Title:
One Group's Fight for Understandable Language
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Sometimes, financial news can be hard to understand.
A former official of Goldman Sachs investment bank
explained what his group did before the financial
crisis this way. He said: "Our desk began to
accumulate short positions, purchasing protection on
individual securities through credit default swaps,
largely from external C.D.O. managers who asked us
to bid for these positions." Josh Birnbaum was
involved in synthetic C.D.O.s. These are really
financial bets on whether some asset will gain or
lose value. They are at the heart of the
government's case against Goldman Sachs for
misleading investors. Senator Claire McCaskill
described synthetic C.D.O.s during a Senate
subcommittee hearing. She said: "Let me just explain
in very simple terms what synthetic C.D.O.s are.
They are instruments that are created so that people
can bet on them." The purpose of language is to
communicate information. But it can often hide
meaning. Have you ever agreed to the "terms of use"
for a service without reading it all? Annetta Cheek
heads the Center for Plain Language in Silver
Spring, Maryland. Her non-profit group has been
working for more understandable language in
government and business since two thousand four. She
offers one piece of advice for people who receive
long, unclear documents: "If you don't understand
something, don't sign it." This year, the Center for
Plain Language held its first contest for best and
worst language use. The best entry receives a
ClearMark award. Confusing language gets a
WonderMark award. One of the WonderMark entries was
from the communications company, Blackberry. Annetta
Cheek says the terms of use for a Blackberry are
impossible to understand. Miz Cheek says the health
care and finance industries are known for using
language that is hard to understand. Health care has
made progress. Several industries competed for this
year's ClearMark award. But the financial industry
remains a problem. Miz Cheek says, since the
nineteen nineties, the Securities and Exchange
Commission has tried to get financial companies to
give clearer product descriptions. This has helped
sales. She says government has to be involved in
requiring clear language because the marketplace has
not dealt with the problem.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
