本帖最后由 corie_zhu 于 2011-8-5 18:28 编辑
【中文标题】幸灾乐祸的香味
【原文标题】The Sweet Smell of Schadenfreude
【登载媒体】《外交政策》杂志网站
【来源地址】http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/02/the_sweet_smell_of_schadenfreude
【译 者】kamina_shin
【翻译方式】人工
【声 明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
【译 文】
世界在为美国接近彻底经济垮台而幸灾乐祸。
BYJOSHUA E. KEATING |8月 2日, 2011
对于本周通过的防止美国债务违约拖欠的条约（一位美国众议员回忆将其描述为一块“糖衣炸弹”）左派和右派都不是特别高兴。在海外，对于华盛顿的运作障碍的反应从困惑，到担忧，再到赤裸裸的幸灾乐祸。
中国
作为美国债务最大的境外持有国，中国对于其债务限额争议的兴趣不仅仅是理论上的。国家通讯社新华社在上周的一篇社论中对于美国有可能在最后债务决策中拖欠积欠的债额表示失望，称党派的边缘政策是华盛顿极度危险的不负责任。并且指出一连串事件中最丑陋的部分是许多其他国家的利益也在驴和象的争斗的影响范围中。 然而由于民主党和共和党已达成了协议，新华社似乎很难满意该结论，并引用了美国经济学家Dan Steinbock的观点来支持，“无论进行怎样宣传和演戏”该政策也“不太可能避免美国信用等级的降低”。 国营《环球时报》用了更大的版面，对于这场争论是如何已经负面的影响了美国在世界上的地位发表了社论。编者写道：“美国擅长于向其他国家宣传法律法规，但现在其他国家正逐渐意识到华盛顿也可以摧毁所有它自己的规章制度” 社论继续猜测美国的不稳定可能导致其在军事上猛击它的对手。“当国家繁荣时，它会用更文明的方法确保其国家优先事件，但当它面对危机时，它会用一切办法保护自己。” 随着最后一轮施压的压力，美国被弄得像一个蛮横任性的小孩——编者悲叹道“中国持有的美国国债太少而没有任何主要的影响力”，他建议中国需要“更多的耐心和智慧去取得与美国博弈的能力。”
SAUL LOEB/法新社/Getty Images
负债的“猪” 当连失败者都开始招惹你时，要知道你就麻烦了。负债累累的欧洲经济（所谓的“猪”）债务仍在累计，已经对美国接近失败的财政状况回归有序的努力作出回应。希腊报纸Ekathimerini写道美国今天“表现出的所有衰弱的迹象就是与从前所有被谴责的超级大国一样：稳定与繁荣允许了小部分团体掌握了不相称的权力，而他们之后迫使国家以整体上社会的利益为代价为他们自己的利益服务。”很像希腊，编者写道，美国现在在“为自满买单”。 爱尔兰人可能还喜欢奥巴马，但《爱尔兰时报》的华盛顿记者Lara Marlowe写道，纵然有这个政策，“对于奥巴马的名誉以及对于美国有能力引导全球经济复苏的信念的伤害可能是无法弥补的。”
怀着对于美国总统对抗茶党的失败的叹息，Marlowe写道“当国家昨天在调查债务危机的灼烧的碎屑的时候，茶党像胜利一般高兴地站在灰烬里”。
在西班牙，最近街头的抗议高失业率的活动使政府停止运作，El País指出“美国现在就像旧欧洲大陆一样陷入同样的陷阱”，被迫制定财政紧缩的措施来减少赤字，却在这过程中束缚了经济的增长。编者总结道，这个法案“传达的信息是，共和党和茶党的激进派核心提议的这个政策，将会在管理华盛顿危机中成为障碍”。
AlkisKonstantinidis/法新社/Getty Images
俄罗斯
世界上大多数领导人考虑到他们经济对于美国市场的过分依赖，对于这个法案都绝口不谈。例如，德国总理安格拉·默克尔的发言人只会说德国政府“对于美国能在这个困难的问题上达成协议感到满意”。但是俄罗斯总理弗拉基米尔·普京通常特立独行: “[美国]已黔驴技穷，为它自身的问题向全球经济征税并且就像一个寄生于全球经济和美元垄断中的虫子，”普京本周在与一个年轻的民族主义团体Nashi会面中如此说道，模仿了在苏维埃时代的宣传中描述资本主义曾用到的语言方式。这段话正好在他上个月因印钱而谴责美国政府是“流氓”之后。尽管如此，将他的话插到总理欢迎最终协定后，他说美国的违约本该对世界经济“完全没有好处”。 Nezavisimaya Gazeta《独立报》相信美国的危机帮助俄罗斯正确看待可怕的经济问题，“[有一件不幸的事俄罗斯不必去担心：至少，在近些天它不会面临违约。”的确是句敷衍的安慰。
ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/法新社/Getty Images
印度
可能这并不令人惊奇，伴随着印度接近两位数的国民生产总值增长，美国的衰退是今天压在美国评论员心上的巨石。印度时报发表社论称“如果议事日程变成了世界末日，那么当这个艰难的决定正在酝酿时，不能指望美国。”这可能除了经济因素外还有安全隐患。可能这轮预算削减是严重的，但编者更担心如果共和党人和民主人士不同意第二轮削减法案，将会对美国的基础国防建设造成怎样的后果。因为第二轮削减法案将引发1.2万亿美元的安全预算缩水：“这次削减将严重削弱美国的国防能力。美国将会变成一个严重衰弱的超级大国，如果一些国家偏航走向腐败或变质的话，美国将没有退路。其它方面上，这将意味着中国有可能超过原有的能力，拥有更大的空间扩大它的军事影响力。这也将意味着，现在由美国维护治安或至少有美国插手大片海洋和世界上遥远的部分地区，将会肆无忌惮。”这些听起来像对印度政客加强国防建设的呼吁。 显然世界最大的民主国家需要教训国会。专栏作家Mihir Sharma在印度快报专栏，瞄准了最令人敬畏的美国机构：“美国是那些主张美国人说的算，但事实上说的都是世界上最过时的话的人的归宿” Sharma认为是一份“写在铁路时代之前，更不用说有线新闻之前了”的文件导致了现在的危机。带着三角帽的茶党很可能不同意。 PRAKASH SINGH/法新社/Getty Images
英国
英国通讯社在它对于共和党的不妥协和奥巴马对抗他们要求的失利的评价是典型的铁面无私。《独立报》在其主要社论中写道，“末日拉锯战只有在一代共和党政客感到有权拿枪指着美国信用的头来确保他们的政治目的才会避免------灾难将不会遥远”。 《卫报》经济编辑Larry Elliott 将美国比作一个“大约1980年的劣等的拉丁美洲独裁体”并称其为一个“由财阀富豪完全统治的国家”，他暗示“如果美国是其他任一国家，它将求助于国际货币基金组织。”在同一份报纸中，作家，行动派George Monbiot写道，茶党“由为富人的减税和为穷人减少支出” 的受害群体以及和被私营媒体误导的人组成。但是Monbiot也意识到另外一种潜在的罪恶：现在国会中事务的状态是“一种政变”，他写道，“少数亿万富翁在立法过程中从中阻挠。” 《英国每日电讯报》Toby Young讽刺道，民主的美国总统似乎倚靠英国保守派：“一年前，美国的保守派正盛赞大卫·卡梅伦采取激进方式削减英国赤字，并不合时宜地将他与他们奢侈的总统对比。现在，我们的总理跟头脑冷静的奥巴马正好相反，看起来像软弱自由主义者。”Young相信无论在池塘的哪一边，一个“重大的变化已经发生”，并且“社会福利方案已经成为政治上的毒瘤。” 去年，还是正常自由的美国市场被英国和欧洲苛刻的削减预算所震惊。事情似乎已经归于正常。
