四年前，一位女銷售員不期而至，來到發(fā)型師劉宰一工作的發(fā)廊，要他申請一張信用卡，當(dāng)時(shí)三十歲的劉宰一立刻申請了該信用卡，而對方根本沒有檢查他的信用記錄和收入狀況。從那一天起，劉宰一的債務(wù)問題就開始了。當(dāng)他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己沒有能力還貸后，他又申請了另外一張信用卡，以此把第一張信用卡上的帳還清了。隨著他的借款數(shù)量扶搖直上，為了填補(bǔ)虧空，他用信用卡借款買股票，作最后一搏。不幸的是，這次炒股失敗了，現(xiàn)在，劉先生欠下6家信用卡公司累計(jì)達(dá)5000萬韓元(合42,600美元)的債務(wù)。

Yoo Jae-il's debt problems started four years ago, when a saleswoman walked uninvitedsintosthe hair salonswhereshe worked as a stylist and offered him a credit card. The 30 year-old signed up on the spot without any checks being made on his credit history or earnings. When he found himself unable to repay his bill, he secured a second card to clear the debts on his first. As his borrowings spiralled, he used his credit cards to buy stocks in a desperate bid to recoup his losses. But the investments failed and today Mr Yoo owes Won50m (,600) to six different card companies.

　　“信用卡公司開始天天打電話催款，”他說。“他們甚至要我姐姐給我還債。我很郁悶，每天晚上都想去自殺。”　

"The credit card companies started calling me every day," he says. "They even tried to make my sister pay my debts. I became depressed and considered suicide every night."

　　劉先生只不過是幾百萬有同樣遭遇的韓國人中的一個(gè)。多年來，由于肆意放貸，韓國銀行和信用卡公司的壞帳堆積成山，近幾個(gè)月來，這些銀行和信用卡公司來了個(gè)緊急剎車，遭此突變的幾百萬韓國人頓時(shí)無法承受。

Mr Yoo is one of millions of South Koreans that have been overwhelmed by debt in recent months as years of reckless lending by the country's banks and credit card companies ground to a halt beneath a mountain of bad loans.

　　9月末，350萬韓國人未能按期還款，他們占韓國工作人口的16%。另外，信用卡欠款一個(gè)月以上的約有10%，而美國僅為4%。

At the end of September, 3.5m South Koreans - 16 per cent of the working population - were classified as debt defaulters and about 10 per cent of the country's credit card debt was overdue by at least one month, compared to 4 per cent in the US.

　　韓國信貸的混亂局面應(yīng)該追溯到1997年亞洲金融危機(jī)剛結(jié)束的時(shí)候。當(dāng)時(shí)政府鼓勵消費(fèi)者貸款，以此刺激經(jīng)濟(jì)，給危機(jī)重重的制造業(yè)提供發(fā)展機(jī)會。過去很多年，政府總是鼓勵人民節(jié)衣縮食，省下錢來支持國家的工業(yè)化建設(shè)。突然間，政府又說借錢和消費(fèi)是愛國之舉。

South Korea's credit binge started after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when the government encouraged consumer borrowing to reflate the economy and provide an alternative source of growth to the troubled manufacturing sector. After years of being urged to save money to fund the country's industrialisation, South Koreans were suddenly told it was their patriotic duty to borrow and spend.

　　韓國儲蓄率過去在全世界名列前茅，1995年的儲蓄率為35.5%, 但是，今年預(yù)計(jì)會降至27.3%。與此同時(shí)，家庭債務(wù)與國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)的比率自1998年來翻了一番，達(dá)80%，與美國水平相當(dāng)。

The country's savings rate, once among the highest in the world, has fallen from 35.5 per cent in 1995 to a forecast 27.3 per cent this year, while the ratio of household debt to gross domestic product has doubled since 1998 to nearly 80 per cent, similar to the US level.

　　但是，韓國人在商業(yè)貸款方面經(jīng)驗(yàn)不足，突然要他們?nèi)ッ鎸δ軌蜉p易獲得的低息貸款，他們一時(shí)間無所適從。與信用卡相關(guān)的自殺屢屢發(fā)生。一位34歲的母親因財(cái)務(wù)危機(jī)陷入絕望，帶著自己和三個(gè)年幼的孩子從高高的公寓樓上跳下來，結(jié)束了自己和孩子們的生命。

However, with little experience of commercial borrowing, South Koreans struggled to handle the sudden availability of cheap credit. In one of a series of debt-related suicides, a 34 year-old mother threw herself and her three young children out of a high-rise apartment block to their deaths in July, because of despair about their financial plight.

