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Cartel-busting

商業組織聯合體機制正被打破

Boring can still be bad

無趣之勢依舊呈現糟糕狀態

Market-rigging in unsexy industries costs consumersa lot. More can be done to detect and deter it.

無聊行業在操縱市場方面使得消費者耗資巨大。對此，政府可以施行更多的措施檢測和阻止這一現象的發生。

MENTION price cartels and many people will think of big, overt ones like the one OPEC runs foroil and the now-extinct one for diamonds. But at least as damaging are the many secret cartelsin such unglamorous areas as ball-bearings and cargo rates, which go on unnoticed for years,quietly bumping up the end cost to consumers of all manner of goods and services.

提到價格壟斷，很多人會想到一些大型和公開明顯的壟斷企業，如歐佩克石油輸出國家組織以及現今已經退出市場的鉆石壟斷公司。然而，至少在單調乏味的領域，有很多秘密運營的壟斷企業，諸如軸承和貨運費率領域里也同樣具有損害性，這些企業數年未被關注，最近在各大產品和服務方面，迅速增長其對客戶的所需產品和服務的首尾成本。

Collusion among producers to rig prices and carve up markets is thriving, with the cartelsgrowing ever more intricate and global in scope. Competition authorities have uncoveredseveral whopping conspiracies in recent years, including one in which more than 20 airlinesworldwide had fixed prices on perhaps 20 billion of freight shipments. They were fined a total of3 billion; and so far the compensation claims from ripped-off customers comfortably exceed 1billion. One academic study found that the typical cartel raised the price of the goods orservices in question by 20%. Another suggested that cartels were robbing poorcountries'consumers of tens of billions of dollars a year: if so, negating all the aid that richcountries'governments send them.

隨著卡特爾壟斷更為復雜地增長并且呈全球范圍擴展的趨勢，生產者共同謀求操縱以及劃分市場的現象正逐漸興盛起來。競爭當局發現近年來存在一些巨大的陰謀，包括超過二十多條的國際航線之一的一家公司，私定200億元的貨物裝運價格。他們因此被處以30億元的罰款;并且到目前為止那些確定為敲消費者竹杠的公司被處以的賠償金超出了10億元。一個學術研究表明典型的卡特爾壟斷使得有疑問的商品和服務增長了20%。另一個研究表明卡特爾壟斷是從貧困國家的消費者中剝奪了他們平均一年上百億美元的錢財：如果正如這樣所說，否定所有富有國家政府對他們施行的援助是有道理的。

Investigators are still unravelling a huge global network of cartels among suppliers of a widerange of car parts. Makers of seat belts, radiators and foam seat-stuffing have had hefty finesslapped on them. Earlier this month the European Commission fined five makers of automotivebearings a total of 953m (1.32 billion). This week its investigators raided a bunch of makers ofcar exhausts. Also in recent days, Brazilian prosecutors have charged executives from a dozenforeign train-makers accused of rigging bids for rail and subway contracts in the country's maincities. Price-fixing has infected high finance, too. Some of banking's biggest names standaccused of fiddling interest-rate and foreign-exchange benchmarks.

研究調查者仍然在試圖解決一項關于大量汽車零部件供應商的巨大國際壟斷網絡問題。汽車座位安全帶、散熱器和泡沫座位填充物的生產者，已經被處以了巨額的罰款。這個月早些時候，歐洲委員會對汽車軸承的制造商處以了總計13.2億元的罰款。這個星期，調查者們突襲了一群汽車尾氣的制造商。并且在最近幾天，巴西的告發者起訴了十幾個國外火車制造商的高管，緣由是他們在國家主要的城市壟斷鐵軌和地鐵合同的競標。操縱價格也已經同樣影響到了巨額的投資。銀行的大腕們也面臨著人們對其擺弄利率和銀行基準的指責。

The good news is that enforcement has got tougher, smarter and more co-ordinated. Gone arethe days when price-fixers got a slap on the wrist. Firms can expect swingeing fines, andbosses can go to jail. Since many cartels now operate across borders, so do investigators:American and Japanese trustbusters joined forces to flush out the car-parts cartels. Andincentives for whistleblowers have also increased: around 50 countries now offer immunity orreduced penalties for snitches.

