高盛和花旗业绩差距突显美国分化

Bumper third-quarter profits at Goldman Sachs and another loss for Citigroup yesterday highlighted the gap between the resilience of Wall Street and the woes of Main Street, fresh evidence that two Americas are emerging from the crisis.

高盛(Goldman Sachs)第三季度盈利丰厚，而花旗集团(Citigroup)再次出现亏损，突显了华尔街的弹性与美国经济主体的困境之间的鸿沟，再次证明金融危机过后，美国正出现分化。

The diverging performance of investment banks such as Goldman and the retail operations of banks such as Citi is problematic for an administration that wants a strong Wall Street but is also under pressure to tackle the plight of ordinary people.

对于既希望华尔街强盛、又必须解决普通美国人困境的奥巴马政府来说，高盛等投资银行与花旗等银行零售业务在业绩上的落差，是一个伤脑筋的问题。

“When you have unemployment creeping towards 10 per cent and a sluggish economy, stories of huge profits and huge bonuses...could create difficulties if [the president] needs any more stimulus,” said Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

“当你面临失业率逼近10%、经济疲乏无力的形势时，传来巨额盈利和巨额奖金的消息……假如（总统）需要出台新的刺激措施，就会很困难，”美国企业研究所(American Enterprise Institute)的政治分析师诺曼•奥恩斯坦(Norman Ornstein)表示。

Goldman announced near-record earnings of $3.2bn, boosted by surging profits in bond and currency trading – activities that have become more profitable after the crisis reduced competition and governments injected emergency funds into the banking system.

高盛公布，第三季度实现利润32亿美元，接近历史最高水平，主要受债券及外汇交易业务利润大增的推动——在金融危机减少竞争以及政府为银行体系注入应急资金后，这些业务变得更有利可图。

Goldman's profit, nearly four times higher than in the third quarter of 2008, underscores its status as one of the winners from a crisis that eliminated two rivals – Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns – and hobbled others such as Citi, Merrill Lynch and UBS.

高盛第三季度利润比上年同期增长近4倍，突显出其作为金融危机赢家之一的情况，这场危机为高盛消除了两大竞争对手——雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)和贝尔斯登(Bear Stearns) ——并使得花旗、美林(Merrill Lynch)和瑞银(UBS)等其他竞争对手举步维艰。

Citi, by contrast, suffered its seventh loss in eight quarters.

与高盛形成反差的是，花旗出现了8个季度以来的第7次亏损。

“US consumer credit remains the number one issue affecting our near-term results,” said Vikram Pandit, Citi's chief executive, after announcing the bank had suffered credit losses of $8bn in the three months to September, largely in its consumer business.

“美国消费信贷仍是影响我们近期业绩的头号问题，”花旗首席执行官潘伟迪(Vikram Pandit)表示。他宣布，在截至9月份的季度内，花旗出现80亿美元的信贷亏损，主要来自消费者业务。

Citi, which has been bailed out with $45bn of US taxpayers' money, has suffered a total of more than $42bn in credit losses since the beginning of 2008.

花旗此前接受了450亿美元纳税人资金的纾困，自2008年以来，该行的信贷亏损总额超过420亿美元。

Citi's investment bank, which includes Salomon Brothers, a once-feared Wall Street powerhouse – underperformed its rivals, helping to push the group into a loss of $0.27 per share. That loss raises questions over whether the government, which owns a 34 per cent stake in Citi, will allow the bank to repay the aid in the short term.

花旗的投资银行——包括昔日令人畏惧的华尔街强者所罗门兄弟(Salomon Brothers)——表现逊于竞争对手，也是该集团每股亏损0.27美元的因素之一。花旗的亏损引发了有关政府是否会允许该行在短期内偿还纾困资金的问题。美国政府持有花旗34%的股权。