuts and bolts right. Like its rivals it has outsourced product ion to cut costs, for example. But with ReD’s help it has also made handsome stuff that American rappers mention in their lyrics, and it now has prominent designers offering to co-operate on projects. Mr Carnes gives generous credit to the geeks at ReD, sa ying that they have had ―a general effect on everything‖.要

在利润微薄的业务领域成功，阿迪达斯就必须注重所有细节。例如，与竞争对手一样，它已利用生产外包来降低成本。但在ReD的帮助下，它也设计出不俗的产品，甚至美国说唱歌

手在他们的歌词中也提到了这些产品，现在阿迪达斯拥有杰出的设计师从事各项目的合作。卡恩斯将大部分功劳归功于ReD的极客们，称他们‖无所不能‖。

ReD has some curious methods. It hires ex-academics, largely anthropologists and ethnologists, to study customers’ motivations intimately. ReD trained a group of adidas design staff in basic techniques, and sent each of them to spend 24 hours with a customer: to have breakfast, run and do yoga with them, and find out what made them exercise. In a related project, an anthropology doctoral student working for ReD mailed dozens of customers a disposable camera, asking them to photograph something that made them work out. Of 30 women who responded, 25 sent a picture of a little black dress, says Mr Carnes. The company had assumed that most customers were training to be good at specific sports; in fact for many, fitness itself was their ―sport‖.ReD的方法令人称奇。公司聘用具有专业知识的前任学者来密切研究客户的动机，这些学者大多是人类学家和民族学家。ReD为阿迪达斯培养了一批具有基本技术的设计人员，并安排他们每人与一名顾客共度24小时的时光：吃早餐、跑步、跟他们一起做瑜伽，并了解他们运动的动机。在一个相关的项目中，一位为ReD工作的人类学博士生给几十个客户邮寄了一次性相机，请求他们拍摄那

些激发他们去运动的事物。卡恩斯称，在给予回复的30名妇女中，25名回复了一张黑色小

礼服的图片。该公司曾假设，大多数客户是想通过训练让自己擅长某些特定的体育训练项目；但事实上，对于大多数人来说，保持身材才是‖运动‖的目的。

Spending weeks with both the professional and amateur divisions of Bayern Munich football club, ReD’s researchers asked not how long the studs on their boots should be, but what would determine the success of a footballer in ten years’ time. They learned that top European clubs had all become proficient at teaching the necessary skills. The thing that could not be taught, and could only to a small extent be trained, was speed. So adidas adapted one of its track shoes into an exceptionally light football boot. When released in 2010 it became an instant hit—and it scored far and away the most goals in that year’s World Cup.ReD的研究员曾分别与拜仁慕尼黑足球俱乐部的职业和业余球队共度了几周时间，他们并没有向队员询问鞋球鞋上的鞋钉应该做多长，而重点关注十年的时间内，决定足球运动员成功的关键之所在。他们了解到，欧洲的顶级俱乐部都已了解如何教授必要的技能。但速度却是无法授予或只能在小范围内训练的技能。所以阿迪达斯将其一款钉鞋打造为极轻的足球鞋。该足球鞋在2010年问市时一炮而红，而这款鞋也无疑为当年的世界杯(World Cup)贡献了最多的进球。

Intimate study of customers has influenced aesthetic design too. Adidas got the job of creating the host country’s uniforms for last year’s London Olympics. ReD found that for all their patriotism, Brits did not get terribly moved by traditional images like the monarchy and double-decker buses. So adidas and ReD told Stella McCartney, their chosen designer (pictured, centre), to think ―untraditionally British‖. She made a splash by putting the Union Jack’s red only on shoes, socks and trim, while making elements of the flag so big that on some shirts they were unrecognisable. Despite some initial criticism it was a commercial hit.对消费者的密切研究也影响了美学设计。在去年的伦敦奥运会(Olympics)上，阿迪达斯负责设计东道国的制服。ReD发现，尽管英国人具有爱国主义情节，但君主制和双层巴士等传统图像并不会令他们动容。因此，阿迪达斯和ReD向他们指定的设计师斯特拉·麦卡特尼(Stella McCartney)表示，以‖非传统的英国‖方式思考。她仅将英国国旗(Union Jack)的红色用在了鞋子、袜子和装饰上，而国旗的各种元素夸大地应用在一些衬衫中，以至于人们几乎认不出来，由此引起了巨大轰动。尽管最初遭到了一些批评，但无疑获得了商业成功。

Similar research into national identity is going into next year’s football World Cup uniforms. When Russians were interviewed about what made them proud, ―nothing past 1970 ever came up,‖ says Mr Carnes. Instead they mentioned Dostoevsky, the second world war and winning the race into space. So Russia’s uniforms will feature a curve repres enting Yuri Gagarin’s view from orbit.明年的足球世界杯设计制服，阿迪达斯也对民族认同开始了同样的调研。当俄国人被问及何事令他们感到自豪时，卡恩斯说：‖1970年以后就没什么值得骄傲的了。‖。与之相反，他们提到了陀思妥耶夫斯基(Dostoevsky)、第二次世界大战和赢得太空竞赛。因此，俄罗斯的制服将以一条曲线为主题，象征尤里·加加林(Yuri Gagarin)从轨道俯视地球的视角。