好消息是，執法方面變得更為嚴格，更加智能，也更為協調。價格固定器被撞到腰的日子一去不復返了。企業可以預期被處以巨額的罰款，老板可能會進監獄。由于許多卡特爾壟斷組織從事跨國經營，調查者們也同樣是跨國合作的：美國和日本的反托拉斯者聯手改變汽車零部件壟斷現象。并使舉報人的獎勵也得以增加：約50個國家現在規定提供豁免權或對打小報告減少處罰。

That is all for the better, but the penalties for price-fixing remain too mild. The best study ofthe issue so far concluded that, given the still-low risk of detection, collusion pays. Yetbeyond a certain point—which the fines now imposed by American and European regulatorshave probably reached—fines inflict so much damage on guilty companies that theyundermine competition instead of enhancing it. The answer is stiffer prison sentences,particularly for senior executives. American courts, only too ready to lock up other types ofmiscreants for a long time, have rarely jailed egregious price-fixers for anything like themaximum of ten years that the law allows. Other countries have even more scope to increasesentences.

這是為了能夠使得情況有所好轉，但是對于操縱價格的處罰仍然過于溫和。這個問題的最好的研究，就是到目前為止的結論是，鑒于檢測仍低風險，共謀會付出代價。然而，除這點之外，現在由美國和歐洲監管機構處以的罰款可能已經達到——罰款對于有罪責的公司所造成的破壞，相比提升其競爭力而言，反而削弱了該公司的競爭力。答案就是嚴厲的監獄服刑，特別是對于高級管理人員的處罰。美國法院很愿意關押其他類型的歹徒達更長的時間，他們很少對過分的價格制定者實行監禁，比如法律所允許的最長可達十年的監禁期。其他國家擁有更多的增加刑罰的范圍權限。

Buy some geeks

購買一些技術型極客

More can be done to aid detection, too. Statistical tests to “screen” markets for unusualpricing patterns helped uncover the interest-rate and foreign-exchange scandals. Potentialconspirators may think twice if they suspect their market is being screened. European and LatinAmerican trustbusters are making good use of the technique; their American counterpartsshould do so, too. Deploying such cutting-edge technology is costly; and increased funding is abig ask at a time of public-sector parsimony. But cartel authorities in Europe and Americagenerally bring in far more than they cost to run, so extra money pushed in their direction islikely to be well spent.

同樣也有更多可以幫助檢測的辦法。統計測試表明屏蔽市場不尋常的定價模式有助于揭開利率和外匯丑聞。如果潛在的陰謀者他們懷疑自己的市場被屏蔽，可能會三思而后行。歐洲和拉丁美洲的反托拉斯人員正利用該技術;他們的美國同行們應該也這樣做。部署這種先進的技術是昂貴的;而增加的資金對公共部門而言，每次都是一個很大的要求。但在歐洲和美國卡特爾當局通常會遠遠超過他們的成本運行，因此多余的錢促使他們朝著自己的方向，用得其所。

Another way to discourage the formation of cartels is to factor the increased risk ofcollusion into scrutiny of proposed mergers. Price-fixing is likelier, and easier to sustain, withfewer players. This could never be the primary determinant in competition decisions, but itshould be in the mix. Blocking a few more mergers—whose benefits anyway tend to be over-egged—might both save companies from themselves and spare their customers the costs ofcollusion.

另一種方法來阻止卡特爾的形成，是官商勾結因素的危險性增加，被作為合并建議的審查考慮在內。操縱價格是更有可能的，并且更容易維持，只需要較少的參與者。這不可能是競爭決策的主要決定因素，但它應加以進行混合調整。阻止少數幾個兼并者——這種行動所帶來的收益往往是在過度慫恿之下促成的—這樣既為企業節省了他們自己的開支，也使得企業對客戶活動追蹤的成本得以減少。

【重點講解】

1.run for v.競選

例句:Look. The train's in. We'll have to run for itnow.

看，火車進站了，我們現在得趕緊朝那邊跑了。

2.carve up 瓜分;分割

例句:He wanted to go into the street and carvesomeone's face up.

他想上街去把別人的臉刮花。

3.ready to 樂于;時刻準備

例句:Catherine was ready to explode. "I think you're contemptible!"

凱瑟琳氣得快要炸了。“我覺得你真是可鄙!”

4.tend to 傾向于;趨向

例句:The wind is tending to the south.

風勢轉為南。