最近有一些读者想知道我们平常的一天都做些什么。 这是一个很好的问题虽然有点难以回答，因为每时每刻，我们经常工作在不同的项目上。 例如在过去几周，我们一直在寻找新的赚钱方法，不必依赖于谷歌，而且不用编写新的电子书，或合资或教练或类似的东西。 我们的意思实际上涉及到一个特定的利基网站的钱。 我们希望看到的，如果我们可以得到该网站的流量，而不必依赖于谷歌和反向链接。

So we have kind of put all of our usual work on the backburner at least for the next few months to see if this will work. If it does, our newsletter list will be the first to know.

因此，我们必须把平时的工作放到Backburner， 至少在接下来几个月里， 看到它是否有效。 如果是这样，将会第一时间出现在我们的通讯名单里。

This is kind of how we have been working for a while now. We spend a few months on our niche sites and then suddenly we will have an idea for something and that will take all of our attention and we will be off working on that for a few months. We did a bit too much of that last year and it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. It wasn’t so much that the projects we were working on didn’t work, only that we didn’t give them a chance as we kept moving from one thing to another. It was back to the bad old days when we were trying to make a living from this business and we kept jumping from one method to another….aargh!

就是这样，我们已经工作了一段时间。 我们在自己的利基网站花几个月时间，然后突然对某个东西有了一个想法，它吸引了 我们 所有的关注，这样我们将闭门工作几个月。 去年我们做这个做的过多了，也不一定是件好事。 我们做的项目没有效果，也许只是因为我们没有给他们一个机会，因为我们不停地从一件事转移到另一件。就像是回到了以前的不好时光， 当时我们试图利用这一业务来生存，于是不停地从一个方法跳跃到另一个.... 唉！

But, fortunately we are good at stepping back and seeing if we are heading in the wrong direction and we are finally back on track. So for now, we are focusing on one website and seeing if we can make money from it without Google intervention.

但是幸运的是，我们善于回顾总结，看到如果我们在错误的方向前进，就会重新回到正轨。 所以现在，我们专注于一个网站，看是否可以在没有利用谷歌的情况下赚到钱。

However, getting back to the whole point of this post, I think those who asked what we do on a daily basis were interested in what we do on a daily or weekly basis in relation to our Amazon sites. Mostly, all we really do is backlinking. We no longer write up new reviews or if we do it is very rarely. The reason we don’t is that we have plenty already up on our sites that we can work with. We’ve mentioned this before on numerous posts on this site but we basically look at reviews that are already getting traffic and/or sales and work on those. We work on them by getting more backlinks to them and editing the content until it is the best review it can be.

好吧，回归正题，我想那些问我们每天做什么的人，是对我们每天或每周做的关系到我们的亚马逊网站的事情感兴趣。 大多数情况下，我们所有真正做的事情，就是外链。 我们不再写新的评论，即使写也是很少。 我们不这样做的原因是，我们我网页上有很多，已经够我们使用了。 在我们网站的之前的几篇文章里，都提到过这一点。但我们基本上只看那些已经获得流量和/或销售的评论，调整它们，使 他们获得更多的反向链接，并且编辑内容，直到它是最好的评论。

So this is how our day generally looks. I don’t know how much detail you might want to see here because some of you may not give a flying fig about when we have breakfast or not or whether we exercise but either way it is all here and you can always skip that sort of stuff and move on to what you think are the important bits if you like. So here it is:

所以这就是我们每天看起来的样子。 我不知道你想在这里看到多少细节，因为有些人很可能不会在乎我们什么时候吃早餐或者我们是否锻练身体以及其它的各种活动，你可以随时跳过这种事情，跳到你感兴趣的地方。 这样，它就是：

Wake Up!

醒了！

We both generally wake up sometime before 8am. Wanda is an early bird so will usually be up before me but either way whoever is ready to start work first for the day will send an email to the other to say they are ready. The other will respond to say they are also ready and when that happens I will get in my car to drive over to Wanda’s (she only lives a few streets away so it only takes a minute or two). In other words, we don’t really have a set start time, it’s just when both of us are ready to start work for the day but in general it’s probably around 9am.

我们一般都在上午8点以前醒过来。 Wanda是一个早起的鸟儿,通常会在我之前醒来，但不管怎样，不管是谁，每天的第一件事情就是 准备开始工作。都要发送一封电子邮件，说她已经准备好。 其他人回应说，她们也准备好了。这个时候，我就开车就去接Wanda（她跟我相隔几条街，只需要一两分钟）。 换句话说，我们并没有有一套起始时间，当我们大家都准备好开始一天的工作的时候，一般会是上午9点左右。

Exercise or Meditation

运动或冥想

The first thing we do (and this isn’t all that consistent) is exercise or meditate depending on the mood we are in. Sometimes we do neither. At the moment we are working on the PACE program (which is excellent by the way), to get us fit for our next overseas trip. So we have been running up hills and working on the treadmill and using the bike and doing a bit of calisthenics. We sometimes do Qi Gong or we might do a mediation. After the exercise we will make up a Better than Coffee drink mixed with MSM and vitamin C – that keeps the post-exercise aches and pains away.

我们首先要做的（并不总是这样）是运动或冥想，这取决于我们的的心情。有的时候，什么都不做。 目前，我们在做PACE计划 （这是极好的方式），减肥，这样我们就能更好地进行接下来的海外旅行。 因此，我们爬山，在跑步机上跑步，骑自行车和做一点课间操位。 我们有时做气功，或者可以做一次冥想。运动 结束后，我们将泡一杯有MSM和维生素C的比咖啡更好 的饮料－缓解 运动后的酸痛。

Breakfast

早餐

Next is breakfast. Pretty standard stuff here so skip and move on to the next bit….it’s usually scrambled or poached eggs on toast if you really need to know.

接下来是早餐。 这是很普通的事情，所以跳过，并移动到下一位...... 如果你真的想知道， 它通常是炒或水煮鸡蛋吐司。

开始工作时间

By this time, it’s usually about 10am and we are ready to start work. We have an office set up in Wanda’s home so it is kept separate from the rest of the house which is always a good thing. It’s nice to be able to close the door at the end of the working day. We have two computers in there and a white board. That’s about it really. Nothing special.

