2021年经济学人 美国民主党议员欲推增税法案（在线收听）

The world this week -- Business

本周国际要闻——商业

Democrats in the American Senate tried to pin down proposed tax rises that will pay for a $1.5trn spending bill on welfare and the climate, legislation that is much reduced in scope from what its backers originally envisaged.

美国参议院的民主党人试图将提议的增税确定下来，以支付1.5万亿美元的福利和气候支出法案，相比其支持者最初设想，这一法案的范围已大大缩小。

But their plans were thrown into confusion when moderates pushed back against both radical ideas on taxing the super-wealthy and a levy on the profits of America’s biggest companies based on their financial accounting for shareholders, and not what they declare to the taxman.

但他们的计划陷入了混乱，因为温和派既反对向超级富豪征税的激进想法，也反对根据股东的财务审计，而不是公司向税务人员申报的数据，来对美国大公司的利润进行征税。

A blizzard of policies was announced in the British government’s budget (or leaked to the press several days before).

英国政府在预算中宣布了（或者说几天前媒体泄露了）一系列政策。

The national living wage is to rise to 9.50 pounds ($13) an hour, a 6.6% increase.

全国最低工资将提高到每小时9.50英镑（合13美元），涨幅为6.6%。

And with fuel prices surging, a planned tax increase on petrol was scrapped.

随着燃料价格的飙升，对汽油增税的计划被取消了。

That didn’t go down well with greens, just days ahead of the British-hosted COP26 summit.

这发生在英国主办的COP26峰会召开的前几天，绿色环保人士对此并不满意。

Masters of the metaverse

元宇宙的主宰

Facebook formalised its expansion into the “metaverse”, a collection of online worlds where users’ avatars buy clothes, attend concerts and socialise.

Facebook正式向“元宇宙”扩张，这是一个虚拟世界集合，用户的虚拟形象可以在这里买衣服、参加音乐会和社交。

The company announced more investment in its Reality Labs division, which from now on will report separately from the rest of the business.

该公司宣布对其Reality Labs部门进行更多投资，从现在起，该部门将独立于其他业务进行汇报。

Part of the reason for Facebook’s refocus is growing competition from TikTok and other apps for attention from younger customers, many of whom think the platform, which will turn 18 next year, is boring.

Facebook重新调整重心的部分原因是，来自TikTok和其他应用程序的竞争越来越激烈，都争抢着吸引年轻用户的注意力，而很多年轻用户认为这个明年将满18岁的平台很无聊。

It also faces claims that it cannot control hate speech.

Facebook还面临着无法管控仇恨言论的指控。

The other highlight in Facebook’s quarterly earnings was the impact on its growth prospects of Apple’s new privacy policy, which allows iPhone users to say whether they want to be tracked for advertising purposes.

Facebook季度收益中另一点值得注意的是，苹果的新隐私政策对其增长前景的影响，该政策允许iPhone用户表达出他们是否希望出于广告目的而被跟踪。

Mark Zuckerberg said the policy was having a negative effect on Facebook.

马克·扎克伯格表示，该政策对Facebook产生了负面影响。

Snap, a photo and messaging platform, also blamed the change for weaker-than-expected revenues; its share price shed more than a quarter of its value.

照片和通讯平台Snap也将营收低于预期归咎于这一变化；其股价下跌超过其市值的四分之一。

Meanwhile Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said that the change in Apple’s policy was having only a modest impact on its advertising business, most of which comes via its search engine.

与此同时，谷歌的母公司Alphabet表示，苹果政策的变化对其广告业务的影响不大，它们大部分的广告业务是通过其搜索引擎实现的。

Sales from ads across its divisions, which include YouTube, surged in the third quarter by 43%, year on year, to $53bn.

包括YouTube在内的各部门的广告销售额激增，在第三季度同比增长43%，达到530亿美元。

Tesla became the first carmaker to pass a stockmarket value of $1trn, after Hertz placed an order for 100,000 of its vehicles as part of its drive to electrify its rental fleet.

特斯拉成为首家市值超过1万亿美元的汽车制造商，此前赫兹向特斯拉订购了10万辆汽车，作为其租赁车队电气化努力的一部分。

Tesla joins Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft in the club of American companies valued at over $1trn.

特斯拉加入了Alphabet、亚马逊、苹果和微软，跻身市值超过1万亿美元的美国公司之列。

Elon Musk’s net fortune alone is now worth more than ExxonMobil’s market value.

埃隆·马斯克的净资产现在已经超过了埃克森美孚的市值。

The bullish quarterly earnings season in corporate America pushed the S&P 500 to a new record.

美国企业季度收益的上涨推动了标普500指数创下新高。

The index is up by a fifth since the start of the year.

自今年年初以来，该指数已上涨五分之一。