The other day, I attended a dinner at New York’s Plaza hotel organised by a group called the “Citizens Budget Commission”. To the irreverent British observer the name sounds improbably earnest, however New Yorkers (to their credit) take citizens’ commissions seriously. My fellow diners were a host of luminaries including Ben Bernanke (the solemn, bearded Federal Reserve chairman) and Michael Bloomberg (New York’s mayor), who discussed the tidal wave of debt that is now engulfing the US.
幾天前，我參加了一個在紐約廣場大飯店(Plaza Hotel)舉辦的晚宴。晚宴的籌辦方是一個叫做「公民預算委員會」(Citizens Budget Commission)的機構。無論紐約人對待各種公民委員會的態度有多麼嚴肅（這一點值得讚揚），在我這位有點玩世不恭的英國觀察人士看來，「公民預算委員會」這個名字都有點混搭的意味。與我一同參加晚宴的是一羣政要名流，包括蓄著鬍鬚、不苟言笑的美聯準(Fed)主席班•柏南奇(Ben Bernanke)、以及紐約市長麥克•彭博(Michael Bloomberg)。大家在晚宴上談論了即將吞沒美國的債務浪潮。