　　文化因素使得債務(wù)的社會影響更為惡化。比如說，韓國人講義氣，親戚朋友若遇到債務(wù)問題，他們總覺得自己有責(zé)任伸出援手。另外，韓國人把破產(chǎn)當(dāng)成奇恥大辱。今年4月，一位61歲的老人因女兒的負(fù)債問題而服毒自盡。“我女兒沒有工作，真不知道信用卡公司為什么要給她這么多信用卡，”他在寫給韓國總統(tǒng)盧武鉉的遺言中說。

The social impact of debt has been worsened by cultural factors, such as the obligation that Koreans feel for the debts of their friends of relatives and the stigma attached to personal bankruptcy. In April, a 61 year-old man fatally poisoned himself because of his daughter's debts. "I don't understand why credit companies issued dozens of cards to [my daughter] even though she didn't have a job," he wrote in a suicide note to South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun.

　　韓國的教訓(xùn)為其它亞洲國家敲響了警鐘。該地區(qū)經(jīng)濟(jì)的增長點(diǎn)正從出口導(dǎo)向型經(jīng)濟(jì)向國內(nèi)信貸消費(fèi)轉(zhuǎn)變。

South Korea's experience serves as a warning to other Asian countries, at a time when the region's export-driven economies are turning to credit-financed domestic consumption as a fresh source of growth.

　　亞洲金融危機(jī)結(jié)束后的五年間，信用卡似乎是解決韓國經(jīng)濟(jì)困難的靈丹妙藥。韓國的很多銀行因公司壞帳而瀕臨破產(chǎn)，但隨著消費(fèi)者貸款的迅速上升，這些銀行又扭虧為盈。家庭消費(fèi)的增加也導(dǎo)致更大范圍的經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇。很多人對國內(nèi)消費(fèi)的增長大加贊揚(yáng)，說它扭轉(zhuǎn)了過于依賴出口的局面，他們說這是個(gè)良性轉(zhuǎn)變。

For the first five years after the Asian financial crisis, credit cards appeared to offer the answer to all South Korea's economic woes. Banks brought close to collapse by bad corporate loans were catapulted back to profit by the rapid growth in lending to consumers, while the resulting surge in household spending drove recovery in the wider economy. Increased domestic consumption was hailed as a healthy rebalancing of an economy that had become too heavily reliant on exports.

　　但是，我們逐漸看到，1997年金融危機(jī)前銀行在公司金融業(yè)務(wù)中所犯的錯(cuò)誤已經(jīng)在個(gè)人金融業(yè)務(wù)中重演了：它們不對客戶的信用程度進(jìn)行充分審查，就隨意放貸出去。信用卡和個(gè)人貸款的發(fā)放就如同發(fā)糖果一樣。貸款方個(gè)個(gè)在爭搶快速增長的消費(fèi)貸款市場。目前，韓國的成人平均每人擁有4.5張信用卡。

However, it slowly became clear that banks were repeating with households the mistakes they made in the corporate sector before the 1997 crisis: lending too freely without adequate checks on customers' credit-worthiness. Credit cards and personal loans were handed out like confetti as lenders rushed to grab share of the fast-growing consumer credit market. The average South Korean adult today possesses 4.5 credit cards.

　　信用市場泛濫無度的情形終于在去年暴露出來，政府開始干預(yù)，迫使借款人規(guī)范放貸程序。突然間，唾手可得的信用沒有了，大量現(xiàn)有的債務(wù)成了壞帳。現(xiàn)在，借款公司在想盡辦法收回透支貸款，但是很多逾期者根本不愿償還，因?yàn)樗麄兿嘈胖灰�長期撐下去，他們的債務(wù)就會被一筆勾銷。

As the excesses of the credit boom were exposed last year, the government stepped in to force lenders to tighten their procedures. Suddenly the flow of easy credit dried-up and large amounts of existing debt turned bad. Now, lenders are struggling to retrieve their advances but many defaulters are reluctant to pay because they believe their debts will be written off if they hold out long enough.

　　“不能只怪拖欠的人，信用卡公司也難辭其咎，”劉先生說。劉先生現(xiàn)在負(fù)責(zé)一個(gè)支援拖欠貸款者的網(wǎng)上團(tuán)體。“信用卡公司應(yīng)該多對用戶進(jìn)行審查，而且不要這么輕而易舉地提高信用額度。”　

"The credit card companies must share the blame with defaulters," says Mr Yoo, who operates an online supportsgroupsfor credit delinquents. "Card firms should have made more checks on users and not raised credit limits so easily."

　　譯者/柏林