这个时候，通常大约是上午10点，我们准备开始工作。 我们 在Wanda的家中设立一个办公室，跟用于休息的房子区分出来，这毕竟是一件好事。 能够在一天的工作结束时关上门，是很不错的。 在那里我们有两台电脑和一个白板。 就这么多。 没有什么是特别的。

Answering Emails and Comments

回复电子邮件和评论

The first thing I normally do is answer emails and also comments on this blog and the Affiliate Reviews HQ site. We get a lot of them and some days it can take a while particularly Monday mornings because we don’t usually answer emails on the weekend and they can build up.

Wanda on the other hand will answer the emails and comments from our niche websites.

Once that is done, we close down our email accounts for the day. If we keep them open, the emails keep pouring in and we are tempted to stop to read and answer them.

我通常做的第一件事是回复电子邮件和本博客上的评论，以及HQ联盟网站上的评论。 我们有很多，有时要花费一些时间，特别是周一的早晨，因为我们周末通常不回复的邮件，但他们却可以写给我们。

另一方面， Wanda将回复来自我们的利基网站上的的电子邮件和评论。

一旦这些做完了，我们这一天就退出了电子邮件帐户。 如果我们保持打开，电子邮件频传，我们禁不住要停下来读，并回复他们。

What’s Next

下一步是什么

At this point, we could be working on a number of different things but we will assume for this blog post that we are working on our Amazon sites and I will use the basic plan that we use when we do this.

这时候，我们可能工作在各种不同的事情上，但我们要负责这个博客，就是我们正在做的亚马逊网站，并且我们将使用基本计划，一般都这样子做。

We will also assume that we are working on two brand new pages that we have already written reviews for and we have found 3 keywords for each page that we want to rank for. We normally only work on two pages at a time when we are backlinking as the less the better. It’s just so much easier to manage.

我们也将承担起两个品牌的新页面，而且已经写好了评论，并为每个页面选了三个想获得排名的关键词。 在我们找外链的时候，我们通常只同时做两个页面的，毕竟这个越少越好。 很容易管理，不是吗。

So our plan for the rest of the day might involve one or more of the following tasks:

因此，这一天剩下的计划可能涉及的一个或多个下列任务：

1. Find 10 potential guest sites – For this task we would each find 10 related sites that we think might be interested in taking an article from us. We would send each of those sites an email and add each site to a spreadsheet in Google Docs. This allows us to keep track of who we have emailed and when.

This might take an hour or two hours or even three depending on the topic in question. We like to find sites related to our product review in some way so it can take time. But we know that it is worth it because we will end up with very high quality backlinks.

1。 寻找 10个 潜在顾客的网站 -对于这个任务，我们要每次找到10个相关的网站，他们可能会对我们的文章感兴趣。 我们将给每一个网站发一封电子邮件，并每个站点添加到“Google文档”的电子表格里。 这样我们就能追查到我们什么时候给谁发过电子邮件。

这可能需要一两个小时，甚至是三个小时，取决于问题的主题。 我们想以某种方式找到跟我们的产品评论相关的网站，所以它可能会用掉一些时间。 但我们知道，这是值得的，因为我们最终将得到高质量的反向链接。

2. Respond to positive emails – If we have received an email from a guest site saying they will take an article then we respond to the email telling them that we will start working on their article.

2。  回应积极的电子邮件 -如果我们已经 从客户网站上 收到一封邮件说，他们将采用一篇文章，那我们就回应邮件，告诉他们，我们立马开始写他们要的文章。

3. Writing guest articles – Once we have a site that is willing to take an article from us then we start writing. Although to be quite honest  nowadays we get someone in Elance to write articles for us but back in the early days we wrote everything ourselves. We’ve written hundreds upon hundreds of articles over time and after a while you get quite good at writing up an article in as little as half an hour.

These guest articles will link back to our 2 product reviews and hence get us backlinks. In each of the reviews we will usually add three links – two to a product review and one to the home page, but sometimes all three to the product review, or 1 to one product review, 1 to a second product review and the third to the home page. In other words, we mix up the links.

3。撰写客户文章 -一旦有网站愿意用我们的文章，我们立马开始写。 虽然老实说，现在在Elance上 有人为我们写文章，但早期我们自己写。 我们长时间数百篇数百篇的写文章，之后，你就会善于在短短的半个小时内写出一篇文章。

这些顾客的文章将链接到我们的两篇产品评论上，这样就增加了我们的反向链接。 在每个评论上，我们通常会添加三个链接 - 两个产品评论和一个主页，但有时所有三个都链向产品评论，或一个链向产品评论，另一个链向第二个产品评论，第三个链至主页。 换句话说，我们要混淆这些链接。

4. Writing content for our sites – Again we very rarely write up our own content on our niche sites anymore. So we will generally just spend time in Elance writing up job projects to get 10 articles written at a time. For sites that we are working on we might add one or two articles a week to keep Google happy but we aren’t terribly consistent with this.

4。  为我们的网站增加内容 -再次说明一点，我们很少给 我们的利基网站 增加的内容了。 因此，我们通常会只花时间Elance 发布工作项目，来获得同时间撰写的10篇文章。 对于我们正在做的网站，我们每星期会添加一两篇文章来保持谷歌高兴，但我们并不严格保持与此一致。

5. Commenting on related sites and social networking – We don’t go too crazy with this like we used to but we try and place maybe 5 comments a day or every second day on related blogs. And maybe a bit of social networking and bookmarking. This is really just to diversify our link building efforts – our focus is more on guest blogging than anything else as described in Step 3 above.

5。 在相关网站和社交网络 上评论 -我们不会做的太疯狂，跟通常一样，我们尝试每天或隔天在相关的博客上发表大概5条评论。 也可能是在社交网站和书签网站上。 这真的只是为了我们的外链建设的效果更多样化 - 我们的重中之重是更多顾客博客，正如上述步骤3中所述。

Time to Stop Work

At around 3.30 to 4pm we will finish up work for the day. We very rarely go any longer than that unless we have something that we are really enjoying or we have to get done.

