在上次节目中，大家介绍了各国中央银行或储备银行的职能。它的一个主要功能是：lender of last resort - 最后贷款人。
最后贷款人这一职能意味着中央银行在其它商业银行遇见危机时要伸出救援之手。但中央银行是不是有能力成为各商业银行危难中坚强的后盾呢？澳洲广播电台金融节目主持人巴里克拉克对此谈了他的怎么看：
support for the safety of the banking1 system via a lender of last resort mechanism2 became the most important function of central banks in the early twentieth century. however, the capacity of central banks to support commercial banks in trouble and to prevent a loss of confidence in all deposit taking institutions should not be overestimated3.
巴里克拉克说，通过最后贷款人机制来维护银行系统的安全已在二十世纪初成为中央银行非常重要的功能。但，不应该过高估计中央银行救援陷于困境的商业银行的能力与预防大家丧失对所有受理存款机构的信心的能力。
目前大家再听一遍巴里克拉克的这段谈话。（略）
为何澳广金融节目主持人巴里克拉克说不可以过高估计各国中央银行对陷于危难中的商业银行进行救援的能力呢？伦敦经济学院的查尔斯古德哈特教授对此作了进一步的讲解。他在谈话中用了如此一些词语：
1 capital 资本2 information gatherer 信息采集人3 co-ordinator 协调人4 corral 把集合在一块5 rescue 救援
古德哈特教授说：
central banks have never actually had that much capital of their own, and they've never been able to finance any large scale rescue entirely4 on their own. instead they act as information gatherers and co-ordinators of the banking system and they encourage and corral the banks as a group to provide support and assistance to the bank in difficulty.
and that has actually been the case more or less throughout and the bank of england has acted as the co-ordinator and the central operator of a rescue system, rather than doing it all by itself.
more recently, the willingness of the banks to get together to bail5 out and support their colleagues has actually been diminishing with the more competitive system we now have. and effectively now the fund to bail out or to provide any large scale support system for the banks has to come from the taxpayer6.
下面大家分段听一遍古德哈特教授的谈话和中文翻译：（英文略）
中央银行自己事实上从来没那样多的资金，也从来没能力完全独立地资助任何大规模的救援行动。相反，它们是银行系统的信息采集者和协调人，鼓励并召集每个银行成为一个团体，为陷于困境的银行提供支持和援助。
事实上几乎一直都大致是这样的情况。英格兰银行就一直饰演着一个救援体系中的协调和中央运作的角色，而不是单独靠自己进行救援。
近来，各银行联合起来援助和支持同伴的愿望事实上已经减少，由于大家目前有了角逐更激烈的体制。事实上，目前为银行提供的救援或大规模支持系统所需的资金只能来自纳税人。
目前大家再听一遍古德哈特教授这段谈话的全文。（略）
二十世纪三十年代的大萧条使各国中央银行承担起新的责任。澳广金融节目主持人巴里克拉克对此作了介绍：
the global depression of the 1930s and the demands for economic controls during the second world war thrust new responsibilities upon central banks. new economic ideas, principally those of the english economist7 john maynard keynes, legitimated9 a more interventionist set of government policies to direct the economy in pursuit of full employment and price stability.
巴里克拉克的谈话中出现了如此一些英文词语：
1 global depression 全球经济萧条2 legitimate8 使合法化3 interventionist 干预主义者，干预主义的4 full employment 充分就业，全方位就业5 price stability 价格稳定
巴里克拉克说，一九三十年代的大萧条与第二次世界大战期间对经济进行控制的需要使中央银行背负上新的责任。新的经济观念，主如果英国经济学家凯恩斯的看法，使政府采行了一套更倾向于涉主义的政策来指导经济，以追求全方位就业和价格稳定。