Adidas has set an ambitious €2 billion ($2.7 billion) sales target for its football division alone in 2014, up from €1.5 billion in 2010, the last World Cup year. Overall, the company wants €17 billion in sales by 2015, at the same time increasing operating-profit margins to 11% (from 8% now). Zany as some of its methods sound, equity analysts seem convinced that they will continue to pay off. In a recent poll of 34 analysts by Reuters news agency, none recommended selling the shares, and 25 labelled them as ―buy‖ or ―outperform‖.阿迪达斯为其2014年的足球业务制定了一个雄心勃勃的销售目标，仅这一项就要达到20亿欧元（约合27亿美元）的销售额，而在2010年的上一届世界杯仅为15亿欧元。总体而言，该公司希望到2015年销售额达到170亿欧元，同时将营业利润率提高到11%（现在是8%）。虽然阿迪达斯的方式听起来有些滑稽，但股票分析师似乎坚信，该公司将继续获利。最近路透社(Reuters news agency)对34位分析师的调查表明，没人建议出售其股份，25人认为该股票可以‖买入‖或会‖跑赢大盘‖。

Adidas’s 2006 takeover of Reebok, another sportswear firm, was a rare misstep. It has taken far longer than expected to turn around. The main risk adidas faces, says ErwanRambourg, an analyst at HSBC, is that its heavy spending to gain market share in Amer ica and China does not pay off. A strengthening euro is another. But adidas’s many admirers believe that the company’s disciplined habits, and its novel approach to product research, should help it leap over any such hurdles.2006年，阿迪达斯收购了运动用品公司锐步(Reebok)，这是该公司少有的失误。扭亏为盈的时间已远远长于预期。汇丰银行(HSBC)分析师艾尔万·拉姆伯格(ErwanRambourg)表示，阿迪达斯面临的主要风险是其在美国和中国市场投入了巨额资金，想要拥有更多的市场份额，但这并未达到效果。欧元走强也是个风险。但阿迪达斯的许多追随者相信，由于该公司训练有素，再加上其产品研究的新方法，这必会帮助它战胜任何困难。

开放过度不利管理

―THE INTERNSHIP‖, a film about two middle-aged no-hopers who land work experience at Google, is a dire offering even by the standards of Hollywood summer comedies. But it does get one thing right: that it is rather absurd for a technology firm to provide slides for staff to play on, and to let them wear silly propeller-hats. Google is not alone in its juvenile tastes. Box, a Silicon Valley company, has installed swings in its headquarters. Red Bull, an energy-drinks firm, has a reception desk in the shape of a giant skateboard in its London office. Businesses of all types have moved towards sitting workers in groups in open-plan rooms, just like at nursery school. Time was when firms modelled themselves on the armed forces, with officers (who thought about strategy) and chains of command. Now many model themselves on learning-through-play ―Montessori‖ schools.《实习大叔》(The

Internship)是一部讲述两位中年的无用之人在谷歌(Google)积攒工作经验的电影。即使以好莱坞夏季喜剧的标准来看，这部电影也非常沉闷。但它的确说对了一件事：科技公司让员工玩滑梯，并且让他们头戴滑稽的螺旋桨帽子，这非常荒谬。品味幼稚的公司不止谷歌一家。一家硅谷的公司Box已在其总部装上了秋千。在能量饮料公司红牛(Red Bull)的伦敦办事处里，有一张外形酷似巨型滑板的服务台。各类企业已趋向于让员工成群坐在开放式的办公室里，就像托儿所那样。曾经，企业会效仿军队，让公司既有长官（出谋划策）又有一连串指挥部门。而现在，企业却效仿寓教于乐的‖蒙特梭利‖学校。

Montessori management has plenty of supporters in the higher reaches of business. The bosses of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin), Amazon (Jeff Bezos) and Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales) were all educated in Montessori schools. So was Will Wright, a video-game pioneer. Messrs Page and Brin credit their Montessori education with their enthusiasm for thinking differently. Mr Bezos thanks it for his enthusiasm for experimentation—for ―planting seeds‖ and ―going down blind alleys‖ as he puts it. Mr Wright says SimCity ―comes right out of Montessori‖.蒙特梭利管理法在商业领域的高层中有很多的支持者。谷歌老板（拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)和谢尔盖·布林(Sergey Brin)），亚马逊老板（杰夫·贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)）和维基百科老板（吉米·威尔士(Jimmy Wales)）接受的都是蒙特梭利式学校的教育。视频游戏先锋威尔·赖特(Will Wright)也同样如此。佩奇和布林认为，蒙特梭利式教育让他们有了对与众不同的想法的热情。贝索斯认为这让他对试验——正如他所说的‖播种‖和‖义无反顾‖——有了热情。赖特则表示，‖模拟城市‖(SimCity)‖正是蒙特梭利的成果‖。

