美国国家公共电台 NPR--The U.K. changes direction and abolishes plan to cut taxes on high earners

The U.K. changes direction and abolishes plan to cut taxes on high earners

Transcript¹

Under political pressure, the U.K. government has made an embarrassing U-turn on tax cuts for the highest earners, while the collapse² of the pound compounds the misery³ of many British householders.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The government of the U.K. has been forced to make an embarrassing change. Days after the new U.K. finance minister proposed tax cuts, the government is scrapping⁴ some of them, the ones for Britain's highest earners. The package of unfunded tax cuts spooked investors⁵, pushed the pound to record lows and prompted Britain's central bank to announce it will buy up government debt. Willem Marx reports on what all this has meant for British homeowners.

WILLEM MARX: Hannah Stubbs owns a small home in Staffordshire in the heart of England. She and her partner wanted more space, a new home with an extra bedroom and a location close to good schools for their young daughter. They started looking earlier this year and got a mortgage offer approved. But the sale of their current home has taken a long time to go through.

HANNAH STUBBS: We had a mortgage rate, really low mortgage rate, set literally⁶ six months ago. And then, because of our house move delay, we've had to reapply for that mortgage two weeks ago. And it has doubled.

MARX: The initial interest rate their mortgage lender was demanding from them is now twice as high, meaning their monthly payments will be much higher, too. They could pay more than $8,000 extra over the next five years, all while living costs are rapidly rising as well.

STUBBS: That's massive. And that's without the gas and electric that's going up, the food that's going up. It's massive. And compared to - like, our wages are not going up as quickly as the costs are.

MARX: For Hannah and her family, this new reality may force a painful rethink.

STUBBS: It's heartbreaking. We're now thinking, is this feasible? Should we be risking doing this now? And we're potentially going to lose our dream house. Yeah, it's been really stressful.

MARX: Stress levels for millions of others in Britain had risen after the new government of Liz Truss announced a series of tax cuts last month that were neither fully⁷ detailed⁸ nor independently analyzed⁹. That meant global investors lost trust in Truss and her plans, driving down the pound, pushing up the government's borrowing costs and forcing economists¹⁰ to forecast much higher interest rates.

SCOTT TAYLOR-BARR: We'll describe the last week as challenging, is the polite way of putting it, I think.

MARX: Scott Taylor-Barr is a financial adviser¹¹ who helps homebuyers find the right mortgage and says mortgage providers have struggled to keep up with the very unusual volatility¹² in global debt markets. Many have raised the prices of their mortgage products, he says, or stopped offering them altogether.

TAYLOR-BARR: Their own cost of funds are moving so rapidly that they can't actually price something that is going to be viable¹³ for them as a business because let's remember, you know, banks and building societies are businesses, not charities. If they can't launch a product that's going to be viable for more than a few hours, then simply, it can't be done.

MARX: For the U.K.'s mortgage brokers¹⁴, the people who interact with both the banks and the would-be buyers to ensure the right paperwork is filed, it's been an unprecedented¹⁵ period.

RAY BOULGER: There's going to be business on your desk, which you need to process quickly. And there just won't be enough hours in the day to actually get everything done when you've got very tight deadlines.

MARX: Ray Boulger at the independent mortgage brokers John Charcol has decades of experience and said possible problems with the Liz Truss premiership first surfaced as she fought for the job against former finance minister Rishi Sunak this summer.

BOULGER: There were completely different economic policies being proposed by Truss and Sunak. If Truss went ahead with the plans that she envisaged¹⁶ as was pointed¹⁷ out by Rishi Sunak during the campaign, there were going to be consequences. Most of us thought - including me thought there would be severe consequences but not as severe as there have been.

MARX: The former deputy governor of the Bank of England, Charlie Bean, says the fallout will be felt far beyond the housing market.

CHARLIE BEAN: For some households, they're going to have to cut back their spending possibly quite significantly. And that will clearly impact on the level of demand in the economy overall.

MARX: Ironically, Bean says, the higher mortgage costs may end up outweighing¹⁸ the possible benefits for households from the government's new tax cuts. After more than a week of unintended consequences, homeowners and homebuyers are hoping calm and at least some certainty could one day return.

For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx in London.

(SOUNDBITE OF L'INDECIS' "STAYING THERE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

4 scrapping   

刮，切除坯体余泥

参考例句：

• He was always scrapping at school. 他在学校总打架。
• These two dogs are always scrapping. 这两条狗总是打架。

5 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

12 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

13 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

14 brokers   

n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司，经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分

15 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

16 envisaged   

想像，设想( envisage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He envisaged an old age of loneliness and poverty. 他面对着一个孤独而贫困的晚年。
• Henry Ford envisaged an important future for the motor car. 亨利·福特为汽车设想了一个远大前程。

17 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

18 outweighing   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的现在分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• Consider(sth good or positive)as balancing or outweighing(sth bad or negative) 视（某好的事物）可抵消或抵偿（某坏的事物） 来自互联网
• The accused and accusers all succeed in outweighing the Bible. 原告和被告都成功地通过了第一项测试。 来自互联网