President Barack Obama scored his first major political victory with the passage of a $787-billion stimulus package, which he will sign into law this week. Although many economists now agree that a stimulus was needed to jolt the ailing economy, some say the size of the package may not be enough.
美国总统奥巴马取得了上任后的第一个重要政治胜利。美国国会通过了耗资7千870亿美元的经济刺激提案，奥巴马本周将在提案上签字，使之成为法律。虽然许多经济学家现在都同意，美国糟糕的经济需要刺激拉动，但是有一些人说，这一提案的规模还不够大。
President Obama's economic team says the stimulus package should help to create or save about four million jobs. But chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, Mark Zandi, estimates the stimulus will only create about 2.2 million jobs by 2010, leaving the unemployment rate hovering close to 10 percent.
奥巴马总统的经济团队说，经济刺激计划将帮助创造或挽救大约400万份工作。但是，穆迪经济网的首席经济学家赞迪估计，这一计划在2010年之前只能创造大约220万份工作，这将使美国的失业率徘徊在10%左右。
Zandi, speaking on Fox News Sunday, says the stimulus is a good idea, but it is simply not big enough in size to address the problem.
赞迪在“福克斯周日新闻”节目中说，刺激经济是一个好的想法，但是奥巴马的经济刺激计划的规模不够大，无法解决美国的问题。
"It is meaningful, but I do not think it is enough," said Mark Zandi. "I think the economy is in a very difficult situation. The difficulties require a larger package, and I think a year from now we will be talking about stimulus again, yes."
他说：“这个计划是有意义的，但是我认为它的作用是不够的。我认为，美国经济非常困难。这要求政府推出庞大的经济刺激项目，我觉得，一年之后，我们会再次谈论推出又一套经济刺激计划。”
White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod, appearing on NBC, acknowledged the differing opinions among economists, but says he believes their numbers are accurate.
白宫高级顾问阿克塞尔罗德在美国全国广播公司的节目中承认，经济学家们对经济刺激计划存有不同看法，但是他说，总统经济团队发布的数字是准确的。
"We think this will have a multiplier effect and that ultimately it is going to pay off, it is going to turn this around, it is going to break the hard edge of this recession," said David Axelrod. "The interesting thing is we just had a debate this week, and you heard people saying it was too large, you heard people saying it was too small. We believe it is where it should be and we want to move forward."
他说：“我们认为，这一计划将产生乘数效应，最终会带来好处，会扭转经济局面，会打破经济衰退。有意思的是，我们这个礼拜刚刚举行了辩论，你听到有人说这个计划太庞大了，有人说这个计划不够大。但我们觉得，这个计划的规模是恰当的，我们希望能取得进展。”
Besides unemployment, an even larger economic crisis faces the Obama administration with many homeowners facing foreclosure and banks, burdened with bad assets, unable or unwilling to lend money. Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner unveiled a $1-trillion plan last Tuesday on how the government will deal with taking those toxic assets off the banks' balance sheets and infuse them with capital. Wall Street reacted negatively to the announcement, with many investors saying the plan lacked specifics.
除失业之外，奥巴马政府面临的一个更大的经济危机是许多房屋所有人的住房被贷款机构收回，许多银行不良资产缠身，不能或不愿意发放贷款。美国财政部长盖特纳上星期二推出了一项一万亿美元的计划，政府将利用这项计划帮银行从账面上消除这些有毒资产，并向银行注入资本。华尔街对这一计划反应不佳，许多投资者说，这一计划缺乏具体内容。
Chief Executive Officer of Google Eric Schmidt says the government will need to address the frozen credit markets and the growing foreclosure rate sooner rather than later.
"The business community wants action now," said Eric Schmidt. "Customers do not feel comfortable; people are worried about their jobs. Somehow the government has to fix the foreclosure problem, they have to fix the credit problem and then they have to be the funder of last resort to get this thing going again. From my perspective, people cannot get their jobs; they cannot buy things and so forth without credit. So this needs to be their highest priority for the next few weeks. And let us hope it is."
他说：“商业界需要政府立即行动。消费者缺乏信心，人们担心丢掉工作。政府必须要解决房屋被贷款机构收回的问题，解决信贷问题，然后他们必须为最后的努力提供资金，使经济再次活络起来。我认为，人们现在找不到工作，因为没有信贷，他们也没法买东西。所以政府未来几个星期内的头等任务应该是解决这两个问题，希望如此。”
Schmidt and Zandi say if the administration is better able to detail the way in which they will value the troubled assets then the markets will gain more confidence.
施密特和赞迪说，如果奥巴马政府能够进一步详细说明评估不良资产的方法，那么市场就能获得更多信心。 |