财税茶座

经济学人： If prudence is a virtue then America’s budget is an exercise in vice. Over the past 12 months the federal government has spent $2trn, or 7.2% of GDP, more than it has raised in taxes, after stripping out temporary factors. Usually such a vast deficit would be the result of a recession and accompanying stimulus. Today the lavish borrowing comes despite America’s longest stretch of sub-4% unemployment in half a century. The deficit has not been below 3% of GDP, an old measure of sound fiscal management, since 2015, and next year Uncle Sam’s net debts will probably cross 100% of GDP, up by about two-fifths in a decade. Whereas near-zero interest rates once made large debts affordable, today rates are higher and the government is spending more servicing the debt than on national defence. 如果谨慎是一种美德，那么美国的预算就是一种罪恶。过去 12 个月，联邦政府支出了 2 万美元，即 GDP 的 7.2%，超过了扣除临时因素后的税收。通常如此巨大的赤字是经济衰退和随之而来的刺激措施的结果。如今，尽管美国失业率处于半个世纪以来最长的低于 4% 的时期，但大举借贷仍在发生。自 2015 年以来，赤字占 GDP 的比重一直不低于 3%，这是衡量稳健财政管理的一项古老指标，明年山姆大叔的