结束工作的时候

下午3时30分至下午四时左右，我们将完成一天的工作。 我们很少会工作更长时间，除非我们真的很想去做，或者必须得做。

So to summarize this might be our plan for the week for the two of us when we are in backlinking mode…

1. Contact 100 sites a week to see if they will accept a guest article.

2. Write up guest articles based on the response you get from step 1.

3. Write one or two informational type articles to add to our site to build up content.

4. Comment on 20 to 30 blogs.

因此要总结一下，这是我们为我们两个人每星期的计划，这时候，我们在为外链而工作...

1。 一个星期 联系100家网站，看看他们是否会采用我们的的文章。

2。 写文章，根擗你从第1步得到的回复。

3。 写一或两个信息类的文章添加到我们的网站来增加内容。

4。 发表20至30个博客的评论。

You’ll notice that we don’t allocate time for Facebook, Twitter, reading forums or other peoples blogs. These things are okay if they specifically relate to your business – for example, if you are into Facebook marketing and you make your living this way but if not they should only be a small part of your day. Keep them as a reward at the end of the day after you have already accomplished what you need to do for that day.

你会发现，我们不浪费时间在Facebook，Twitter，阅读论坛或其他人的博客上。 如果它们与您的业务特别相关，那还可以 - 例如，如果你是以Facebook营销为你的生活方式，但如果不是，那它他只是你的一天的一小部分。 在你已经完成你每天需要做的事情之后， 把它们做为你每天工作结束后的奖励 。

We also don’t allocate time for checking stats or our rankings. We used to do this constantly – it’s hard not to when you are starting out – but we really don’t check stats much at all these days. We just get on with the more important things instead of wasting our time worrying about whether we are still ranking for specific keywords or whether our traffic has dropped or not.

我们也没有时间检查统计数据或我们的排名。 我们一般习惯于这样做 - 当你开始后你就很难不这样 - 就是我们真的不检查所有这些天的状态数据。 我们只是去做更重要的事情，而不是浪费时间在关键字是否得到排名，流量是否下降或。

What you focus on is what you are going to get in both your daily life and your working life.  So our advice is to stop for just a minute today and see where your primary focus is at least in relation to your online business. Ask yourself the following questions and be truly honest with your responses:

你所关注的是在您的日常生活和工作生活中会得到什么。 所以我们的建议是今天停下来一分钟，看看你首要关注的至少跟你的在线业务相关。 问自己以下的问题，真实地做出回应：

• Is your day relaxed or do you feel like you have too much on your plate and you don’t know what to do next?
• Do you feel like you have really accomplished something at the end of the day or do you find that you have spent most of your time reading and contributing to other people’s stuff – forums, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on?
• Are you focused on just one project or you do you constantly have multiple projects on the go?
• Are you focused on just one website or are you constantly building more and more websites?
• 你的一天很轻松，或者放宽或是感觉在你的盘子上放了太多的东西，或者你不知道下一步该怎么做？
• 你觉得在一天结束的时候真正完成了一些事情，还是你花费了大部分的时间阅读和为其他人的事情做贡献 - 比如论坛，facebook，Twitter，以及博客之类的？
• 你只是集中在一个项目上还是不断地同时做多个项目？
• 你集中在一个网站上，还是不断建立越来越多的网站？

And the final and most important question:

• Do you truly love what you do online or is it simply a means to make money?

并且最后问一个最重要的问题：

• 你真正喜欢你在网上所做的事情，还是它只是一个赚钱的手段？

You have to love what you are doing more than the money because if you don’t then you may as well forget it, you are never really going to make it and if you do it is going to be short lived. Sure, there are some parts of the process that you aren’t going to enjoy, like backlinking for instance….it’s not one of our most favorite things, but essentially we really love this business and we love it with a passion.

相对于钱来说，你必须更热爱你正在做的工作，因为如果你不是，你同样会忘掉它，从来不可能真正地全身心去做，即使做了你也会短命的。 当然，也有某些过程中的一些地方，你不会很愿意去做，比如外链，......这不是我们大多数人喜欢的事情，但本质上，我们真的很喜欢这项业务，而且充满激情。

If you enjoy what you do then the money will follow.

如果你喜欢你所做的，那么钱将随之而来。

UPDATE : Just because someone asked about the blue toy in our office we’ve added a video of what it does.

更新 ： 因为某人问到 我们的办公室 蓝 色玩具 ，我们增加了一个视频，讲解它是做什么的。

from:http://www.affiliateblogonline.com/

来自：http://www.affiliateblogonline.com/

失业书高达8.5%,1300万失业者

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation's jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder -- a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.

华盛顿消息 -- 上个月未就业人数猛增到8.5%，25年来最高的一次裁员663000多员工，导致失业人数高达1300万。预期还会更加糟糕，不久后将增长到10%。

Related Quotes

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CAH	32.46	-0.03
KLAC	23.10	+1.52
MMM	52.11	-0.02

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The current rate would be even higher -- 15.6 percent -- if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can't do any better. That's the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.

目前的失业率还将继续增高，可能达到15.6%，如果失业工人由于不能找到好的工作所以不再去寻找工作，或者只做些兼职，失业率的恐怕会超过1994年。

"Even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, businesses will cut jobs and trim fats to stay lean and mean," said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, Channel Islands.

California 洲际大学的商务学院的经济学家Sung Won Sohn说：“虽然国家经济显现出回升的迹象，就业率还是会急剧下降”。

So far, the public has shown great hopes for the economic policies of new President Barack Obama. But those could fade quickly with more months of layoffs. In Europe for an economic summit, Obama called Friday's unemployment report a "stark reminder" of a need for action at home and abroad.

一直以来，公众都在期盼着奥巴马心得经济政策，但是伴着失业率的增长逐渐失望，在欧洲经济大会上，奥巴马称周五的失业率报告预示了事情的严重性，需要国内外各界积极采取行动。

The recession may well end later this year -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private analysts see that possibility -- but rehiring historically doesn't get going until after an economic recovery is picking up steam. The jobless rate is expected to reach 10 percent by year's end.

