英文早读第224篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
Really extraordinary results were turned in by the portion of National Indemnity Company's insurance operation run by Phil Liesche. Aided by Roland Miller in Underwriting and Bill Lyons in Claims, this section of the business produced an underwriting profit of 8.4 million on about 82 million of earned premiums. Only a few companies in the entire industry produced a result comparable to this.
由菲尔·利舍负责运营的国民赔偿公司保险业务板块确实取得了非凡的成绩。在承保方面罗兰·米勒的协助以及理赔方面比尔·莱昂斯的支持下，这一业务板块凭借约8200万美元的已赚保费实现了840万美元的承保利润。在整个保险行业中，仅有寥寥几家公司能取得与之媲美的业绩。
You will notice that earned premiums in this segment were down somewhat from those of 1978. We hear a great many insurance managers talk about being willing to reduce volume in order to underwrite profitably, but we find that very few actually do so. Phil Liesche is an exception: if business makes sense, he writies it; if it doesn't, he rejects it. It is our policy not to lay off people because of the large fluctuations in work load produced by such voluntary volume changes. We would rather have some slack in the organization from time to time than keep everyone terribly busy writing business on which we are going to lose money. Jack Ringwalt, the founder of National Indemnity Company, instilled this underwriting discipline at the inception of the company, and Phil Liesche never has wavered in maintaining it. We believe such strong-mindedness is as rare as it is sound - and absolutely essential to the running of a first-class casualty insurance operation.
你会注意到，这一业务板块的已赚保费相比1978年有所下降。我们听到许多保险经理说他们愿意为了实现盈利性承保而削减业务量，但实际上我们发现真正这么做的人少之又少。菲尔·利舍却是个例外：如果业务有利可图，他就承保；如果无利可图，他就拒绝。我们的政策是，不会因为这种出于自愿的业务量变动所导致的工作量大幅波动而解雇员工。我们宁愿公司偶尔有些业务清闲的时候，也不愿让每个人都忙着去承接那些我们会亏损的业务。国民赔偿公司的创始人杰克·林沃尔特在公司创立之初就灌输了这种承保纪律，而菲尔·利舍始终坚定不移地维护着这一纪律。我们认为，这种坚定的态度既难能可贵又合情合理，而且对于经营一流的意外伤亡保险业务来说绝对是必不可少的。
John Seward continues to make solid progress at Home and Automobile Insurance Company, in large part by significantly expanding the marketing scope of that company in general liability lines. These lines can by dynamite, but the record to date is excellent and, in John McGowan and Paul Springman, we have two cautious liability managers extending our capabilities.
约翰·苏厄德在家庭与汽车保险公司继续取得稳健进展，这在很大程度上得益于他显著扩大了该公司在一般责任险业务方面的营销范围。这些责任险业务可能极具风险，但到目前为止的业绩十分出色。而且，有约翰·麦高恩和保罗·斯普林曼这两位谨慎的责任险业务经理，我们的业务能力得到了进一步提升。
Our reinsurance division, led by George Young, continues to give us reasonably satisfactory overall results after allowing for investment income, but underwriting performance remains unsatisfactory. We think the reinsurance business is a very tough business that is likely to get much tougher. In fact, the influx of capital into the business and the resulting softer price levels for continually increasing exposures may well produce disastrous results for many entrants (of which they may be blissfully unaware until they are in over their heads; much reinsurance business involves an exceptionally "long tail", a characteristic that allows catastrophic current loss experience to fester undetected for many years). It will be hard for us to be a whole lot smarter than the crowd and thus our reinsurance activity may decline substantially during the projected prolonged period of extraordinary competition.
由乔治·扬领导的我们的再保险部门，在考虑了投资收益之后，总体业绩仍能让我们基本满意，但承保业绩依然不尽如人意。我们认为再保险业务是一项非常艰难的业务，而且很可能会变得更加艰难。事实上，大量资金涌入该行业，以及由此导致的针对不断增加的风险敞口的价格水平下降，很可能会给许多新进入者带来灾难性的后果（他们可能在深陷困境之前还浑然不觉；许多再保险业务具有格外“长尾”的特点，这一特性使得当前灾难性的亏损情况可能在多年内未被察觉而逐渐恶化）。要想比同行聪明得多对我们来说并非易事，因此，在预计会持续很长时间的异常激烈竞争期间，我们的再保险业务活动可能会大幅缩减。
37.lay off：暂时解雇；裁员；停止工作
38.slack：松弛的；懈怠的；清淡的
39.instill：灌输；滴注
40.inception：开端；创始
41.waver：动摇；犹豫不决；摇曳
42.dynamite：有潜在危险的人；爆炸性的事务
43.entrant：参赛者；新生；新成员
44.blissful：幸福的；极乐的
45.fester：溃烂；化脓；愈益恶化
46.prolonged：延长的；持续很久的
