Show notes
開工一週後我們來分享歐美國家的經濟政治整體走向，其變動不太大(詳情如下)；
後面Chloe有彩蛋喔! 獎學金面試問題+Emily分享伊朗暴動見解, 分分秒秒都精彩!
1. After months of debate, Ukraine is to be sent tanks by its Western supporters. Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, bowed to mounting pressure and said he would send German-made Leopards. He also agreed to drop a long-standing German ban on the re-export of Leopards by other European countries that have them. As part of an international agreement that involved a fair degree of ill-will, America said it would send its main tank, the M1 Abrams. But the tanks will take time to arrive, and Ukrainian soldiers will need weeks of training on them.
經過了幾個月的辯論，西方支持國們將向烏克蘭派遣坦克車。德國總理舒茨 (Olaf Scholz) 屈服於越來越大的壓力，並表示將派遣德國製造的豹式坦克車。舒茨還同意取消德國長期禁止其他擁有豹式的歐洲國家再出口豹式之禁令。作為一項涉及相當程度 (對俄國) 惡意的國際協議一部分，美國表示將派遣其 M1 艾布蘭主戰坦克。但坦克車需要時間才能送達，且烏克蘭士兵們需要數週的訓練才能使用它們。
2. Volodymyr Zelensky cracked down on government corruption and the privileges of some Ukrainian officials. The deputy defence minister resigned after food was procured for the army at inflated prices. Several other officials and regional governors also stepped down. Mr Zelensky banned officials from taking foreign holidays; men of fighting age are not allowed to leave Ukraine.
(烏克蘭總統) 澤倫斯基打擊了政府貪污和一些烏克蘭官員們的特權。在以高價為軍隊採購食品後，國防部副部長請辭。其他幾位官員和地方長官們也下台了。澤倫斯基禁止官員們去國外度假；適合作戰年齡的男子不得離開烏克蘭。
3.Investors who hoped that 2023 would bring a change in fortunes to America’s tech companies following their walloping in the markets in 2022 were left disappointed by Microsoft’s earnings. The company reported solid revenue and profits for the final quarter of last year, but said the growth in demand for its cloud services, the main driver of its business, had softened as clients curtailed spending. It was the first of America’s tech giants to publish results for the fourth quarter. Markets are nervously awaiting earnings reports from the others.
在 2022年的市場重挫後，希望 2023年為美國科技公司改變命運的投資人們對微軟 (Microsoft) 的收益感到失望。微軟報告去年 (2022年) 第四季收入和利潤穩健，但表示由於客戶削減開支，對其雲端服務 (為微軟主要業務) 之需求增長已放緩。微軟是第一家公佈第四季業績的美國科技巨頭。市場正焦急地等待其他公司的收益報告。
4.Meanwhile Microsoft confirmed that it had increased its investment in OpenAI, the startup behind the ChatGPT artificial-intelligence bot. ChatGPT has become an AI sensation since its release on the market last November. Taking direction from just a few commands, it has passed exams in law and medical licensing, and completed the final exam in the Wharton MBA programme (which may not surprise anyone who has attended business school).
與此同時，微軟 (Microsoft) 證實已增加對 OpenAI (美國一人工智慧研究實驗室) 的投資，而 OpenAI 是 ChatGPT 人工智慧機器人背後的新創公司。自去年 (2022年) 11月上市以來，ChatGPT 已經引起了人工智慧市場的轟動。它僅憑幾個命令就通過了法律及醫療證照考試，並完成了華頓 (Wharton，美國常春藤名校賓州大學之商學院) MBA 課程的期末考試 (這可能不會讓任何上過商學院的人感到驚訝)。
5.America’s Justice Department sued Google for anticompetitive behaviour in online advertising. The suit alleges that Google tried to limit its rivals’ access to digital-ad technology by acquiring firms that develop it and wielded its dominance in the market to force advertisers and publishers to use its products. The news comes after Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced 12,000 job cuts, another instance of the tech industry’s great retrenchment.