联邦副主席Ben Bernanke和很多分析师认为目前的衰退可能年底变好，但是经济复苏重新就业率也不会升高，失业率年底可能达到10%。

The stock market generally bottoms out before a recovery gets under way, too, and stocks now have risen for four straight weeks.

股票市场也将跌倒谷底，现在股票连续四周上升。

The Dow Jones industrials rose 39.51 points on Friday after surging 216 points on Thursday and closed above 8,000 for the first time in nearly two months.

The Dow Jones继周二达到216点，周五上升了39.51点。在最近的两个月第一次超过8000点收盘

Small comfort to millions of laid-off workers. The Labor Department report underscored the recession's toll: a spike in the jobless rate from February's 8.1 percent and a net loss of 5.1 million jobs since December 2007, almost two-thirds of them in just the past five months. And economists say an additional 2.4 million jobs will disappear through the first quarter of next year.

As the downturn eats into companies' sales and profits, they are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving survival measures that also hit employees, the report showed. Those include holding down hours and freezing or cutting pay.

"It's an ugly report, and April is going to be equally as bad," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I couldn't see any rays of sunshine. Nothing."

The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a record low. And nearly a quarter of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, the highest proportion since the steep 1981-82 recession.

Margaret Barnett, 55, of Villa Rica, Ga., knows about that. She has been looking for work since she was laid off from a plastics distributor when the recession began in December 2007. She checks job listings every day at an employment agency and thumbs through the classified section of the local newspaper. But no luck.

"It's more people advertising that they need work than people hiring," Barnett said.

And hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans soon will exhaust their unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Congress extended benefits twice last year to a total of 46 to 59 weeks.

Many who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs are seeing their paychecks shrink.

Average weekly earnings declined to $614.20 in March from $615.05 in February. If earnings keep falling, that would give consumers another reason to pull back spending, which would further weaken the economy.

But there have been some positive economic signs recently. Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there were better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales.

And last week a report showed that consumer spending -- an engine of the economy -- rose in February for the second month in a row -- after a half-year of declines.

Still, there was plenty of bad news in the details of the new report. For example, January's job losses were revised much higher, to 741,000 from 655,000, making them the worst in a single month since 1949.

In March, the number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million. The number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. Those are people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or who were unable to find full-time work.

Most economists expect monthly job losses to continue for most if not all of this year.

However, they are expecting that reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 685,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period.

Job losses were widespread last month. Construction companies cut 126,000. Factories axed 161,000. Retailers cut nearly 50,000. Professional and business services eliminated 133,000. Leisure and hospitality cut 40,000. Even the government cut jobs -- 5,000 of them.

Education and health care were among the few industries showing any job gains.

There was more bad news for workers in service industries -- hotels, retail, health care and such. An index of services activity shrank for a sixth straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives.

Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for recovery, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.

The Fed chief said Friday he expects to see a "gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth." But he didn't say when.

To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.

And the Obama administration has launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.

Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week.

3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it was cutting 1,200 more jobs. Health care products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions. Semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it would cut about 600. And Caterpillar said it was speeding up layoffs -- cutting more than 1,000 jobs at an Illinois plant two weeks ahead of schedule.

"The philosophy seems to be cut massively now and ask questions about whether too much has been done later," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

       坚持，两天一篇博客，我基本上是有空就翻译。

       主要翻译一些经济新闻类的文章。

By Howard Chua-Eoan

Dark clouds had been gathering over the economy for most of the year, but by Saturday September 13, a storm seemed to break. Suddenly, we learned that Lehman Brothers, one of the pillars of American investment banking, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Its survival depended on being bought by Bank of America, but BA bought Merrill Lynch instead, and Lehman went pffft. Simultaneously, insurance giant AIG announced it was in so much trouble (over underwriting the bad decisions of big banks) that it needed to be bailed out. And suddenly years of stupidly easy mortgages came back and broke the banks that issued them. Now, the dole queue was forming and first in line for the bailout were those we assumed knew all about making money. The bad times had begun, and you could feel them in the value of your home, your 401k, your job, the endowment at your kids' schools, your credit cards — and, of course, in the auto industry, in construction, in retail and all over the economy. Saturday September 13 marked the beginning of a deluge of depressing news to put a damper on the Holidays.

一整年，经济上的黑云都在密集，但是直到9月13号，风暴才来临。突然，我们了解到，作为美国投资银行的标志，兄弟银行快要破产了。它被美国银行购买，得以存活，但是美国最终决定买了Merrill Lynch，而Lehman只能玩完。同时，保险业巨人AIG宣布，它陷入了巨大的麻烦，需要保证金。并且，突然多年的次信贷来了打乱了银行并困扰了他们。现在，领养救济金的长队已经形成，并且排在前面的是那些我们都知道的造钱的家伙。灾难时刻来了，并且你在家里也能感觉到他，你的工作，你孩子学校的捐助，你的信用卡，并且，当然还有，在自动工业里，在建筑业里，在零售业和整个经济中。913制造了整个开端，从此周末头条都成了坏消息。

Less than two weeks ago, on election night, John McCain pledged to do "all in my power to help [Barack Obama] lead us through the many challenges we face." On Monday, McCain travels to Chicago to discuss ways he can fulfill that promise in a private meeting with the President-elect.
不到两周前，在选举之夜，John McCain起誓道：“我将用我所有的力量来帮助Obama来领美国 ，尽管我们面临很多挑战。”在周一，McCain前往Chicago去讨论怎样来履行他在与被选总统的私人的会议上的承诺。

There were some who doubted the sincerity of McCain's pledge, coming so soon after the end of a campaign that featured a series of personal attacks on Obama. But it pays to remember that the self-styled maverick was never very comfortable as the standard bearer of a party that he had opposed so many times on so many issues. And the party long felt the same way. (See pictures of Obama's family tree.)
有一些人怀疑McCain的誓言的真实性，这很快就来了，在竞选之后，Obama面临了一系列的人身攻击。但是这个很重要：作为政党的标准继承者，他那自我的风格从来都没有舒服过，所以，他在许多场合都反对过很多次。而且这个政党也很多时间报以相同的感觉。