The nostrums of some management gurus sound remarkably like those of the ―progressive‖ educationalists of the 1960s. For example Gary Hamel, of London Business School, and Jeffrey Pfeffer, of Stanford Business School, praise companies that dismantle hierarchies and encourage experimentation. It is not just rich-world businesses that are buying into this philosophy: HCL Technologies, an Indian software company, invites workers to write assessments of their bosses—and publishes them.一些管理大师的秘诀似乎与那些20世纪60年代的‖开明‖教育工作者的理念非常相似。例如，伦敦商学院(London Business School)的加里·哈默尔(Gary Hamel)和斯坦福大学商学院(Stanford Business School)的杰弗里·普费弗(Jeffrey Pfeffer)对企业解散等级体系并鼓励试验的做法表示赞赏。推崇这一理念的不仅仅是富裕国家的企业，印度软件公司HCL科技公司(HCL Technologies)让工人给他们的老板写评估，并公开这些评估内容。

But it would be wrong to conclude that the success of Google and Amazon vindicates Montessori management. Both companies have pragmatically mixed progressive ideas with more traditional ones such as encouraging internal competition and measuring performance. Mr Bezos is also an enthusiastic employer of ex-military personnel. As in education, where traditionalists have staged a counter-revolution against the progressives, so me academics are now questioning Montessori management’s basic assumptions—particularly its faith in free-flowing creativity, endless collaboration and all things open-plan.但是，用谷歌和亚马逊的成功证明蒙特梭利管理法的正确性，这是不正确

的。这两家公司都务实地将开明的理念与更多传统的观念混合起来，这些传统观念包括鼓励内部竞争以及绩效评估。贝索斯也非常喜欢雇佣卸任的军事人员。与教育领域一样，传统主义者也已上演了一场反对开明的反革命，现在，一些学者正在质疑蒙特梭利管理法的基本假设，特别对自由流动的创造力、无尽的协作以及完全开放式的推崇。

For example, Morten Hansen of the University of California, Berkeley studied 182 teams who were trying to win a contract on behalf of a professional-services firm. He found that the more time they spent consulting others, the less likely they were to win a deal. This shows, he says, that collaboration has costs as well as benefits. These need to be weighed against each other, instead of simply assuming that the more teamwork the better.例如，加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)的莫滕·汉森(Morten Hansen)对182个团队进行了研究，这些团队都代表一家专业服务公司赢取合同。他发现，他们越是花时间咨询别人，就越不可能赢得合同。他称，这说明合作既有成本也有效益。二者需要互相权衡，而不是简单地假设团队合作越多越好。

Mark de Rond, a Cambridge academic who once rowed for the university, argues that the most successful teams are marked by internal competition and clashing egos as well as

―Kum Bay Yah‖-style togetherness. ―A focus on interpersonal harmony can actually hurt team performance,‖ he suggests. Jake Breeden, a manage ment thinker at Duke Corporate Education, worries that too much reliance on teamwork can create a culture of ―learned helplessness‖ in which managers are terrified to take decisions without yet another round of consultations.曾在剑桥大学担任过划船运动员的剑桥学者马克·德·朗德(Mark de Rond)

认为，最成功团队的标志是内部竞争、冲突的自我意识以及‖来这吧‖风格的三者统一。他说：‖把重点放在人际和谐上实际上会影响球队的表现。‖杜克企业教育学院(Duke Corporate Education)的管理思想家杰克·布里登(Jake Breeden)担心，过于依赖团队合作会产生‖习得

性无助‖文化，在该文化中，管理者害怕在没有进行另一轮协商的情况下作出决定。

Excessive collaboration can lead to the very opposite of creativity: groupthink, conformity and mediocrity. It is especially damaging at the top of an organisation. BlackBerry, a smartphone-maker, believed that having two CEOs with complementary skills would produce the best of both worlds: Jim Balsillie was a professional manager and Mike Lazaridis was a technician. The company soon discovered the truth of Napoleon’s dictum that ―one bad general is worth two good ones‖.过多的合作会带来与创造力完全相反的结果：群体思维，一致性和平庸。这对一个组织的高层会产生尤为严重的影响。智能手机制造商黑莓(BlackBerry)认为，拥有两位技能互补的首席执行官会两全其美：吉姆·贝尔斯利(Jim Balsillie)是一名职业经理人，而迈克·拉扎里迪斯(Mike Lazaridis)是一名技术员。该公司很快就发现了拿破仑名言的真谛：‖一个坏将军赛过两个好将军‖。

