在Anthony Suau的获奖作品中，全副武装的Cuyahuga郡警探正在检查一栋被查封的住宅，原房主因无力偿还房贷而被法院裁定驱逐出自己的住宅——这张照片拍摄于2008年3月26日，摄影师以一种黑色讽刺的方式反映出次贷危机对美国民生所产生的巨大影响。

评审委员会主席MaryAnne Golon说，“这是一张一语双关的照片，看似充满危险与冲突的场景其实只是对查封住宅的例行检查，画面气氛与现实故事的巨大反差形成一种戏剧性的暗示：这是另一场不见硝烟的战争，而它正降临在我们所有人身上。”[原文]

今天专业英语课做presentation的演示文稿，嘿嘿。

Good morning, everyone.It’s a great honor for our team, the Martian, to be the 1^st one to give you the speech. And we will give you a brief introduction to the subprime mortgage crisis.During our presentation we will mention a lot of specialized words and expressions, so firstly I will explain the vocabulary for you.

To talk about the subprime mortgage crisis, we have to begin with this term “subprime lending”.Subprime lending is also known as B-paper, near-prime, non-prime, or second chance lending. It generally refers to predatory lending at a higher expectation of risk than that of A-paper, and generally accompanied by higher interest rates.So, the subprime lending is a combination of a higher expectation of risk and a higher interest rate.

Subprime, this word usually appears in the terms like subprime lending, subprime mortgages, subprime car loans, subprime credit cards and so on. So the word “subprime” means problems on credit history.This is generally due to one or a combination of factors, including credit status of the borrower, income and job history, and income to mortgage payment ratio.

Default rate. Default may occur if the debtor/’detə/ is either unwilling or unable to pay their debt.

But, we meet the US housing bubble, the United States housing bubble is an economic bubble in many parts of the U.S. housing market including areas of California, Florida, New York, Michigan, the Northeast, and the Southwest markets. On a national level, housing prices peaked in early 2005, began declining in 2006 and have not yet bottomed. Increased default rates in 2006–2007 by U.S. homeowners led to a crisis in August 2007 for the subprime, mortgage, credit, hedge fund, and foreign bank markets.So the subprime mortgage crisis begins with a high default rate on “subprime” and the bursting of the US housing bubble.

The subprime crisis involves many financial institutions around the world. During my partners’ speech they will mention a lot of financial institutions, and I’ll introduce them to you first.

New Century Financial Corporation was a real estate investment trust that originated mortgage loans in the United States. And it became the first corporation bankrupted because of the subprime crisis in April 2007.

HSBC Holdings plc, 滙豐控股有限公司, is the holding company of the world’s largest company and the world’s largest banking group. Its predecessor and now a subsidiary HSBC, short for The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, was founded in Hongkong in 1865.The financial sector began to feel the consequences of this crisis in February 2007 with the $10.5 billion write-down of HSBC.

After that, we have a Germany bank failed in the subprime crisis,IKB Deutsche Industriebank.It is specialized in lending to small and medium-sized companies. In August 2007, it had to be bailed out due to bad losses in the subprime market meltdown.The Britain bank Northern Rock is also affected by the crisis.

Northern Rock plc is a British bank founded in 1965. On 14 September 2007, the Bank received a liquidity support from the Bank of England, following problems in the credit markets caused by the US subprime mortgage financial crisis. At 00:01 on 22 February 2008 the bank was taken into state ownership.

Next, I want to talk about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, these two are government sponsored enterprises (GSE) of the United States federal government, and they are authorized to make loans and loan guarantees.Fannie Mae, with its full name the Federal National Mortgage Association, is located in Washington, DC. Fannie Mae was founded as a government agency in 1938 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to provide liquidity to the mortgage market.The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, is founded in 1970 to end Fannie Mae’s monopoly.On September 7, 2008 the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) decided to place the two GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, into conservatorship run by FHFA.

One of the last week’s hottest news in financial area is about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Lehman Brothers was a global financial-services firm founded in 1850. The firm did business in investment banking, investment management, and private banking. It was a primary dealer in the U.S. Treasury securities market. The firm’s worldwide headquarters were in New York City. In 2008, Lehman faced an unprecedented loss to the continuing subprime mortgage crisis. Lehman’s loss was apparently a result of having held on to large positions in subprime and other lower-rated mortgageOn September 15, 2008, it filed for bankruptcy protection; the filing marks the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Another investment bank failed in the subprime crisis is Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. is also a global financial services firm. It is headquartered in New York City, and occupies the entire 34 stories of the World Financial Center building in Manhattan. In November of 2007, Merrill Lynch announced it would write-down $8.4 billion in losses associated with the national housing crisis and remove its CEO.

The top five investment bank failed three, and the first one who acquired by other company is Bear Stearns.The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., based in New York City, was one of the largest global investment banks and securities trading and brokerage firms prior to its collapse in 2008.Beginning in 2007, the company was badly damaged by the subprime mortgage crisis. In March 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provided an emergency loan to try to avert a sudden collapse of the company. The company could not be saved, however, and was sold to JPMorgan Chase for ten dollars per share, less than one-tenth a year ago.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last surviving big investment banks on Wall Street, have become regulated banks. In a statement issued at 9.30pm this Sunday, the Federal Reserve said it had approved their applications to become bank holding companies, subject to regulation by the Fed. This means that the top five investment banks have become a history.

A lot of insurers also involved in the crisis, including AIG. AIG, American International Group, Inc. is a major American insurance corporation based at the American International Building in New York City. AIG’s history dates back to 1919, when established as an insurance agency in Shanghai. According to the 2008 Forbes Global 2000 list, AIG was the 18th-largest company in the world. On September 16, 2008, as AIG suffered a liquidity crisis, it accepted the terms of the Federal Reserve Bank’s rescue package. And this was the largest government bailout of a private company in US history.