美國司法部 (Justice Department) 起訴谷歌 (Google) 網路廣告中的反競爭行為。該訴訟案稱谷歌試圖透過收購開發數位廣告技術的公司來限制其競爭對手獲得數位廣告技術，並利用其在市場上的主導地位迫使廣告商和出版商使用其產品。於此前，谷歌的母公司字母控股 (Alphabet) 宣佈裁員 12,000人，而這是科技業大規模裁員的另一個例證。
6.In an indication of shareholder frustration at the strategic direction of some tech firms, Elliott Management, a prolific Wall Street activist hedge fund, has reportedly taken a stake in Salesforce, one of the world’s biggest software companies. Salesforce has also shed jobs to cut costs, but investors’ exasperation goes beyond its hiring spree to its $28bn acquisition of Slack, which critics think was overvalued.
據報導，艾略特管理公司 (Elliott Management，於華爾街一富饒的活動/對沖基金) 持有全球最大軟體公司之一 Salesforce 的股份，並表示股東對一些科技公司的策略方向感到失望。Salesforce 也裁員以削減成本，但投資人們的憤怒不僅僅在於其招聘狂潮，還在於其斥資 280億美元收購了 Slack，因批評人士們認為 Slack 估值過高。
7.Reed Hastings stepped down as chief executive of Netflix, which he helped found in 1997 as a DVD rental firm. He’ll remain at the company as executive chairman. The streaming company, meanwhile, said it was pleased with the progress of its new ad-supported subscription option, and that it would ban the sharing of passwords to its service by the end of March.
海斯汀 (Reed Hastings) 辭去網飛 (Netflix，影音串流平台) 執行長一職，而他在 1997年協助創立了原本是 DVD 租借公司的網飛。他將繼續留在公司擔任執行董事長。與此同時，該影音串流公司表示對其新的內含廣告訂閱方案之進展感到滿意，並將在 (2023年) 3月底前禁止其密碼共享之服務。
8.America’s economy grew by 2.9% in the fourth quarter on an annualised basis, slowing slightly from the 3.2% recorded in the previous three months. GDP expanded by 2.1% for the year as a whole.
美國經濟 (2022年) 第四季之年度增長率為 2.9%，略低於前三個月的 3.2%。全年度之國內生產總額 (GDP) 增長了 2.1%。
9. Rupert Murdoch ditched a plan to remerge News Corporation, the newspaper side of his empire, with Fox, his television assets. The publishing and entertainment businesses were split in 2013 (21st Century Fox, the film studio, was subsequently sold to Disney). Mr Murdoch’s proposal faced resistance from some News Corp investors unhappy at the prospect of being lumped together with Fox News, which they consider a toxic brand.
默多克 (Rupert Murdoch) 放棄將其新聞集團 (News Corporation，其傳媒集團之報業部門) 與福克斯 (Fox，其電視業務部門) 重新整併的計畫。默多克的出版與娛樂業務於 2013年拆分，而電影製片廠 21世紀福克斯 (21st Century Fox) 當時出售給了迪士尼 (Disney)。默多克的 (整併) 提議遭到一些新聞集團 (News Corporation) 投資人們抵制，因他/她們對與福克斯混為一談的前景感到不滿，且認為福克斯是一個有毒的品牌。
10.A German union said that Ford is planning to cut 3,200 jobs and move some activities to America. The carmaker has not confirmed the cuts, saying only that it needs to make structural changes amid the shift to electric vehicles. Press reports suggested that Ford was considering selling one of its German factories to BYD, a Chinese maker of EVs.
一德國工會表示福特汽車 (Ford) 計劃裁員 3,200人，並將部分事業/業務移轉至美國。該汽車製造商尚未證實裁員，僅表示在轉向電動車的過程中需要進行結構性調整。根據媒體報導，福特正在考慮將其一間德國工廠出售給中國電動車製造商比亞迪 (BYD)。
11. In Boston a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from three former workers at Whole Foods who claimed they had been sacked illegally for wearing Black Lives Matter masks. The judge found that the company had a legitimate business interest in upholding its dress code, which applies to all slogans and logos, and found no evidence that the three employees had been targeted.
在波士頓，一名聯邦法官駁回了全食超市 (Whole Foods，美國食品連鎖超市) 三名前員工的訴訟案，而員工們聲稱自己因佩戴「黑人的命也是命 (Black Lives Matter)」的口罩而遭非法解僱。法官認定全食超市堅持其適用於所有口號和標誌的服儀規定具有合法之商業考量，且未發現這三名員工遭針對的證據。
(以上內容來自每日一經濟學人)
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