CNN News: 美國2萬億美元經濟刺激計劃

District of Columbia. The U.S. Congress and the White House have joined the Federal Reserve, the country's central bank, in trying to lessen the economic damage from the corona virus pandemic. The big focus here is on a stimulus package, a massive plan of government spending, intended to stimulate the U.S. economy. How massive? The Senate deal which is supported by the Trump Administration is worth $2 trillion. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described it as a wartime level of investment for America. Here's what the money would be spent on.

哥倫比亞特區(qū)。美國國會和白宮與美國中央銀行聯(lián)邦儲備委員會一道，努力減輕冠狀病毒大流行對經濟造成的損害。這里的重點是經濟刺激計劃，也是大規(guī)模的政府支出計劃，旨在刺激美國經濟。規(guī)模到底有多大呢?由特朗普政府支持的參議院協(xié)議價值2萬億美元。參議院多數(shù)黨領袖米奇·麥康奈爾稱這是美國戰(zhàn)時的投資水平。這些錢會花在以下這些地方：

$500 billion would be intended to help big companies get through this corona virus pandemic. $350 billion would be in loans for small businesses in the hopes it will help them stay in business. $250 billion would be given directly to American taxpayers in the hopes that they'll spend it but those payments would only go to individuals who earn less than $99.000 a year or couples who earn less than $198.000 a year. Hundreds of billions more would go to help hospitals, Americans who've lost their jobs and state and local governments.

5000億美元將用于幫助大公司渡過這次冠狀病毒大流行。3500億美元將用于小型企業(yè)的貸款，希望能幫助他們維持經營。2500億美元將直接撥給美國納稅人，希望他們會花掉這筆錢，但這些款項只會撥給年收入低于9.9萬美元的個人或年收入低于19.8萬美元的夫妻。還有數(shù)千億美元將用于幫助醫(yī)院、失業(yè)的美國人以及州和地方政府。

The agreement would still have to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives before it goes to President Donald Trump's desk for signature. So the bill is not finalized and it's not clear how long that will take. But the news of it was welcomed on Wall Street. After setting several records for single day point losses in recent weeks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 important stocks set a new record on Tuesday for its biggest ever single point gain. Will all this shorten an expected recession?

該協(xié)議仍需經美國眾議院通過，然后才能送交唐納德·特朗普總統(tǒng)簽署。所以這項法案還沒有最終確定，也不清楚需要多長時間。但這一消息受到了華爾街的歡迎。道瓊斯工業(yè)股票平均價格指數(shù)30只重要股票的單日跌幅在近幾周創(chuàng)下數(shù)項紀錄之后，周二又創(chuàng)下歷史最大單日漲幅紀錄。所有這些會縮短預期的衰退現(xiàn)象嗎?

So what's the difference between a recession and a depression? It comes down to how long the economy contracts. A recession is typically defined as two negative quarters of economic growth and is part of the normal business cycle. The U.S. economy has fallen into recession more than 30 times since 1854. A depression is something vastly different.

那么，衰退和蕭條有什么區(qū)別呢?這取決于經濟收縮的時間。衰退通常被定義為經濟增長的兩個負增長季度，是正常商業(yè)周期的一部分。自1854年以來，美國經濟已經30多次陷入衰退。而大蕭條則完全不同。

It happens when the economic decline is sustained and might potentially go on for years. That's only occurred once in American history in 1929 and it lasted 10 years. Because it lasts so long, a depression is more severe. A decade ago unemployment hit 10 percent during the worst of the "Great Recession" but during the "Great Depression" the jobless rate peaked at nearly 25 percent.

它發(fā)生在經濟持續(xù)衰退持續(xù)并可能持續(xù)數(shù)年的狀況下。這種情況在美國歷史上只發(fā)生過一次，那就是1929年，而且持續(xù)了10年。因為經濟衰退持續(xù)的時間太長，所以會更加嚴重。十年前，在“大衰退”最嚴重的時候，失業(yè)率達到10%，但在“大蕭條”期間，失業(yè)率達到近25%的峰值。

The reason economists are so worried this time, we just don't know how long we'll be fighting this virus. We don't know how long stores will be shut down, how long travel will be paused, how much damage will be done to supply chains or how many companies will go bankrupt. But there is hope if you look to history. The recession that followed the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic lasted just seven months. That's much shorter than the average recession. Let's hope this time history repeats.

經濟學家們這次如此擔心的原因是，我們不知道還要與這種病毒戰(zhàn)斗多久。不知道商店會關門多久，旅行會暫停多久，供應鏈會受到多大的損害，有多少公司會破產。但如果你回顧歷史，就會看到希望。1918年西班牙流感大流行之后的經濟衰退只持續(xù)了7個月。這比一般的衰退時間要短得多。希望這一次歷史能夠重演。