According to one survey around 70% of all offices in America have gone open-plan. Yet evidence is mounting that this is a bad idea. Over the past five years Gensler, a design firm, has asked more than 90,000 people in 155 companies in ten industries what they think of

this way of working. It has found an astonishing amount of antipathy. Workers say that open-plan offices make it more difficult to concentrate, because the hubbub of human and electronic noise is so distracting. What they really value is the ability to focus on their jobs with as few distractions as possible. Ironically, going open-plan defeats another of Montessori management’s main objectives: workers sa y it prevents them from collaborating, because they cannot talk without disturbing others or inviting an audience. Other studies show that people who work in open-plan offices are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, stress and airborne infections such as flu.据一项调查显示，美国约70%的办公室都已改造成开放式。然而，越来越多的证据表明，这个主意并不好。在过去的五年里，设计公司金斯乐(Gensler)采访了十个行业中155家公司的9万多人，询问他们对这种工作方式的看法。它发现很多人都对此种方式表示反感。员工们表示，开放式办公室让人更难集中精神，因为人的嘈杂声和电子噪音特别容易令人分心。他们真正关注的是在尽可能少的干扰下，专注于他们工作的能力。讽刺的是，开放式趋势战胜了另一个蒙特梭利管理法的主要目标：员工表示，这阻碍了他们的合作，因为他们不能在不干扰他人或避免听众加入的情况下谈论问题。其它研究表明，在开放式办公室工作的人更易受困于高血压、高压力和流感等空气传播传染病。

Time for some discipline—and separate offices

It was the unthinking and indiscriminate application of child-centred education techniques, with little attention paid to outcomes, that eventually brought about a backlash. The more thoughtful critics did not wish to turn the clock back entirely and return to rote learning and tyrannical teachers; they simply said that structure and order have their place too. The same seems to be happening now in business. Mr Breeden argues, sensibly, that managers should treat collaboration and creativity as techniques rather than dogmas. Diane Hoskins of Gensler speculates that her company’s findings about open-plan offices are so striking that they may mark ―the beginning of a new era in workplace organisation‖. When workers start being moved back into separate booths, and the office slide is replaced with a noticeboard bearing a list of staff instructions, you will know that the counter-revolution is well under way.

是时候制定一些纪律并划分办公室了

由于缺乏考虑、随意套用以儿童为中心的教育方法并很少重视结果，蒙特梭利教育法最终引发了强烈反对。考虑更加周到的批评者并不希望让时光完全倒流，回到死记硬背且教师专断的时代，他们只是表示，仍然要注意结构和秩序。这似乎同样也发生在商业领域。布里登认为，明智的方法是，管理者应该把协作和创造力视为技术，而不是教条。金斯乐的黛安·霍斯金斯(Diane Hoskins)推测，其公司对开放式办公室的发现令人印象深刻，这可能会标志着‖工作场所组织机构的新时代‖。当员工开始搬回独立的工作间，办公幻灯片被一个张贴着员工指示的布告牌所代替，你就会知道，一场‖反革命‖趋势正在顺利进行。

Electricity in JapanPower struggle

The shadow of Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl, hangs over Japan’s energy future

电力之争

福岛核灾难是仅次于切尔诺贝利的世界第二大核灾难，其阴影笼罩着日本的能源未来

THIS week Japan’s last working nuclear reactor was switched off. At Oi, on the west coast of the country’s main island, the closure was supposedly for routine maintenance and safety checks. Yet no firm date is in sight for reopening Oi or any other of Japa n’s 50 reactors, shut in the wake of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Before the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 turned so much of Japan’s world upside down, the country counted on nuclear power for 30% of its electricity—one of the highest proportions in the world. Now it is entirely without nuclear power for only the second time since 1970.

他将看到更多

本周，日本最后一个仍在运行的核反应堆被关闭。在该国主岛西海岸的泊核，此次关闭可能是进行日常维护和安全检查。然而，眼下并没有确定泊核或日本其它50个反应堆的重启日期，而这些反应堆都是在福岛第一核电站三次灾难后接连关闭的。2011年3月，地震和海啸让日本大部分地区陷入混乱，而在此之前，该国的电力供应有30%来自核电，是世界上核电比例最高的国家之一。现在，日本进入自1970年以来第二次无核电时期。

In government since December, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) warns of the economic costs of mothballed plants. The industry ministry says that the need to import extra oil, gas and coal to fire conventional power stations will have cost Japan an extra ￥9.2 trillion (about $93 billion) by the end of 2013. A sharply weaker yen and higher oil prices have not helped, and Japan is now running trade deficits for the first time in three decades. Businesses and consumers face much higher electricity costs in Japan than in many countries.12月以来，日本自由民主党(LDP)对封存发电厂的经济成本发出了警告。日本经

济产业部表示，到2013年年底，维持常规发电站所需进口的石油、天然气和煤炭将额外耗费日本9.2万亿日元（约合930亿美元）。而大幅走弱的日元和高昂的油价可谓雪上加霜，并且现在日本正经历三十年来的首次贸易赤字。在日本，企业和消费者的电力成本大大高于许多国家。