Last Friday brought notice that the relationship between the two would soon be returning to form when South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint became the first high-profile Republican to lay the blame for his loss on McCain himself. "We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around," DeMint told a GOP gathering in Myrtle Beach. "But I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain." DeMint then offered a list of McCain's anti-conservative apostasies, including his support for campaign finance reform, immigration reform and legislation aimed at combating global warming.
上周五，有一个消息说：他俩的关系将很快公之于众，当Sounth Carolina Sen.Jim Demin成为第一个高级共和党的高职，把责备都留在McCain他自己。“我们必须真诚，有许多来自己各个方面的批评，”DeMint在Myrtle Beach的一个集会上讲。“但是我必须提醒Bush，我也必须提醒Ted Stevens，别外我也恐怕也必须提醒John McCain。”之后DeMint提供了一个列表：McCain的反对保守党的的资料，包括他对财政改革的演讲，移民改革和立法的目标在于保护全球变暖。

The items on DeMint's list of lament read like talking points to jump start Monday afternoon's conversation in Chicago between McCain and Obama. According to an Obama aide, the president-elect views McCain as a potential ally on the kind of reform issues where the two men share broad agreement. "There are areas of general agreement and beliefs — on immigration, earmark reform, energy, climate change, government reform, spending reform," says the aide. "Where there's agreement on both sides, they want to figure out ways they can work together."
DeMint的列表上的条目读起来像是取自周一下午的McCain和Obama谈话，根据Obama的一个助手，总统选举把McCain当作一个政治同盟，在各种改革言论上，当这个两个人公布言论。“有各种各样的一般性的协议和信仰，在移民，身份改革，能源，气候变迁，政府改革，经费改革方面”，这个助手说。“当双方达到协议 ，他们想计算出他们在一起的工作方式。”

Sources close to McCain say their man wants to leave the campaign behind and return to the role he forged for himself on Capitol Hill as the leading reformer and bi-partisan legislator in the Senate. "John isn't one to wallow in defeat, at least not publicly," says a Republican consultant who knows McCain well. "He lost. It's over. Work is all he really knows, and getting back to work will help him move past losing. And the patriot in him is telling him to help this new president out."
最后的消息来自己MCain，说他们的人想把集会放在最后，并发挥他伪造的角色为他自己，在Capitol Hill,作为一个领导重建者和党人立法者在立法部。“John不是一个在挫折中打滚的人，至少不在公众面前，”一个共和国顾问说，他知道McCain Well。“他失败了，他完了。他所真正了解的工作，重新回到工作将有助于他离开过去的人失败。而且爱国人士告诉他去帮助这个新总统出局“。

Evidence of both sides' sincerity can be found by looking at who were the middle men involved in setting up the meeting. When McCain called Obama to concede defeat the night of Nov. 4, the two men talked about getting together. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina's other senator and the person Cindy McCain calls her husband's "best friend," followed up on that call in a conversation with Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice to be his White House chief of staff. Then Obama spoke directly with Graham, and out of that came the decision to hold the meeting soon. (See pictures of Obama's campaign.)
关于双方真诚的证据能找到，通过查看谁是建立这个会议的中间人。当McCain打给Obama，承认在10月4号那天晚上受挫，这两个人在一起谈了很多。Lindsey Graham,South Carolina的其它的参议员和Cindy McCain本人打给他的丈夫的最好的朋友，在那个电话之后的方谈话中，Obama选择成为白宫的主人。然后Obama直接和Graham谈，之后决定也就定下来了。

By meeting with McCain so shortly after the election, Obama is demonstrating both magnanimity and self-confidence. But his move is also based on self-interest. Obama is keenly aware of the fact that, despite increased Democratic majorities in both the Senate and the House, he cannot enact the kind of sweeping legislative overhaul he envisions without the help of Republicans. Energy reform, climate control legislation, health care reform — all are too big to be passed by partisan majorities, especially if Obama wants to retain his post-partisan, president-of-all-the-people mantle.
通过选举之后这个简短的会面，Obama表现出来大度和自信。但是他的离开也是基于自我爱好。Obama敏锐地注意到，尽管在参议院和白宫的民主选举都过了半数，他依然不能藐视立法，没有共和党的帮助。能源改革，气候控制立法，卫生改革，都太大了而少不了共和党的参与，尤其是当Obama想保留他过去的党人，保护他所有的以前的关系。

"The question becomes, is it the McCain running for president that we're getting, or the McCain free from the shackles of running for president. We think it's the latter," says a Democratic official. "McCain becomes a power center. The fact is, we don't have 60 votes [in the Senate]. Barack is of a reform mind, and so is McCain. And you can cut through a lot of the crap if they work together."
当下的问题是，McCain正在为总统作最后的努力，还是McCain摆脱了脚镣跑向总统。我们认为应该是后者，“一个民主党职员说。”McCain成为一个权力中心，事实是，我们没有那60张选票。Barack是个改革派，McCain也是。如果他们一起工作，他们能够一起努力，能过许多许多的机会“。

The “Strategic Economic Dialogue” fails to produce much strategy or dialogue
"战略经济对话“并不能够产生多少战略和对话

WHEN Hank Paulson left Goldman Sachs to become America's treasury secretary last year, one of the few perks of the job was the chance to put his impressive links with China to good use in the service of his country. He had, after all, visited China at least 70 times.
去年当Hank Paulson离开Goldman Sachs成为美国财政部的秘书长，能提起人胃口的工作就是有机会在为国家服务的良好作用下把他和中国鲜明地联系起来。他已经，总共，至少访问中国70次。