Scott Barbour/Getty Images
【原 文】
The world is crowing over America's near-economic meltdown.
BY JOSHUA E. KEATING |AUGUST 2, 2011
Neither the left nor the right is particularly happy about the deal that was passed this week to avert a U.S. default -- memorablydescribed by one congressman as a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich." Overseas, the reactions to Washington's dysfunction have ranged from confusion, to concern, to barely contained gloating.
CHINA
As the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, China's interest in the debt ceiling debate was hardly academic. State wire service Xinhua expressed its dismay at the potential of a default in the run-up to the final debt decisions, calling the political brinkmanship in Washington "dangerously irresponsible" in an editorial last week and noting that the "ugliest part of the saga is that the well-being of many other countries is also in the impact zone when the donkey and the elephant fight."
But now that Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement, Xinhua hardly seems satisfied with the conclusion, enlisting American economist Dan Steinbock who writes, "Despite all the hype and drama," the deal is "unlikely to avert the downgrading of US credit rating."
The state-sponsored paper Global Times takes a bigger picture view, editorializingon how the -debate has already negatively affected U.S. standing in the world. "The US is well-known for promoting rules and regulations to other countries, but now countries are increasingly realizing Washington can stamp all over its own rules and regulations," the editors write.
The piece goes on to speculate that U.S. instability could lead the country to lash out militarily at its rivals. "When the country prospers, it will use more civilized methods to secure its national priorities, but when it faces a crisis, it will use all methods to defend itself."
And as a final turn of the screw, the United States is made to look like an unruly, wayward child --the editors lament that "the US debt China holds is too small to have any major leverage" and suggest that China needs "more patience and wisdom to acquire the capability to deal with the US."
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
THE "PIGS"
You know you're in trouble when even the losers start picking on you. Piling on, the debt-ridden economies of Europe -- the so-called "PIGS" -- have responded to the United States' near failure to get its fiscal house in order. The Greek broadsheet Ekathimerini writes that the United States today "displays all the signs of decadence that condemned all previous superpowers: Stability and prosperity allowed small groups to gather disproportionate power, and they then forced the state to serve their interests at the expense of those of society as a whole." Much like Greece, the editors write, the United States is now "paying the price of complacency."