The cosy community of electricity utilities, bureaucrats, academics and heavy industry, known in Japan as the ―nuclear village‖, is urging the LDP to restart the reactors. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would love to oblige. Earlier this year his government purged an energy-policy board of anti-nuclear types. The street demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear power that took place in the wake of the Fukushima disaster were dwindling. The way had seemed open to fire up the reactors again.电力公司、政府官员、学者和重工业的联合团体（在日本被称为‖核能村‖）正在敦促自民党重新启动这些反应堆。首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)很乐意满足这一要求。今年早些时候，其政府整肃了一个反核的能源政策委员会。福岛灾难后，东京反核电的街头示威规模正在减小。再次启动反应堆的道路似乎已经打开。

It will not prove so simple. For one, a new, strengthened nuclear agency, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), must declare any plant safe before it starts—and several sit on or near active faults (Japan accounts for a fifth of the world’s big earthquakes). In addition, the law gives towns and villages a say over nearby plants, and most Japanese want to ditch nuclear power for good. To cap it all, news of the mess at the stricken Fukushima plant gets no better. Recently, it transpired that hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water were leaking each day into the Pacific.但事实证明，这不会这么简单。比如，在任何核电站启用前，新成立的强化版核机构核监管机构(NRA)必须声明它们是安全的，而其中有数个坐落于或靠近地壳活动断层（全球有五分之一的大地震发生在日本）。此外，法律赋予城镇和乡村对其附近发电厂享有发言权，而大多数日本人希望能永远放弃使用核电。此外，在受创的福岛发电站，混乱局面并未出现好转。最近，这里每天都有数百吨放射性污水排进太平洋中。

So Mr Abe has to tread carefully. If the NRA rules that Japan’s oldest and riskiest plants may not reopen, the LDP can do nothing about it. Although the understaffed agency has come under political pressure, including to speed up the publication of new safety rules, it is making a stand over reactors on active faults.因此，安倍晋三必须谨慎行事。如果核监管机构裁定，日本最老旧和最危险的发电厂不可以重新启动，那么自民党也无能为力。虽然这一人员不足的机构已受到了政治压力，包括加快出台新的安全规则等，但该机构对位于活性断层之上的反应堆仍保持坚决立场。

Nor can the prime minister easily overcome public opposition. Local towns that play host to nuclear plants are not the problem: in the past, the government and the power utilities conspired to site power stations in isolated, economically deprived places that could be bought off with largesse. Several of these towns are clamouring for the reactors to restart.

But in places a little farther afield, opposition mounts. Hiro即使是首相也无法轻易地压倒公众的反对。核电厂所在的当地城镇并不是问题：过去，政府和电力公司协力将发电站选址在偏僻且经济贫困的地方，这样就可以用大笔资金收买。其中一些城镇呼吁重新启用反应堆。但是，在稍远的地方，反对的意见在增加。

hikoIzumida, governor of Niigata prefecture on the main island’s north-west coast, says that around 70% of the prefecture’s population are against starting the re actors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the world’s biggest nuclear plant. MrIzumida says that governors do not have the power to block restarts once the NRA has given the go-ahead. Yet overriding popular local politicians would take bravado from the government and the utilities.位于日本主岛西北海岸的新泻县地方长官泉田裕彦(HirohikoIzumida)表示，该地区约70%的人都反对启动柏崎刈羽反应堆，这是世界上最大的核电站。泉田称，如果核监管机构已给予批准，地方长官就没有权力阻止其重新启动。然而，最受欢迎的当地政客们却将承受政府和电力公司带来的风险。

Besides, the LDP itself contains many more critics of nuclear power than it did before March 2011, countering the influence of nuclear backers such as the economy minister, Akira Amari. They think that starting the reactors could become a liability before the next general election, due in 2016. The LDP’s anti-nuclear coalition partner, New Komeito, also constrains the government somewhat. Meanwhile, rising business optimism appears to undermine the case that economic recovery depends on nuclear power. Probably no more than 12-15 reactors will be switched back on, says Kazuhiro Ueta, a renewable-energy spec ialist who sits on the government’s energy-advisory board. For the nuclear village, which once expected to supply at least half of Japan’s power, that would be a grave disappointment.此外，自民党本身对核电的批评者也比2011年3月前要多，这抵消了经济部长甘利明(Akira Amari)等核支持者的影响。他们认为，启动反应堆可能会在2016年的下一届大选前变成不利因素。自民党的反核联盟伙伴新公明党(New Komeito)也在某种程度上制约了政府。同时，上升的商业乐观情绪似乎也削弱了经济复苏对核电的依赖性。政府能源咨询委员会的可再生能源专家植田和弘(Kazuhiro Ueta)称，将重新启动的反应堆可能不会超过12至15个。对于曾预计会供应日本至少半数电力的核能村而言，这会让其极其失望。

