Pessimism dies hard in the UK. Even so, the startling rise in sentiment seen in British business surveys in recent months calls for a rethink of the downbeat view of the economy that prevailed at the start of 2013. After several years of gloomy economic data, there was strong consensus that the country was permanently mired in a severe demand shortfall, and that none of the usual levers – monetary policy, fiscal policy or weaker sterling – could fix the problem. The outlook appeared so bleak that the government imported Mark Carney from Canada to devise emergency ways of easing monetary conditions.
在英國，人們的悲觀情緒很難消退。儘管如此，最近幾個月對英國企業的調查卻顯示出企業信心顯著回升，這呼喚我們反思2013年初盛行的對英國經濟的悲觀看法。在經濟數據持續多年呈現悲觀面貌之後，人們達成了一個有力共識：英國已永久性陷入嚴重的需求短缺狀況，通常的政策工具——貨幣政策、財政政策或英鎊貶值——都無法解決這個問題。前景看上去如此黯淡，以至於英國政府從加拿大搬來馬克•卡尼(Mark Carney)做救兵，來制定放鬆貨幣狀況的緊急策略。