Diplomacy on behalf of a bulge-bracket investment bank has proved to be far easier than dealmaking between Washington, DC, and Beijing, however. That, at least, is the conclusion from the third round of the cabinet-level Strategic Economic Dialogue between December 12th and 13th.
然而，代理一家有野心的投资银行被证明比处理美国和中国的交易要容易得多。那至少是在12日到13日召开的第三轮部长级经济战略对话所得到的结论。
With China's massive trade surplus emerging as populist fodder for presidential candidates in America, and just one more round of the talks—in the midst of the presidential campaign—scheduled before a change of administrations, the discussions needed to show some substance. They produced precious little.
当与中国的贸易过剩已经成为美国总统竞选的最流行的话题，而关于这个话题更多的是－总统竞选的核心－事先说好在得到管理员的机会之前，辩论需要展示出一些更加实质性的东西。但是，他们做到的很少。

The meetings have always been an odd balance between the need to show immediate trade concessions, “deliverables” to use the Treasury phrase, and what both sides would say were the more important goals—progress towards stronger economic ties. Perhaps this was too ambitious a goal; perhaps the differences between China and America are too large; or perhaps Mr Paulson is weaker when separated from the intense brain trust that worked for him at Goldman. Whatever the case, the treasury secretary has struggled.
这个会议总是达到这种奇怪的平衡，在有金子般的言论来表达，展示即时交易许可的需求，和对双方而言都是最重要的目标－达到更好的经济联系。也许这是一个远大的目标；也许中国和美国之间的差异太大；或者也许是Paulson先生从他那在高曼为自己工作的紧张大脑中分出来就不行了。不管怎样，财政部秘书陷入了困境。

From the beginning, the talks have tripped up over China's efforts to restrain the yuan's rise against the dollar. Mr Paulson raised the issue again this week. Far from offering a sympathetic response, Chen Deming, China's incoming commerce minister, cited the weakness of the dollar as a bigger threat than the yuan is to the world economy.
从一开始，会谈便陷入在中国抑制人民币对美元的增值上。这星期，Paulson先生提出了他的言论。远不另人满意的做出这样的回应，陈德铭，中国商务部总长，列举了美元的贬值将是一个更严重的危机，相比于人民币之于世界经济。

The proclaimed progress whiffed of empty symbolism. On the eve of the discussions, Mr Paulson attended the opening of a New York Stock Exchange office in Beijing, something China permitted a year ago when its boom in initial public offerings was just beginning. Now, with share prices surging in Shanghai and China's regulators pressing domestic companies to list at home, opportunities for an American exchange are less clear-cut. Elsewhere, Chinese officials were not in a particularly conciliatory mood. They railed at America for taking a dispute over intellectual property to the World Trade Organisation. Reflecting their displeasure, it emerged during the talks that China would suspend the import of American movies—the 20, that is, that are not already banned.
宣布的进展也仅仅是空洞的象征意义。在会议开始之前，Paulson先生参加了北京的纽约基金交易发布会，中国一年前许可的，在吸纳公共资金方面的发展正在开始。现在，因为上海的股市动荡，中国调控强制国内公司在国内上市，这样美国贸易的机会也不容乐观。在别的地方，中国政府也不是特别的顺心。他们拦在美国人面前要为在进入WTO的知识产权而争辩。不过令他们失望的是，在会谈中中国应该停止引入美国电影－出现了20次，这本应该被禁止的。

There was one bright spot. Michael Leavitt, America's health secretary, unveiled a plan to allow both countries to make surprise safety inspections of each other's factories producing food, medical devices and drugs. Although this may take years to organise, it would be more efficient than border checks and should improve safety standards. Perhaps it helped that in forging a deal to reduce risk, Mr Leavitt's own background in financial services was in insurance, not investment banking.
还有一个明显的污点。Michael Leavitt,美国的卫生部秘书揭露了一份计划允许两国双方都去做各自生产食品，制药设备和药品的公司的安全调查。当然这件事可能需要几年去运作，但这个比边界检查要有效，并且可以提高安全标准。这个可能有助于建立事务来减少危机，因为Michael Leavitt先生在经济服务中的本职工作是保险，而不是投资银行。

A small European force runs into big problems in central Africa
欧洲的一个小部队在中非遭遇了大麻烦

THE idea of sending several thousand European Union (EU) soldiers and a bunch of UN policemen to protect 400,000 displaced civilians and Sudanese refugees from Darfur who have been sheltering in eastern Chad seems well-intentioned, as does sending a handful more to the remote north of the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR). Here, too, civilians are being terrorised by local rebels and by some from neighbouring countries who use swathes of the CAR's lawless terrain for rest, transit and launching attacks.

把数千的欧盟士兵和一队欧盟警察派去保护从Darfur来的的流浪者和苏丹难民，他们现在Chad东部安顿。这个主意听起来还是不错的，而且把意思已经多次表示给了偏北的邻居中非共和国（CAR）。
这里也一样，难民们被当地叛军袭击，同样的一些来自邻国的一些结织，他们利用CAR的一些偏远地带的便利进行休整，运输和发动攻击。
But a proposed EU-led mission is fraught with complications. It was supposed to be up and running by the end of the year but is far behind schedule. The latest hitch is a lack of helicopters, essential for ferrying 3,700 soldiers and 300 UN police around 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 square miles) of Africa's harshest terrain. Some diplomats think the deployment will be postponed until next May.
但是由欧盟领导人提议的使命是充满纠纷的。他传闻会被启动并在今年年底结束，但是远远落后于日程表。最近他们绊在了缺少直升机上，尤其是在非洲的边远地区200，000平方公里的范围里运送3，700名士兵和300名欧盟警察。一些外交家认为将会推迟到明年五月才展开部署。

Even if the force gets there, it is not clear how it will operate. In UN-speak, it will have a “multi-dimensional presence”. The soldiers and police are meant to stop Darfur's violence spreading west by sealing the border. They must also protect the civilians who have fled and the aid workers looking after them in Chad. How they will do this is fuzzy. The mission's UN Chapter 7 mandate could theoretically let it go on the offensive to stop attacks. Or it could simply monitor the situation.
即使部队到达了那里，也不清楚如何开展行动。欧盟发言人表示，这将是一个多方位的展示。士兵和警察意味着要关闭边境来停止Darfur地区的暴力扩散到西边。他们也必须保护那些流浪的难民，有援助者在Chad照看他们。他们如何来做是不明确的。任务的七章命令理论上可以使叛乱者停止袭击。或者他们只是简单地监控局势。
Given the force's limitations, the latter is likelier. A report issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reckons the EU would need over 10,000 men and a lot of air power. Instead, the force will hope its mere presence will be a deterrent.
由于力量的限制，后者更有可能。 美国麻省技术研究所的报告指出欧盟需要10，000名士兵和更多的空中力量。相反，部队更希望他们可能的表现只是制止一下而已。