Instead, Japan is preparing for other long-term energy supplies. Since 2011 the number of independent power producers tapping renewable sources, such as solar power, has tripled, thanks in part to a new ―feed-in‖ tariff system for renewables. Including hydro-electricity, renewables now represent 10% of the energy mix, leading to hopes that they might one day replace the share that nuclear power once claimed.取而代之的是，日本正在准备其它的长期能源供应。自2011年以来，利用太阳能等可再生能源的独立发电商数量已经翻了三番，这部分要归功于一项对可再生能源的新型接入电价制。包括水电在内，可再生能源现在占能源结构的10%，这让人们希望，有朝一日它们可能会取代核电曾经占领的份额。

Yet scepticism is warranted. The power grids are still owned by the big utilities, which can find excuses to deny access. And where in a crowded, mountainous country to put all the needed solar panels and wind turbines? Paul Scalise of Tokyo University says that a square metre (10.8 square feet) of land devoted to wind power generates just two watts of power. For solar power, the equivalent area generates 20W. Nuclear power generates about

1,000W a square metre.然而，人们也有理由持怀疑态度。电网现在属于大型公用事业公司，它们可以找借口拒绝其它发电商进入。此外，在这个拥挤且多山的国家，哪里可以安放所有需要的太阳能电池板和风力涡轮机？日本东京大学(Tokyo University)的保罗·斯卡利斯(Paul Scalise)表示，若用于风力发电，每平方米（10.8平方英尺）的土地仅能产生2瓦的功率。若用于太阳能发电，每平方米能发电20瓦。而核电每平方米能发电1000瓦。

For a long time to come, therefore, Japan will turn to oil, gas and coal to make up most of the nuclear shortfall. In May the government won American approval for imports of cheap shale gas from the United States. That could handily slash the cost of energy imports and alleviate concerns about energy security.因此，在未来很长一段时间里，日本将转而使用石油、天然气和煤炭来弥补大部分的核电缺口。5月，日本政府获得美国批准，从美国进口廉价的页岩气。这会轻松地削减能源进口成本，并缓解对能源安全的担忧。

The cranking-up of fossil-fuel power stations, many working at well under capacity before March 2011, is one reason why the predictions of widespread black-outs never came about after the Fukushima scare. But another reason was the room for conserving energy. Tokyo alone has slashed electricity consumption by a tenth since 2011, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation. The demand for power-saving devices has leapt. Sales of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have shot up from 3% of all Japanese bulbs sold in 2009 to over 30% today. By 2015, says the head of Philips Electronics Japan, Danny Risberg, incandescent and fluorescent lights will be nearly a thing of the past.人们预计，福岛灾难后会出现大面积灯火管制，但该预言从未出现，化石燃料发电厂的启动就是这其中的原因之一。2011年3月之前，许多化石发电厂在产能不足的情况下还能运转良好。但另一个原因是节约能源的幅度。日本可再生能源基金会(Japan Renewable Energy Foundation)称，2011年以来，仅东京就削减了十分之一的电力消耗。节电设备的需求已增加。发光二极管(LED)的销量已从2009年日本所销灯泡的3%上升至今天的30%以上。飞利浦电子日本公司(Philips Electronics Japan)的负责人丹尼·里斯贝利(Danny Risberg)表示，到2015年，白炽灯和荧光灯将近乎成为过去。

Long-overdue proposals to liberalise the electricity market may do much to diversify energy sources and lower electricity bills. The government’s plan, easier to push through now that TEPCO, the biggest utility, has been brought low by its handling of the Fukushima fiasco, is to split generation and transmission, with the residential electricity market open to new competition. If the reform succeeds, says Hiroshi Takahashi of the Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, the share of nuclear power in the energy mix would fall as new,

non-nuclear providers won customers. It would, at long last, give the public some say over

Japan’s energy choices.开放电力市场这一拖延已久的建议可能会大大有助于实现能源多样化和降低电费。如今，由于日本最大的电力公司东京电力公司(TEPCO)在解决福岛灾难问题上声望大跌，推行政府的计划将变得更加容易。政府的计划是将发电和输电分离，并开放居民生活用电市场，允许新的竞争。东京富士通研究所(Fujitsu Research Institute)的高桥洋(Hiroshi Takahashi)称，如果这项改革成功，随着新加入的非核电供应商赢得更多客户，核电在能源结构中的份额将会下降。最终，这会让公众在日本的能源选择上获得一些发言权。

绿色和平破冰船离开北极水域

Greenpeace icebreaker leaves Arctic waters

Greenpeace’s icebreaker is to leave Arctic waters after the environ mental group claimed Russian authorities threatened to use force against it.

绿色和平(Greenpeace)的破冰船将离开北极水域，该环保组织称，俄罗斯当局威胁对其动武。

The Arctic Sunrise was yesterday leaving the Kara Sea and an Arctic shipping route after the Russian coast guard said it had entered the area illegally and warned it would use force if necessary, Greenpeace said.

