On Thursday, I paid a visit to a small business in Buffalo, New York, a town that’s been hard hit in recent decades. I heard from folks about the struggles they’ve been facing for longer than they care to remember. And I talked with them about what my administration is doing to help our families, our small businesses, and our economy rebound from this recession.

上周四，我去纽约州的布法罗（Buffalo）市视察了一家小企业。在近十几年里，这座小城受到了经济危机的严重困扰。我从当地人们那里得知，他们都已经记不清奋争了多长时间了。我与他们谈论了政府正在做的工作：帮助家庭，小企业以及我们的经济从这次衰退中复苏。

Jumpstarting job creation in the private sector and fostering a climate that encourages businesses to hire again is vitally important – and I’ll continue working hard to make sure that happens. But my responsibility as President isn’t just to help our economy rebound from this recession – it’s to make sure an economic crisis like the one that helped trigger this recession never happens again.

推动私营部门创造就业以及培育鼓励企业招聘的大环境十分重要，而我也将继续努力确保这一切的实现。但我作为总统的职责并不仅限于帮助我们的经济从衰退中复苏，还有确保引发这次衰退的经济危机不会再一次发生。

That’s what Wall Street reform will help us do. In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of back and forth about the reform bill currently making its way through Congress. There’s been a lot of discussion about technical aspects of the bill, and a lot of heated – and frankly, sometimes misleading – rhetoric coming from opponents of reform.

华尔街改革将帮我们实现这一点。最近几周以来，关于这项改革法案，国会进行了反反复复的讨论。其中不乏法案技术细节的讨论，还有大量来自反对派的激烈而直白的，甚至是误导性的巧言令色。

All of this has helped obscure what reform would actually mean for you, the American people. So, I just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about why every American has a stake in Wall Street reform.

所有这些模糊了改革对于美国人民的意义。因此，我需要花些时间来说一说为什么华尔街改革与每个美国人休戚相关。

First and foremost, you have a stake in it if you’ve ever been treated unfairly by a credit card company, misled by pages and pages of fine print, or ended up paying fees and penalties you’d never heard of before. And you have a stake in it if you’ve ever tried to take out a home loan, a car loan, or a student loan, and been targeted by the predatory practices of unscrupulous lenders.

首先也是最重要的就是，如果你曾被信用卡公司不公对待，被一页又一页附则所误导，抑或是被收取一些从来没有听说过的费用和罚金，那么改革就与你休戚相关。如果你曾为了房贷，车贷抑或是助学贷款而奔波，却被肆无忌惮的放贷人敲了竹杠，那么改革就与你休戚相关。

The Wall Street reform bill in Congress represents the strongest consumer financial protections in history. You’ll be empowered with the clear and concise information you need to make the choices that are best for you. We’ll help stop predatory practices, and curb unscrupulous lenders, helping secure your family’s financial future.

国会正在讨论的华尔街改革法案代表了有史以来最强的消费者金融保护。你将有权获得清晰而简明的信息来做出对自己最有利的选择。我们将阻止这些敲竹杠的行为，约束肆无忌惮的放贷人，并帮助你们实现家庭未来财务状况的安全。

That’s why families have a stake in it. And our community banks also have a stake in reform. These are banks we count on to provide the capital that lets our small businesses hire and grow.

这就是为什么所有家庭与此休戚相关的原因。我们的社区银行也与此休戚相关。我们的小企业依赖这些银行为其提供资金来雇佣人员和实现增长。

The way the system is currently set up, these banks are at a disadvantage because while they are often playing by the rules, many of their less scrupulous competitors are not. So, what reform will do is help level the playing field by making sure all our lenders – not just community banks – are subject to tough oversight. That’s good news for our community banks, which is why we’ve received letters from some of these banks in support of reform.

在现有的系统里，这些银行由于经常被规则所玩弄而处于不利地位，而他们那些无所顾忌的竞争对手却不受规则约束。所以，改革需要做的就是创造一个公平的竞争平台，确保我们所有的借贷方，不仅仅是社区银行，都受到严格的监管。这对于社区银行来说是个好消息，也是我们收到一些这类银行来信支持这项改革的原因。

What’s true for our community banks is also true for small businessmen and women like the ones I met in Buffalo. These small businesses were some of the worst victims of the excessive risk-taking on Wall Street that led to this crisis. Their credit dried up. They had to let people go. Some even shut their doors altogether. And unless we put in place real safeguards, we could see it happen all over again.

改革对于社区银行有着现实的意义，对于像我在布法罗遇到的小企业主也有着现实的意义。这些小企业是华尔街过度冒险所引发的危机的最大的牺牲者。他们的信用干涸，不得不裁员节流，有些甚至不得不关门大吉。如果我们不能推出一些切实的保护措施，这些将再一次重演。

That’s why Wall Street reform is so important. With reform, we’ll make our financial system more transparent by bringing the kinds of complex, backroom deals that helped trigger this crisis into the light of day. We’ll prevent banks from taking on so much risk that they could collapse and threaten our whole economy. And we’ll give shareholders more of a say on pay to help change the perverse incentives that encouraged reckless risk-taking in the first place. Put simply, Wall Street reform will bring greater security to folks on Main Street.

这就是华尔街改革如此重要的原因。通过改革，我们将使我们的金融系统更加透明，将引发这场危机的各类复杂的密室交易带到阳光下。我们将阻止银行冒这么大的险来威胁甚至摧毁我们整个的经济。我们还将赋予股东在（高管）薪酬上更多发言权，这将为第一时间改变怂恿高管做出不顾后果冒险的反常激励手段带来帮助。简言之，华尔街改革将为美国中产阶级带来更强的（金融）安全性。

The stories I heard in Buffalo this week were a reminder that, despite the progress we’ve made, we need to keep working hard, so we can build on that progress and rebound from this recession in the short-term. But even as we do, we also need to lay a new foundation for growth and shared prosperity over the long-term.

这周在布法罗听到的情况一直提醒我，尽管我们取得了一些成绩，但我们需要继续努力工作，这样才能为衰退以来短期的进展和反弹建立基础。即便如此，我们依然需要为未来长远的增长和繁荣打下坚实的基础。

Next week, we have a chance to help lay a cornerstone in that foundation. The reform bill being debated in the Senate will not solve every problem in our financial system – no bill could. But what this strong bill will do is important, and I urge the Senate to pass it as soon as possible, so we can secure America’s economic future in the 21st century.

下周，我们将有机会为这个基础打下一枚基石。正在参议员讨论的改革法案不会解决我们金融系统的所有问题，任何单一法案都不能。但这项重量级的法案所能做的是很重要的，我力劝参议院尽快通过这项法案，这样我们就能为美国的经济前景在21世纪保驾护航。