Amid the gloom, flickers of light. Barack Obama says he has seen “glimmers of hope” for the economy. Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, said “the sense of a ball falling off a table” is passing. Less evocatively, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, said this week that “recently we have seen tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing”. They are right: the descent is less rapid. But a truly sustainable recovery remains a distant prospect.
黑暗之中，閃現著幾絲光明。巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)說，他看到經濟閃現出「希望的微光」。白宮國家經濟委員會(National Economic Council)主任勞倫斯•薩默斯(Lawrence Summers)稱：「球從桌面墜落的感覺」正在消失。而美聯準(Fed)主席班•柏南奇(Ben Bernanke)的言辭則更爲平實，他本週表示：「我們最近看到了初步跡象，經濟活動急劇減弱的勢頭可能正在放緩。」沒錯，衰退的速度確實沒那麼快了。但是，真正可持續的復甦仍遙遙無期。