绿色和平表示，俄罗斯海岸警卫队称这艘破冰船非法进入该地区，并警示必要的话会采用武力。―极地曙

光号‖(Arctic Sunrise)昨天已经开始驶离喀拉海(Kara Sea)和一条北极航道。

It marks the end of a three-day incursion by Greenpeace into the Northern Sea Route to protest against Arctic oil exploration by Rosneft and ExxonMobil.

这标志着绿色和平为期三天的驶入北方海路(Northern Sea Route)、抗议俄罗斯石油公司(Rosneft)和埃克

森美孚公司(ExxonMobil)在北极地区勘探石油的行动告终。

Four members of Russia’s coast guard carried out a ―mandatory inspection‖ of the boat yesterday, shortly after Greenpeace launched inflatable boats with banners reading ―Save The Arctic‖ near a Rosneft exploration vessel.

绿色和平派出充气艇，在俄罗斯石油公司一艘勘探船附近展示―拯救北极‖的标语之后不久，俄罗斯海岸警卫队的四名队员昨天对这艘船执行了―强制检查‖。

Greenpeace said it would call on the Dutch government – where the icebreaker is registered – to consider a legal complaint about Russia’s alleged violation of the international law of the sea, and freedom of expression.

绿色和平表示，将呼吁荷兰政府（这艘破冰船的船旗国）考虑对俄罗斯据称违反国际海洋法和侵犯言论自由的做法提起法律申诉。

Russia had turned down three requests from Greenpeace for permission to enter the NSR, which is controlled by Moscow and is seen in the long term as an international shipping alternative for

Asia-Europe trade.

俄罗斯此前拒绝了绿色和平请求允许进入北方海路的三次要求。北方海路由俄罗斯控制，长远来看它是亚洲和欧洲贸易的一条国际航运替代路线。

But most experts believe it will be most useful over the next decade or so in allowing Russia to export any oil or gas it is able to extract from its Arctic shoreline.

但大部分专家认为，未来十年左右它的最大用处将是让俄罗斯出口在北方海岸线外开采的石油和天然气。腾讯的价值Tencent’s worth

IS TENCENT one of the world’s greatest internet firms? There are grounds for scepticism. The Chinese gaming and social-media firm started in the same way many local internet firms have: by copying Western success. QQ, its instant-messaging service, was a clone of ICQ, an Israeli invention acquired by AOL of America. And unlike global internet giants such as Google and Twitter, Tencent still makes its money in its protected home market.

腾讯公司是世界上最好的互联网公司之一吗？人们有充足的理由对此表示怀疑。像许多当地的互联网公司一样，这家中国游戏和社交媒体公司最初也是依靠照搬西方的成功模式起家的。该公司的即时通讯服务QQ是ICQ的翻版，后者则是被美国在线公司(AOL)收购的以色列人的发明。与谷歌(Google)和推特(Twitter)等全球互联网巨头不同，腾讯至今仍是在受到保护的国内市场中赚取利润。

Yet the Chinese firm’s stockmarket valuation briefly crossed the $100 billion mark this week for the first time. Given that the valuation of Fac ebook, the world’s leading

social-media firm, itself crossed that threshold only a few weeks ago, it is reasonable to wonder whether Tencent is worth so much. However, Tencent now has bigger revenues and profits than Facebook. In the first half of this year Tencent enjoyed revenues of $4.5 billion and gross profits of $2.5 billion, whereas Facebook saw revenues of $3.3 billion and gross profits of $935m.然而，本周，这家中国企业的股市估值首次突破了1000亿美元的大关。Facebook是全球领先的社交媒体公司，几个星期前，该公司才跨越这一大关，鉴于这

一状况，人们有理由怀疑腾讯的价值是否有这么高。然而，腾讯现在的收入和利润都要高于脸书。今年上半年，腾讯实现营收45亿美元，总利润达25亿美元，而Facebook的营收仅为33亿美元，总利润为9.35亿美元。

The Chinese firm’s market value reflects the phenomenal rise in its share price. A study out this week from the Boston Consulting Group found that Tencent had the highest shareholder total return (share-price appreciation plus dividends) of any large firm globally from 2008 to 2012—topping Amazon and even Apple.这家中国公司的市场价值带来了其股价的惊人增长。本周，波士顿咨询集团(Boston Consulting Group)的一项研究表明，2008

年至2012年，在所有全球大型企业中，腾讯的股东总回报（股价增值与股息之和）名列第一，甚至领先于亚马逊(Amazon)和苹果(Apple)。

Tencent has created a better business model than its Western peers. Many internet firms build a customer base by giving things away, be they search results or social-networking tools. They then seek to monetise their users, usually turning to online advertising. Google is a glorious example. Other firms try to make e-commerce work. But as the case of revenue-rich but profit-poor Amazon suggests, this can also be a hard slog.腾讯创造的商业模式优于其西方同行。许多互联网公司通过赠送搜索结果或社交网络工具来建立客户群。然后，它们就会将用户资源变现，通常是以在线广告的方式。谷歌就是一个非常典型的例子。其它企业则试图利用电子商务。但高营收、低利润的亚马逊这一例子则表明，这也是个艰辛的方式。

