首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
How the Shutdown Hammered the U. S. Economy A) How much have the government shutdown and the default threat cost us? Before
How the Shutdown Hammered the U. S. Economy A) How much have the government shutdown and the default threat cost us? Before
admin
2022-07-26
27
问题
How the Shutdown Hammered the U. S. Economy
A) How much have the government shutdown and the default threat cost us? Before the latest congressional fierce debate over government spending, the U.S. federal deficit was shrinking and seemed to shrivel even more in the near future. As a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product, the cash shortfall had dropped by half in the past two years, according to Standard&Poor’s senior credit analyst Marie Cavanaugh, who heads the ratings team in charge of assessing the U.S. credit rating.
B) In other words, the United States was on track to slash its deficit and enjoy the spoils of its growing financial recovery— until the shutdown, which has socked (重击) the economy in the nose and soured investors’ confidence everywhere. "Earlier this year, we raised our outlook for the U.S. from negative to stable based on the ability of Congress to negotiate its way out of the fiscal cliff, the nation’s strengthening economic recovery and the fact that the nation’s deficit had fallen by half of the 2011 level," Cavanaugh told Newsweek just before Congress cobbled together (胡乱拼凑) a last-minute deal.
C) Now the same ratings agency estimates that the government shutdown knocked $24 billion out of the U.S. economy in just two weeks. That is more than $1.5 billion a day. Essentially, the fighting over spending leaves America with less to spend. "The bottom line is the government shutdown hurt the U.S. economy," stated S&P’s chief economist Beth Ann Bovino, on the heels of an eleventh-hour budget compromise that effectively delays key fiscal decisions until next year.
D) "In September, we expected 3 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter, because we thought politicians would have learned from 2011 and taken steps to avoid things like a government shutdown and the possibility of a sovereign default." (In 2011, consumer confidence hit a 31-year low; just this week a Gallup poll similarly showed investor confidence dropping to its lowest level in almost two years. This is probably not a coincidence, as both polls took place during congressional standoffs.)
E) S&P, which has been the only ratings agency to slash the nation’s top-flight credit rating (also in 2011), now expects this year’s fourth quarter GDP to be closer to 2 percent. That is, if the U.S. is lucky. "With full expectations that consumer confidence will continue to decline suddenly amid the ’short turnaround for politicians to negotiate some sort of lasting deal’," Bovino predicts, "if people are afraid that the government policy brinkmanship (边缘政策) will resurface and, with it, the risk of another shutdown or worse, they’ll remain afraid to open up their checkbooks."
F) Cavanaugh says the agency estimates that for every week the government was shut down, roughly 0.3 percent of the nation’s GDP was destroyed. Not really a good thing for a country that, until recently, "was running one of the highest deficits the world has seen since World War II," according to Nikola Swann, Cavanaugh’s predecessor and the credit analyst who led the team that voted the U.S. credit rating down in 2011.
G) Swann, who tracked U.S. fiscal health for some time, traces much of the trouble back to 2001, when the September 11 attacks led to a downturn in the nation’s economic growth and soaring spending in the lead-up to the war on terror. "The U.S. did begin to recover by 2007", he says, "but then it was hit by the financial crisis. By 2009, the nation’s cash deficit—the annual gap between spending and revenue as a percentage of its GDP—had swelled to 11 percent."
H) "Compare that to a surplus of 3 percent of GDP in 2000, at present, the cash deficit has eased to under 5 percent," Cavanaugh says, "but remains at the high end." "Remember, the Clinton administration benefitted from very high rates of economic growth, real rates that were around 3 percent to 5 percent of GDP," Swann says. "We increased spending but never got back to the high growth rates."
I) Bovino warns the U.S. still has much to lose if its fiscal game of chicken doesn’t end. As the debt ceiling deadline neared, S&P was minutes away from automatically demoting (使降级) America’s credit rating and tipping it into "selective default". (The only other country to have "SD" status is Grenada.) Fitch, a ratings-agency competitor of S&P, already announced it was putting the U.S. on "credit rating watch negative", citing a lack of "timely" action by Congress to pass a budget.
J) Like a troubled teenager, America is repeatedly self-harming. "It is simply not a characteristic of the most highly rated sovereigns that you have to worry about them not paying their debts," said John Chambers, global head of S&P’s sovereign ratings committee and a member of the team that marked down America’s debt rating in 2011, from AAA to AA+. He notes that no nation has ever defaulted for such a ridiculous reason—political games of mutually assured destruction. "It is unheard of in a cohesive civil society, making it all the more puzzling and pathetic that we have these tricks over spending that has already been approved by Congress."
