The US and UK have similarities that go beyond speaking the same language: both had huge expansions in household credit; both had to rescue their financial sectors; both have watched their central banks push interest rates close to zero and adopt “quantitative easing”; and both have experienced massive post-crisis increases in fiscal deficits. Yet a big policy divergence is on the way. The coalition government of the UK will today announce details of their cuts in government spending. Nothing comparable is expected in the US. In its latest forecasts, the International Monetary Fund has noted this divergence. But the bond markets seem quite insouciant, at least so far (see chart).
除了說同一種語言之外，美英兩國還有很多相似之處：兩國都經歷了家庭信貸大幅擴張；兩國都不得不拯救本國金融行業；兩國央行都把利率降至接近零的水準並採取「定量寬鬆」政策；兩國在危機之後都經歷了財政赤字大規模增加。然而，兩國現在正出現巨大的政策分歧。英國聯合政府近日宣佈了削減政府支出的細節。但預計美國不會採取類似舉措。在最新經濟展望中，國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)指出了這一分歧。但債券市場似乎對此熟視無睹，至少目前如此。