Due to be led by an Irishman, the bulk of its soldiers will be French, plus some Austrians, Dutchmen, Poles and Swedes. But herein lies another problem. France can provide these troops as it already has a base in Chad, a former colony. It is already embroiled in existing conflicts in both Chad and the CAR, another former possession. So the humanitarian intent and neutrality of the EU force is being queried.
由于领导者是一个爱尔兰人，其余的组成将是法国人，普鲁士人，加上一些澳洲人，荷兰人，波兰人和瑞典人。但是这儿出现了另一个问题。法国人能够提供这些军队因为他们在Chad已经有了一个基地，一个早期的殖民地。在Chad和CAR中它都被叛卷进了现在的纠纷中，CAR是他的另一个早期的财产。所以人道主义的意图和欧盟军队的中立受到了质疑。

France has, for instance, been using special forces to fight rebels in the CAR's north-east. The proposed EU force in that country will, in fact, consist of these same 200-odd soldiers merely swapping berets. In Chad, France gives logistical and intelligence help to a disliked president, Idriss Déby, in his battle against rebels in his country's east; some, in turn, have declared war on France and have warned the EU that its force will be treated as the enemy because of France's participation in it.
法国人马上派遣专门的力量平定叛军，在CAR的东北部。提案中的欧盟力量在那个国家的意愿，理实上是由相同的200多名士兵组成，仅仅是交换了一下贝雷帽。在Chad，法国对一个不受欢迎的总统提供了后勤和情报上的支持，Idriss Déby，在他的国家东边与叛军的战斗中；其中一些，反过来对法国宣战，并警告欧盟，他们的军队会被视为敌人，因为有法国人的参与。

The CAR's government, on the other hand, is keen for anyone to come and help control the country's lawless north. Villagers, businessmen trying to ply their trade and even the rebels operating there say that they, too, want stability. But those who have fled the region's violence are sceptical about what the soldiers will really be able to do. “I hear things on the radio about this force but let's see what happens,” says Mamadou Yusuf, an elderly Sudanese refugee from Darfur who fled to a camp in the north-east of the CAR. “For now we are staying here.”
另一方面，CAR的政府渴望有人来帮助控制国家北部的失控地区。村民，商人尽力去多做他们的交易，甚至在那里活动的叛军说，他们也想要安定。但是那些已经逃离该地区的武装让人怀疑这些士兵到底能做什么。“我在收音机里听说了他们这些军队的一些事情，让我们看看接下来会发生什么？”，Mamadou Yusuf，一个年长的来自Darfur的苏丹难民这样说，他逃到了CAR东北部的一个宿营地。“现在，我们就待在这里."

2007年来自工人的汇款，被寄到他们的家里，将达到3180亿元 ，从2002年的1700亿美元。这些钱的大部分用来发展国家，今年这将达到2400亿美元，是国外援助的两倍以上。有三个国家占了大多数，分别是印度，中国和墨西哥，他们加起来占了发展中国家近三分之一的汇款。但是，墨西哥一直受美国经济增速放缓的影响，他以前的调整增长今年已经变得缓慢。最大的受援区是拉丁美洲和加勒比地区，但是从2002年起到欧洲和中亚的旅行者是最多的。

A bitter old row shows no sign of fading

苦难的双方没有迹象表明让步

“SHOULD Eritrea launch another war, we will make certain it will never ever dream of entertaining or thinking about war again.” So said Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, in a recent speech to Parliament. His country did not seek war, he stressed. But if Eritrea launched a “suicidal” attack, it would be driven into the sea.

如果Eritrea发动另一场战争， 那么我们将确认他们再也不会梦想着有趣的事或者想像一下战争。埃塞俄比亚的总理梅莱斯 泽纳维，在最近的一次议会上这样说。他的国家没有要求战争，他强调。但是如果Eritrea如果发动一场“自我毁灭”的战争，他们会被赶入大海。

Eritrea has heard it before. Ethiopia tried to drive it into the sea at Massawa between 1998 and 2000, and failed. Instead, 70,000 on both sides died in trench warfare; a stalemate led to a truce. This time Mr Zenawi's belligerence comes as the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission wound up business this month, with no agreed demarcation. In 2002 it awarded the disputed village of Badme to Eritrea. Ethiopia rejected the verdict, and has since used diplomatic verbiage to obfuscate and stall.

Eritrea早就听他这么说了。Ethiopia试图把他赶到大海中在1998到2000年期间，但是没有得逞。 相反，双方7万人都死在了战壕里，僵持不下导致了停战。因为这个月Eritrea-Ethiopia双方会谈会结束交易，这时候泽纳维先生的好战性来了，没有同意划界。在2002年，他得到了有争议的Eritrea 巴德梅村。Ethiopia拒绝接受判决，并通过外交冗节来模糊和拖延它。

Eritrea naturally took the commission at its word but under its authoritarian president, Issaias Afwerki, has alienated just about every sympathiser. As his rule has become harsher and more erratic, the border issue has loomed larger in Eritrea's national psyche. Mr Afwerki may disgust his compatriots by torturing and imprisoning his critics. But he knows Eritreans will back him over Badme.
Erithrea很自然地会意他的话，在独裁总统Issaias Afwerki的统治下，已经差不多疏离了他所有的支持者。由于他的统治，国家已经变得更加严厉和混乱，而且在边界问题上已经折射出了Eritrea国家的民族心理。Afwerki总统拷打和监禁他的反对者已经使的国人生厌。但是他知道通过巴德梅人民会回到他的身边。

