Introduction to the Bond Market.
As we’ve seen, most individuals who want a loan – they borrow money from a bank. But for a well-known corporation, like Starbucks, borrowing money may be available through another type of financial intermediary: the bond market.
正如我们所知道的，大多数的个体如果想贷款，他们就向银行借钱。但是对于像星巴克这样著名的公司来说，借钱（融资）可以通过另一种金融中介形式：债券市场来完成。
A bond is essentially an IOU. It documents who owes how much and when payment must be made. Like stocks, bonds are traded on markets. For an established company, like Starbucks, investors – they already know enough about the company that they’re willing to bypass the bank as an intermediary and lend to the company directly. So, for a large company with a good reputation, this could mean they can borrow money on better terms from the bond market than they can through traditional bank lending. Starbucks, for example, has issued over a billion dollars of corporate bonds over the years, in order to fund their expansion plans.
债券本质上是一张借条。它记录着借（欠）款方以及所借数额以及还款期限。就像股票一样，债券能够在市场上进行交易。对于像星巴克这样的已建公司，投资人对它已经足够了解以致于他们愿意绕开作为中介的银行直接把钱借给公司。因此，对于有着良好信誉的大公司来说，这意味着他们能够从债券市场比从传统银行放贷中获得更好的条件来筹措资金。例如，星巴克这些年已经发行了超过十亿美元的公司债券来支持他们的扩张计划。
Now unlike a stock, if you buy a newly-issued bond from Starbucks, you don’t own part of Starbucks. You’re simply lending Starbucks money, and in exchange, they’re promising to pay you back a specific sum at a particular point in time. In addition, some bonds also pay out regular installments, called coupon payments, according to a preordained schedule.
如今跟股票不同的是，如果你买了一个星巴克新发行的债券，你并不拥有它的任何所有权。你仅仅是把钱借给了星巴克，而作为交换，他们承诺在特定的时间返还你一笔特定的钱。除此之外，一些债券还会按照预先设定的时间分期付款，称为息票支付。
By issuing bonds, a company can raise capital and make big investments. And then they can repay that debt over a long timeline as those investments provide a return.
通过发行债券，一家公司能够筹集到资金进行更大的投资。随着他们的投资有了回报，他们就可以偿还这笔长期的债务了。
Corporations aren’t the only institutions that borrow money in the bond market. Governments do so as well. In 2016, the U.S. government owed the public almost $14 trillion in promised bond payments. And because the government is so big, when it borrows money, it affects the entire market for saving and borrowing.
公司不是在债券市场中借钱的唯一机构。政府也这么做。2016年，美国政府向公众承诺的债券偿还金额达到14万亿美元。由于政府如此庞大，因此当它借钱的时候，它能影响整个市场的储蓄和借贷。
Let’s go back to the supply and demand for loanable funds. We’ll use some numbers here for illustration. Here’s the demand curve showing the demand for borrowing. Now, imagine that the government decides to borrow $100 billion. This shifts the demand for loanable funds up and to the right, increasing the equilibrium interest rate from 7% to 9%. A higher interest rate – that means that the quantity of savings supplied will increase, in this case, from $200 to $250 billion. Now remember that if savings increases by $50 billion, that means that private consumption is falling by $50 billion. If we’re saving more, that means we’re consuming less.
让我们回到可贷资金的供给与需求。我们将使用一些数字来说明。这是一条需求曲线表明借钱的需求度。现在想象一下：政府决定借款1000亿美元。这将使得对可贷资金的需求曲线向上和向右移动，使均衡利率从7%增长到9%。一个高的利率意味着在这种情况下存款量的供应将会从2000亿美元增长到2500亿美元。现在记住这一点：如果储蓄增长了500亿美元，那就意味着私人消费将减少500亿美元。如果我们省得多，意味着我们消费得少。
And because borrowing has become more expensive due to the higher interest rate, private investment will also fall. At a 9% interest rate, we can see that the private demand for loanable funds is $150 billion, $50 billion less than it was at an interest rate of 7%. We call these two effects “crowding out”. When the government borrows $100 billion, it crowds out private consumption and private investment. In this case, it crowds out $50 billion of private consumption and also $50 billion of private investment.
