The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?

世界正在經歷一場前所未有的巨大并購浪潮，它席卷了最為活躍的美國，影響到歐洲國家，一直深入潛力無限的新興國家（并以不可比擬的威力影響到正在崛起的國家）。新興國家的許多人們目睹著這一轉變，憂心不已——商業集中化的浪潮（企業合并的浪潮）是否會淪為不受控制的反商業競爭勢力呢？

mergers and acquisitions 合并和收購

hyperactive 極度活躍的

with unsurpassed might ?以不可比擬的威力

business concentration 指的是“企業合并的浪潮”

uncontrollable anti-competitive force 一股不可遏制的反競爭力量

There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.

毫無疑問，大企業在變大變強。1982年，跨國公司的貿易額不到國際貿易總額的20%，而今，這一比例超過了25%，而且還在迅速增加。在一個開放并歡迎海外投資的經濟體中（在那些對外開放并鼓勵外資經濟的國家中），國際子公司扮演了迅速發展的生產部門的角色（國際分公司在國民生產中成為一個快速增長的部門）。例如，在阿根廷，上世紀90年代的改革后，在200家最大的企業中，跨國企業的工業產值從43%幾乎增到了70%。這一現象使國內經銷商（民族企業家）憂慮不已，同時也加劇了在經濟活動中扮演小角色的小型企業以及關于全球經濟穩定的擔憂。

International affiliates 國際分公司

concern of 誰的擔憂

concern over 關于……的擔憂

I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases.

我認為合并與收購大浪潮背后深藏原因與全球化進程的相同（推動這股巨大并購浪潮的最主要力量，也是推動全球化進程的力量）——交通通訊成本的減少，貿易投資壁壘的降低，市場擴張要求企業擴張，以此滿足消費者需求（市場擴張和為了滿足市場需求而進行的擴大生產）。所有這些對消費者而言都有益無害的。隨著生產力的發展，世界財富也在增加。

underlie 構成……的基礎

detrimental 有害的

Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty.Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the US, when the Standard Oil trust was broken up.The mergers of telecom companies, such as World Com, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress.On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing-witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan-but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.

少有例子證明當今商業集中浪潮利弊。但還是難以想象，今天一小部分石油公司的合并會重新創造出同樣的威脅，而這種威脅正是大約一個世紀前，當美國標準石油托拉斯瓦解時人們所擔心的（那時由于人們對該公司的這種擔心而導致了它最終的解散）。諸如世界通訊公司的電信公司的合并，幾乎沒有增加消費者的消費成本，也沒有因此放緩科技進步的步伐。恰恰相反，通訊的成本迅速下降。汽車行業亦是如此，商業集中化程度加深（合并也在增加）——例如戴姆勒與克萊斯勒、雷諾和尼桑的合并，但消費者的利益似乎并沒有受到損害。