黑色星期一
Never far from bearish minds is the 1987 crash,which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average Plunge 508 points on Black Monday.
熊市人士的心中，殷鑒不遠的是1987年的大崩盤：道瓊斯工業指數在黑色星期一慘跌508點。
That 508-point plunge on Black Monday was worsened by so-called portfolio insurance,
黑色星期一508點的狂跌，被所謂“證券保險”火上加油。
which is computerized programs designed to bail investors out of stocks in a downturn by selling stock futures.
這種電腦程序設計的目的，就是要在股票下跌時大賣股票期貨，以助投資人殺出股市。
blue chip
績優股
And while other blue-chip firms such as Sears,IBM and General Motors,floundered in the 1980s,
1980年代，當其他績優股如西爾斯百貨、IBM和通用汽車在掙扎時，
most GE units surged ahead and consistently hit Welch’s target of being No.1or No.2 in every market.
奇異集團大多數的機構卻都能大幅上漲，并且如Welch所愿，在各該領域中都能維持第一或第二的成績。
Like their American counterparts,Japanese executives cheerfully overpaid for their late-80s acquisitions.
日本企業主管也和他們的美國同儕一樣，在1980年代末期高高興興地花冤枉錢進行一堆購并案。
But the Japanese made another fundamental miscalculation,
但日本人犯了另一個基本的錯誤。
says Gray Saxonhouse,an economics professor at the University of Michigan:
密歇根大學經濟學教授Gray Saxonhouse指出：
"They had a faith in American landmarks a faith in American blue-chip names."
“他們對美國的陸標太有信心，對美國的名牌企業也同樣太有信心。”
bull market
牛市、多頭市場
Some analysts,dwelling on the fundamentals rather than superstition,
一些堅守基本觀念而不盲從的分析家認為，
think the epic bull market that began in 1982 has finally entered a long season of bearishness
自1982年來持久不衰的牛市，終于進入了長期的熊市，
because of the likelihood of very show economic growth in the 1990s.
因為1990年代的經濟增長似乎會非常緩慢。
Share prices in the relentlessly upbeat stock market now stand at skyhigh levels by historical standards,
在這毫不猶豫向前沖的股市中，現在的股價指數站在歷史新高點，
and dividend yields have fallen to near record lows-
但股利卻幾乎掉到創紀錄的低檔——
classic signals that the bull market that began 2 1/2 years ago has got dangerously long in the tooth.
這是很典型的警訊：兩年半前開始的牛市已經持續太久到搖搖欲墜的地步了。
corporate bond
公司債券
The average aggressive-growth fund has risen 29% in the past 12 months.Corporate-bond funds gained 13% overall.
高增長基金在過去12個月平均漲幅為29%，而公司債券基金漲幅為13%。
As a graduate business student at Pennsylvania’s Wharton School,Milken made junk bonds a focus of his scholarship.
垃圾債券大王米爾肯還在賓州大學華頓商學院念研究生時，他就以研究垃圾債券得到獎學金。
Despite their reputation for high risk,he found that the securities showed a history of few defaults.
他發現雖然垃圾債券風險有名的高，但是在過去卻很少出現問題。
Milken believed the securities’ relatively high yields,typically 3% to 5% more than any investment-grade corporate bond,were more than enough compensation for that slightly increased risk.
Milken相信這種證券在利潤上比任何的投資級公司債券都要高3%至5%的情形下，遠可以彌補稍微偏高的風險所可能帶來的損失。
default
違約
Greenspan’s strong hint last week that the Federal Reserve will continue to push up interest rates
上周Greenspan強烈暗示聯邦儲備銀行將持續調高利率，
heightened worries that more governments with over-leveraged portfolios heavily based on interest rate bets could be forced to default.
如此一來，更多的政府就更要擔心他們主要靠賭利率才能維持的一個以債養債的局面即將崩潰，使他們被迫違約。
