」，而几乎无可避免的对于财政问题的处理耽搁将会造成通货膨胀的后果。
Of course, the U.S. may take steps to stem our trade deficit well before our position as a net debtor gets out of hand. (In that respect, the falling dollar will help, though unfortunately it will hurt in other ways.) Nevertheless, our government"s behavior in this test of its mettle is apt to be consistent with its Scarlett O"Hara approach generally: "I"ll think about it tomorrow." And, almost inevitably, procrastination in facing up to fiscal problems will have inflationary consequences.
只是这些后果发生的时点与影响我们实在无从去预测，不过无法去量化或是锁定这种风险不代表我们就可以忽视它的存在，当然我们的推论也许会不准确，目前的利率水准或可弥补通货膨胀所带来的损失，只是我们对于长期的债券仍报以持续的戒心。
Both the timing and the sweep of those consequences are unpredictable. But our inability to quantify or time the risk does not mean we should ignore it. While recognizing the possibility that we may be wrong and that present interest rates may adequately compensate for the inflationary risk, we retain a general fear of long-term bonds.
然而我们仍愿意把一部份资金摆在这上头，如果在某些特定的有价证券上有特殊的利益，就像是我在1984年年报中曾经提到我们在华盛顿公用电力系统债券上的投资，在1987年我们又持续加码投资，总计到年底我们持有的这类帐面未摊销成本为2.4亿美元债券，市价约为3.16亿美元，还外加每年三千四百万美元的免税利息收入。
We are, however, willing to invest a moderate portion of our funds in this category if we think we have a significant edge in a specific security. That willingness explains our holdings of the Washington Public Power Supply Systems #1, #2 and #3 issues, discussed in our 1984 report. We added to our WPPSS position during 1987. At yearend, we had holdings with an amortized cost of $240 million and a market value of $316 million, paying us tax-exempt income of $34 million annually. o We continued to do well in arbitrage last year, though - or perhaps because - we operated on a very limited scale. We enter into only a few arbitrage commitments each year and restrict ourselves to large transactions that have been publicly announced. We do not participate in situations in which green-mailers are attempting to put a target company "in play."
我们持续在短期套利交易上有所斩获，虽然我们从事的规模有限，每年我们限制自己只专注在几个少数已公开信息的大型交易案，我们不介入那些已被投机套利客锁定的个案。
We have practiced arbitrage on an opportunistic basis for decades and, to date, our results have been quite good. Though we"ve never made an exact calculation, I believe that overall we have averaged annual pre-tax returns of at least 25% from arbitrage. I"m quite sure we did better than that in 1987. But it should be emphasized that a really bad experience or two - such as many arbitrage operations suffered in late 1987 - could change the figures dramatically.
我们从事机率套利已有好几十年的经验，到目前为止，我们的成果还算不错，虽然我们从来没有仔细去算过，我相信我们在套利投资方面的税前年报酬率应该有25%左右，我确信1987年的成绩甚至比以前好的多，但必须强调的是只要发生一、两次像今年其它几个套利惨痛的经验，就可能使得整个结果猪羊变色。
Our only $50 million-plus arbitrage position at yearend 1987 was 1,096,200 shares of Allegis, with a cost of $76 million and a market value of $78 million.
今年我们新增5,000万美元以上的套利案只有斥资7,600万美元投资100万股Allegis，目前的市价约为7,800万美元。
o We had two other large holdings at yearend that do not fit precisely into any of our five categories. One was various Texaco, Inc. bonds with short maturities, all purchased after Texaco went into bankruptcy. Were it not for the extraordinarily strong capital position of our insurance companies, it would be inappropriate for us to buy defaulted bonds. At prices prevailing after Texaco"s bankruptcy filing, however, we regarded these issues as by far the most attractive bond investment available to us.
我们在年底还有其它二个主要的投资组合不在前述五个范围之内，一项是Texaco短期债券，全都是在它破产之后才买进，要不是因为我们旗下保险公司的财务实力雄厚，我们实在不太适合去买这种已发生问题的债券，不过以这些债券在Texaco倒闭后的低廉价格，这是目前我们可以找得到最吸引我们的投资标的。