Tencent does give its services away: QQ is used by 800m people, and its WeChat

social-networking app (which initially resembled America’s WhatsApp) has several hundred million users. What makes it different from Western rivals is the way it uses these to peddle online games and other revenue-raising offerings.腾讯确实提供了一些免费服务：QQ的用户达到8亿，而其社交网络应用程序微信（它起初模仿了美国的WhatsApp）则拥有数亿用户。腾讯与西方竞争对手的不同之处在于，它利用这些免费服务来兜售在线游戏及其它增收服务。

Once users are hooked on a popular game, Tencent then persuades them to pay for

―value-added services‖ such as fancy weapons, snazzy costumes for their avatars and online VIP rooms. Whereas its peers are still making most of their money from advertising, Fathom China, a research firm, reckons Tencent gets 80% of its revenues from such kit (see chart).一旦用户迷上了一款受欢迎的游戏，腾讯就会说服他们购买‖增值服务‖，例如游戏角色所使用的高级武器装备、时髦的服装，以及在线贵宾室。然而，它的同行仍然在通过广告创造营收，研究机构Fathom China估算，腾讯80%的收入来自此类业务（如图）。

This year China has overtaken America to become the world’s biggest e-commerce market, in terms of sales. It is also now the biggest market for smartphones. This means it may soon have the world’s dominant market in ―m-commerce‖, purchases on mobile devices.今年，中国已超越美国，成为全球销售额最高的电子商务市场。现在，中国也是世界上最大的智能手机市场。这意味着，中国可能很快就会成为‖移动电子商务‖（通过移动设备购物）的主导市场。

Tencent’s main rivals in Chinese m-commerce are Baidu, which dominates search on desktop computers (helped by the government’s suppression of Google) and Alibaba, an e-commerce giant now preparing for a huge share offering. All three have gone on acquisition sprees, in an attempt to lead the market. The big worry for investors is the cost of this arms race.在中国的移动电子商务领域，腾讯的主要竞争对手是百度和阿里巴巴，前者在台式计算机搜索领域占主导地位（这得益于中国政府对谷歌的封锁），而电子商务巨头

阿里巴巴目前正准备发行大量股票。这三家公司都已经开始大举并购，试图要主导这一市场。最令投资者的担心是这场军备竞赛的成本。

Alibaba recently invested $300m in AutoNavi, an online-mapping firm, and nearly $600m in SinaWeibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. Baidu has been even more ambitious, spending $1.85 billion to buy 91 Wireless, the country’s biggest third-party store for smartphone apps, and $370m for PPS, an online-video firm.最近，阿里巴巴向在线地图公司高德软件投资了3亿美元，并向新浪微博（中国版推特）投资了近6亿美元。百度则更加雄心勃勃，它以18.5亿美元的价格收购了中国最大的第三方智能手机应用商店91无线，并耗资3.7亿美元收购了在线视频公司PPS。

Tencent may have an edge over its two rivals in m-commerce because of the wild popularity of WeChat, which is used on mobile phones. But to ensure it stays in the race, it is also spending heavily. On September 16th it said it will spend $448m to acquire a big stake in Sogou, an online-search firm; it plans to merge its own flagging search engine (aptly named Soso) into the venture. It had previously invested in DidiDache, China’s largest taxi-hailing app, and is rumoured to be interested in online travel and dating firms too.由于手机应用软件微信的广泛普及，腾讯可能在移动电子商务领域比其两大竞争者更具优势。但是，为了确保其领先地位，它也在投入巨资。腾讯9月16日，腾讯表示将斥资4.48亿美元收购在线搜索公司搜狗的大量股权，并计划将其发展不佳的搜索引擎（巧妙地命名为搜搜）与该企业合并。此前，腾讯还向中国最大的叫车应用程序嘀嘀打车投资，据说它对在线旅游和约会公司也很感兴趣。

The three Goliaths are buying up innovative firms because they are too big and bureaucratic to create things themselves, mutter some entrepreneurs (presumably not those being bought out handsomely). A more pressing worry for Tencent’s shareholders is that its lavish spending, on top of heavy investment in improving its unimpressive

e-commerce offerings, will eat into profits. Worse, the m-commerce arms race risks distracting it from gaming and value-added services, the cash cows that are paying for everything else. A $100 billion valuation might then seem too rich.一些企业家（可能不是那些以高价被收购的人）抱怨道，这三大巨头收购创新型企业的原因在于，它们自身的规模过大，繁文缛节过多，因此无法自主创新。腾讯公司股东更迫切担心的问题是，除了投入巨资以改善表现平平的电子商务产品外，大笔的开支将侵蚀其利润。更糟糕的是，移动商务领域的军备竞赛分散了它在游戏和增值服务方面的精力，而这正是为一切买单的资金来源。到那时，1000亿美元的估值可能就会显得过高了。

颠倒的世界