由于更高的利率使得借钱变得越来越昂贵，私人的投资也将会减少。以一个9%的利率来看，我们会发现对于可贷资金的私人需求是1500亿美元，比利率是7%的时候少了500亿美元。我们把这称为“挤出效益”。当政府借了1000亿美元，它会相应地减少掉私人消费和投资。在这种情况下，它分别减少了500亿美元的私人消费以及500亿美元的私人投资。
Bonds aren’t as risky as stocks because the bondholders must be paid before any profits are distributed to shareholders. But bonds do have risk, namely, the risk that when the payments come due, the borrower won’t be able to pay. That’s called the default risk. If investors think that a firm issuing a bond has a significant default risk, they’ll demand a higher interest rate to lend money.
债券不像股票那样有风险是因为在利润被分配给股东之前债券持有者必须要得到偿付。但是债券也有风险，也就是说，当还款到期时，借款人无法偿还的风险。这被称为违约风险。如果投资者认为一家公司发行的债券有很大的违约风险，他们就会提高利率把钱借给对方。
Bonds are rated by agencies, such as the S&P; the S&P; ratings go from AAA, which are the safest bonds, all the way down to D, and anything lower than a BBB－, those are sometimes called “junk bonds.” If you’re curious, Starbucks gets an A－. Lending money to Starbucks – it’s pretty safe. But you never know what might happen if all those pod people start making a lot more coffee at home.
债券被例如 S&P这样的公司评级，评级从最安全的债券 AAA级顺延到D级。低于BBB级的债券有时被称为垃圾债券。如果你好奇，星巴克得到了一个A,于是你借钱给星巴克，这相当的安全。但是你永远也不知道如果这些豆荚人都开始在家煮咖啡的话会发生什么。
Now, the rating agencies aren’t perfect. That became all too obvious during the recent financial crisis. However, generally speaking, you’ll find that better-rated bonds – they pay lower interest rates. And lower-rated, riskier bonds – they pay higher interest rates. The state of Illinois has the lowest bond rating of any state government in the United States, an A－. And it has to pay significantly more to borrow money than does Virginia, which has the highest rating, a AAA.
如今，评级机构并不完美。他们在最近的金融危机中表现太明显了。然而，总得来说，你会发现评级好的债券，他们的利率较低。评级较低的债券更有风险，因此他们付的利率更高。伊利诺斯州有着全美最低的债券评级 A－，因此它要比弗吉尼亚付得更多来借钱，而弗吉尼亚拥有全美最高的债券评级AAA。
Another factor that determines the interest rate on a bond is whether the borrower can put up collateral, an asset that helps to guarantee the loan. If you want to borrow money to buy a house, you’ll typically get a lower interest rate than if you want to borrow money to buy a vacation. How come? It’s the same principle. The mortgage loan is less risky for the bank than the vacation loan because if you default, the bank can repossess your house. The house is collateral. But once you’ve been to Maui, the bank can’t repossess your vacation. So, it’s cheaper to borrow money to buy a house than to go on vacation.
另一个决定债券利率的因素是借款人是否能够提供担保，一种有助于为贷款提供担保的资产。如果你想借钱买房，你将明显地得到一个比借钱去度假更低的利率。为什么会这样呢？这是一样的道理。对于银行来说按揭贷款比旅游贷款的风险要低，因为如果你违约了，银行可以收回你的房子，房子是抵押的。但是一旦你去了毛伊岛，银行不可能收回你的度假。因此，借钱买房比借钱去度假更便宜。
Okay, we’ve covered banks, we’ve covered stocks, we’ve covered bonds…But actually, there’s many other financial intermediaries that we could talk about, including hedge funds, venture capital, mortgages, and a lot more. What are you curious about? Let us know.
好了，目前我们已经谈及到了银行，股票，债券....但是事实上，还有很多其它的金融中介可以谈论的，包括对冲基金，风险资本，抵押贷款等等。你对什么感兴趣呢？请让我们知道。