The Irish may still love Barack Obama but Lara Marlowe, Washington correspondent for the Irish Times,writesthat despite the deal, "the damage to Obama's reputation and to faith in the ability of the US to lead a global economic recovery may be irreparable". Bemoaning the U.S. president's failure to stand-up to the Tea Party, Marlowe writes that "as the country surveyed the smouldering detritus of the debt crisis yesterday, the Tea Party stood triumphant in the ashes."
In Spain, where recent street protests over high unemployment recently brought the government to a standstill, El País argues that, "The United States is now in the same basic trap as the Old Continent," forced to enact harsh austerity measures in order to reduce the deficit, but hampering economic growth in the process. The deal "transmits the message that the policies proposed by the radical core of the Republican Party, the Tea Party, will be an obstacle for crisis management in Washington," the editors conclude.
Alkis Konstantinidis/AFP/Getty Images
RUSSIA
Most world leaders have been fairly tight-lipped about the deal, given that their economies are so dependent on the U.S. market. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for instance, would only saythat the German government was "satisfied that there has been an agreement in this difficult question in the United States." But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has generally done things his own way:
"[The United States] lives beyond its means, taxing the global economy with its problems and living like a parasite off the global economy and the monopoly of the dollar," Putin told a meeting of the nationalist youth group Nashi this week, echoing the sort of language once used to describe capitalists in Soviet-era propaganda. This came after remarks last month in which Putin brandedthe U.S. government "hooligans" for printing money. All the same, after getting his licks in the prime minister welcomed the final agreement, saying that a U.S. default would have been "no good at all" for the world economy.
The newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta believed that the U.S. crisis helped put Russia's dire economic problems in perspective, writing, "[There is] one unfortunate thing that Russia does not need to fear: at least, it will not face a default in the next few days." Cold comfort indeed.
ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images
INDIA
Perhaps it's not surprising, what with near double-digit GDP growth in India, that American decline is on the minds of the country's commentators today. The Hindustan Times editorializesthat "If routine has become Armageddon, the US cannot be counted on when the tough decisions are being made." That may have security implications, in addition to economic ones. While the current round of budget cuts may be severe, the editors worry more about what will happen to the U.S. defense infrastructure if Republicans and Democrats cannot agree to a second round of cuts, which would trigger $1.2 trillion worth of security cuts: "[S]uch cuts would eviscerate US defence capability. The US would be a greatly reduced superpower, one with little leeway if bits of the world go rancid or sour. Among other things, it would mean a China with more space to expand its military influence than it probably has capacity to fill. It will also mean large chunks of ocean and remoter bits of the world, presently policed or at least contained by the U.S., would be allowed to run wild." Sounds like a call to India's politicians for a ramp-up in defense preparations.
And apparently the world's largest democracy has some lessons for Congress. ColumnistMihir Sharma in an Indian Express op-ed takes aimat the most august of American institutions: "The United States is the home of what Americans like to say is the world's greatest constitution, but is in fact the world's most outdated." Sharma argues that a document "written for an age before railroads, let alone before cable news" has led to the current crisis. Tricorner-hat-wearing Tea Partiers would probably disagree.
PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images
BRITAIN
The British press has been characteristically brutal in its assessment of both Republicans' intransigence and Obama's failure to stand up to their demands. The Independent writesin its lead editorial that while "Armageddonhas been averted … as long as a generation of Republican politicians feel entitled to hold a gun to the head of the credit of America to secure their political ends -- disaster will never be far away."
Guardian economic editorLarry Elliott comparesthe United States to a "tinpot Latin American dictatorship circa 1980" and calls it a "country where a plutocracy is firmly in control," suggesting that "If the U.S. were any other country it would be seeking help from the International Monetary Fund." In the same paper, writer and activist George Monbiot writesthat the Tea Party "consists of people who have been harmed by tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor" amd who have been misled by corporate owned media.But Monbiot also senses another evil lurking: The current state of affairs in Congress is "a kind of political coup," he writes. "A handful of billionaires have shoved a spanner into the legislative process."
In the Telegraph, Toby Young notes the irony that the Democratic U.S. president now appears to be leaning to the right of the British Conservatives: "A year ago, American conservatives were showering David Cameron with praise for adopting such a radical approach to reducing Britain's deficit and contrasting him unfavourably with their own spendthrift President. Now, our Prime Minister looks like a weak-kneed liberal in contrast to the hard-headed Obama." Young believes that on both sides of the pond, a "sea change has taken place" and that "Socialist welfare programmes have become politically toxic."
Last year, it was the normally free-market United States that was taken aback by the harshness of British and European budget cuts. Things appear to have returned to normal.
Scott Barbour/Getty Images
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发表于 2011-8-5 17:30
