美国人担心二次衰退

“The real issue now is that demand is so weak because people don’t want to buy homes when their income prospects are so weak. When they are worried that house prices are going to fall further and until we can see that demand rise again we are not going to see home-building rise in a way that is contributing to economic growth,” Dynan said.

迪南：“现在真正的问题是，市场的需求是如此之弱，因为当人们的收入前景如此暗淡的时候，他们是不会买房的，他们担心房价会进一步下跌。直到需求再次上升，我们不可能看到住宅建设成为推动经济增长的动力。”

Many economists say that fear of the unknown is feeding consumers’ hesitancy. That fear has rocked global financial markets, following a downgrade of U.S. Treasury debt and a long-running and highly fractious political debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

许多经济学家说，前途未卜使消费者犹豫不决。这种担心已经震动了全球金融市场，尤其是在美国的国债评级被降低后，以及旷日持久的关于国家债务上限的政治辩论僵持不下。

“Pessimism can be self-fulfilling. If a consumer wakes up one day and is worried about the future and doesn’t go out and spend, then retailers are going to see weak demand and they are not going to hire as much and income will weaken and that in turn will leader consumers to have even less inclination to spend,” Dynan said.

迪南：“悲观主义经常是怕什么来什么。如果消费者早晨醒来，由于担心未来而不去消费，那么零售商们将看到需求疲软，他们就不会招聘新人，收入也会减少；而这种情况反过来又会导致消费者更不愿意消费。”

Hudson says that with his personal income down by more than 50 percent, he’s certainly spending less. And he’s worried about what’s to come.

马克·哈德逊说，他自己的收入就下降了50%以上，所以他减少了消费。他更担心今后的日子怎么过。

“If there’s a recession, I don’t know what I would do because I have cut as much as I could, I believe. I guess I could do more but it would be difficult. I have cut as much as I can at this point, so it’s kind of a scary question,” Hudson said.

哈德逊：“如果经济再次衰退，我真不知道我会怎么办，因为我已经尽可能减少开支了。我想我可以多做些事，但恐怕很难。在开支上我已经尽力而为了。这真是个可怕的问题。”