The border is more militarised than ever. According to the International Crisis Group, a think-tank, Eritrea has 4,000 troops inside a supposedly demilitarised buffer zone and a further 120,000 dug in along its side of the craggy border that is 1,000km (621 miles) long. On its side, Ethiopia has 100,000 troops.
边境的军事冲突比以前更加严重。 根据国际危机小组的一个智囊团指出，Eritrea拥有4000军队在拟定的非军事缓冲地带，并且想得到更多的120，000土地而不是他原来边界的1000公里（621英里）长。在这种情况下，Ethiopia拥有了10万军队。
A UN monitoring force is meant to pack up next month but may stay on. The tension gives both countries an excuse to spend more on guns and spies, some to be turned on domestic enemies. Neither country can afford such things. Ethiopia, at least 75m-strong, is bogged down in Somalia and fighting separatists in the Ogaden desert; Mr Zenawi says he is putting Ethiopia's defence budget up by 17% to $390m. Eritrea, with only 5m people, simply cannot keep up.

联合国监测力量本来已经收拾行李了，但下月可能继续留任。军事紧张使这两个国家找借口花费更多来增加武力和间谍，有些已经流入国人反对者的手中。没有哪个国家能够承担起这样的事情。Ethiopia至少750万美元的预算扔进了欧加登沙漠的索马里在和分裂分子的战斗中，泽纳维说，他要把Ethiopia的国防预算增加17％，到39亿。Eritrea根本没有办法与之跟进，他只有500万人口。

A less crunched corner of Europe

那么至少在欧洲的一个角落

HAPPY bank shareholders are a rare breed in Europe this year, but the industry can still point to some pockets of contentment. Greek banks have outperformed their euro zone brethren, notching up impressive gains in revenue, profit and share prices. Reporting quarterly results, a painful experience elsewhere, has by and large been a pleasant task. National Bank of Greece (NBG) boasted a 66% year-on-year increase in net profit for the first nine months of the year; Eurobank EFG saw earnings grow by 29% in the same period.
这一年在欧洲，快乐的银行股东，是很难得的，但行业仍然指向了一些让人知足的口袋。希腊银行已超越其欧元区兄弟，在收入，利润和股票价格上得到了从容可观的收益。报告季度业绩在其他地方是一个痛苦的经历，这里已经改变并是一个愉快的任务。希腊的国家银行（ NBG）报下了较前一年增加66 ％的纯利，只是今年的头九个月; 而在同一时期欧洲银行的EFG收入只增长29 ％ 。

Immaturity, in various forms, explains their success. Greek banks have little direct exposure to the subprime-related instruments that have tripped up sophisticates in other markets. The domestic market, although decelerating, still has plenty of scope for growth, thanks to generally benign economic prospects and comparatively shallow levels of private credit, which is expanding by about 20% annually. “Greece is somewhere in between a mature and an emerging market,” says Nicholas Nanopoulos, Eurobank's boss.
通过各种形式说明他们的成功，是不成熟。希腊银行已很少直接暴露给次信贷相关的状况下，它已经在其他地区的市场跌得久经世故了。国内市场，虽然是减速的，仍然有不少增长空间，多亏普遍不错的经济前景和比较低水平的私人信贷，其扩大了约20 ％ 。 "希腊是在成熟和新兴的两个市场之间" ，eurobank的主管，尼古拉nanopoulos说 。

The countries that fringe Greece are more dynamic still: Bulgaria and Romania are expected to post loan growth of 50% this year, for example. Greek banks have not only built up sizeable retail operations in nearby Balkan markets, but are also busily planting flags in further-flung bigger markets such as Turkey and Ukraine. Both NBG and Eurobank have more branches in south-eastern Europe than in Greece itself. Finansbank, NBG's Turkish franchise, will account for around 30% of NBG's earnings this year alone. Eurobank expects to derive more than a third of its profits from its regional activities in 2010, up from an expected 7% this year.
国家促使希腊更有活力：保加利亚和罗马尼亚预计邮政贷款将增长50 ％ ，以今年为例。希腊银行不仅在附近的巴尔干市场建立了庞大的业务网点，但也正忙着在进一步广泛分布的较大规模的市场上插旗，如土耳其和乌克兰。nbg和eurobank双方在东南欧洲都有比在希腊本身更多分行。finansbank ，nbg的土耳其特权，将占到仅今年一年30 ％左右的nbg 收入。eurobank预计在它的区域活动将获得超过三分之一的利润，而不是原来在2010年预期的7 ％。

    The credit crunch is not passing by without a trace, however. A drawn-out seizure in the credit markets would harm the banks' growth prospects: although overall loan-to-deposit ratios for Greek banks are relatively low, their dependence on wholesale funding has increased over the past couple of years. The effects of a global economic slowdown would ripple into south-eastern Europe. Economics aside, political risk still clouds the outlook in the Balkans and beyond.
    信贷紧缩不会毫无原由地发生了。在信贷市场很高的扣押将不利于银行的增长前景：虽然整体贷存比率在希腊银行中是比较低的，它们在过去数年对大量资金依赖增加了。全球经济增长放缓的影响将波及到东南欧洲。在巴尔干，经济学之外，政治风险仍然阴云密布。
    But there is no shortage of optimism. The bigger banks' extensive retail networks provide a useful hedge against liquidity problems in capital markets. Capital ratios at Greek banks are high, enabling further acquisitions in the surrounding region: Piraeus Bank submitted an offer to buy Kreditprom, a Ukrainian bank, last month. And yet, once the dust settles, Greek banks are themselves likely to become targets for predators: there are few other ways to gain a substantial presence in Europe's most promising markets.
    但是有一点我们并不缺乏乐观。大的银行的广泛的业务网络对冲流通问题可以提供一种有用的隔离作用，在资本市场。在希腊银行的资本比率高，有利于在周边地区的进一步收购：在上个月，比雷埃夫斯银行提交了一份报告，打算购买乌克兰的一家银行：kreditprom 。然而，一旦尘埃落定，希腊银行本身也可能成为大鳄的目标：在欧洲最有前途的市场，没有几个其他方式来获取大量存在。