K) When Standard&Poor’s, which monitors and ranks the credit of 127 countries, slashed the sovereign debt rating of the United States during the 2011 debt-ceiling war, cries of "unpatriotic" and "anti-American" echoed up Wall Street. "We knew what we were doing, that it was a historic decision," says Swann. "The volume of calls coming in was more than we could sort through on our own. We were there until late Friday, doing interviews, investor calls, and teleconferences, all through the weekend and the rest of the following week."
L) The hue and cry was no surprise. After all, nothing less than the world’s global reserve currency was at stake. The U.S. rating—alongside that of France, Austria and the Isle of Man—put it behind Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Canada. By losing its gold-star rating, the world’s superpower became and remains second best.
M) "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed," S&P stated to justify its lone decision in 2011. "The statutory (法定的) debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy."
N) Now there are three months for Congress to complete its bargaining, pass a budget, and lift the debt ceiling again. If it fails—and everything suggests a return to the deadlock we just escaped from—America will be back in default territory. Politicians in Washington will put on the motley (小丑装束) , the default circus will resume and the damage to America’s economy will start over.
O) Whatever was said on either side in the latest showdown about reneging (违约) on the national debts, defaulting will not be pretty. According to Bovino, if America defaulted it "would be devastating for markets and the economy and worse than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008" and "put the economy in a recession and wipe out much of the economic progress made by the recovery from the Great Recession."
The shutdown of the government has hindered America’s economic recovery and set back people’s confidence in investment.
选项
答案
B
解析
注意抓住题干中的关键词economic recovery、set back、people’s confidence in investment。关于政府关门阻碍美国经济复苏进程的内容出现在B段。该段第一句的后半句指出,政府关门则沉重打击了经济的发展,使各地的投资者们信心受挫。由此可见,题干与原文是同义转述,故答案是B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/y4aFFFFM
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Becausethereisaverybigsumofmoneyinheraccount.B、Becausehehasnoauthoritytocloseaccountsforcustomers.C、Beca
A、Heisnotfollowingthecompleterecipe.B、Heismissingtherightpantocookthepizza.C、Heisusingthedirectionsforad
A、Setalimittomoneyspenteachdaybychildren.B、Makesurechildrendon’tspenditatonce.C、Learnaboutwhatchildrenwant
A、Parents.B、Children.C、Payscales.D、Managementsystems.C
A、Sheisunwillingtoundertakethem.B、Shecomplainsaboutherbadluck.C、Shealwaysacceptsthemcheerfully.D、Shetakesthem
A、Theyaredelightedbecausetheycanenjoythescenerywhiledriving.B、Theyarefrightenedbecausetrafficaccidentsarefrequ
A、Makesureifthereisafreeshippingtag.B、Checktheoriginalpriceandthediscount.C、Checktheproducingareaandtime.D
A、Mankind’seconomicdevelopment.B、Huntersandotheranimals.C、Climatechangeandairpollution.D、Thelengthofmigrationpat
CluessuggestingthatQuasimodo,thetragicheroofVictorHugo’snovelTheHunchbackofNotreDame,isbasedonahistorical
A、About70%ofthepopulationliveinruralareas.B、About25%ofthepopulationarenotnative.C、Since1780,thepopulationin
随机试题
已知某机器设备的成新率为45%,该设备的已使用年限为10年,资产利用率为80%,则该设备的尚可使用年限为【】
我国现代小说家______创作了《阿Q正传》、《狂人日记》、《祝福》等一系列反映五四运动前后社会现实的优秀作品。
患者,男,28岁。无明显诱因出现右膝关节肿胀不适1年余,伴行走时关节打软、交锁症状,无全身症状,查体在髌股关节周围尤其是髌上囊处可扪及滑膜增厚,局部皮温增高,但不红。根据上述症状,为明确诊断,下列最具诊断意义的检查是
妊娠试验阳性,是因为孕妇的血尿中含有
下列不属于临床药理学研究内容的是()。
检验检测机构应当建立与活动范围相适应的管理体系,作业指导书不在此范围。()
商业银行应当为国别风险的识别、计量、监测和控制建立完备、可靠的管理信息系统。管理信息系统功能不包括()。
铁路运输企业逾期()日仍未将货物、包裹、行李交付收货人或者旅客的,托运人、收货人或者旅客有权按货物、包裹、行李灭失向铁路运输企业要求赔偿。
将N、K、L、M、W5人按一定距离站成一排,但是5人有如下关系:(1)N、K不能相邻;(2)W、K不能相邻;(3)N、L不能相邻;(4)L、M不能相邻。根据上述条件,5人的正确排序是()。
Windows NT操作系统提供了一个良好的用户交互界面,它是( )。
最新回复
(
0
)