首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
"Depression" is more than a serious economic downturn. What distinguishes a depression from a harsh recession is paralyzing fear
"Depression" is more than a serious economic downturn. What distinguishes a depression from a harsh recession is paralyzing fear
admin
2013-10-08
63
问题
"Depression" is more than a serious economic downturn. What distinguishes a depression from a harsh recession is paralyzing fear—fear of the unknown so great that it causes consumers, businesses, and investors to retreat and panic. They save up cash and desperately cut spending. They sell stocks and other assets. A shattering loss of confidence inspires behavior that overwhelms the normal self-correcting mechanisms that usually prevent a recession from becoming deep and prolonged: a depression.
Comparing 1929 with 2007-09, Christina Romer, the head of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, finds the initial blow to confidence far greater now than then. True, stock prices fell a third from September to December 1929, but fewer Americans then owned stocks. Moreover, home prices barely dropped. From December 1928 to December 1929, total household wealth declined only 3%. By contrast, the loss in household wealth between December 2007 and December 2008 was 17%. Both stocks and homes, more widely held, dropped more. Thus traumatized(受到创伤). the economy might have gone into a free fall ending in depression. Indeed, it did go into free fall. Shoppers refrained from buying cars, appliances, and other big-ticket items. Spending on such "durables" dropped at a 12% annual rate in 2008’s third quarter, a 20% rate in the fourth. And businesses shelved investment projects.
That these huge declines didn’t lead to depression mainly reflects, as Romer argues, countermeasures taken by the government. Private markets for goods, services, labor, and securities do mostly self-correct, but panic feeds on itself and disarms these stabilizing tendencies. In this situation, only government can protect the economy as a whole, because most individuals and companies are involved in the self-defeating behavior of self-protection.
Government’s failure to perform this role in the early 1930s transformed recession into depression. Scholars will debate which interventions this time—the Federal Reserve’s support of a failing credit system, guarantees of bank debt, Obama’s "stimulus" plan and bank "stress test"—counted most in preventing a recurrence. Regardless, all these complex measures had the same psychological purpose: to reassure people that the free fall would stop and, thereby, curb the fear that would perpetuate(使持久)a free fall.
All this improved confidence. But the consumer sentiment index remains weak, and all the rebound has occurred in Americans’ evaluation of future economic conditions, not the present. Unemployment(9.8%)is abysmal(糟透的), the recovery’s strength unclear. Here, too, there is an echo from the 1930s. Despite bottoming out in 1933, the Depression didn’t end until World War II. Some government policies aided recovery; some hindered it. The good news today is that the bad news is not worse.
What is the chief purpose of all the countermeasures taken?
选项
A、To create job opportunities.
B、To curb the fear of a lasting free fall.
C、To stimulate domestic consumption.
D、To rebuild the credit system.
答案
B
解析
细节辨认题。定位句提到,政府所采取的复杂的措施都有—个共同的心理目标:消除人们的疑虑,让他们相信经济的自由跌落会停止,从而遏制住会造成经济持久自由跌落的恐慌,故答案为B)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/AP27777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Themanshouldphonethehotelfordirection.B、Themancanaskthedepartmentstoreforhelp.C、Shedoesn’thavethehotel’s
Thehorseandcarriageisathingofthepast,butloveandmarriagearestillwithusandstillcloselyinterrelated.MostAmer
Thehorseandcarriageisathingofthepast,butloveandmarriagearestillwithusandstillcloselyinterrelated.MostAmer
A、Aneconomicpolicyofacountry.B、Aneconomicpolicyofafamily.C、TVprogramsdesignedforafamily.D、Abirthcontrolpoli
WheneverIhearaweatherreportdeclaringit’sthehottestJune10onrecordorwhatever,Ican’ttakeittooseriously,becaus
A、Tooslowforadifficultbookthoughjustrightforanon-seriousone.B、Tooslowforanon-seriousbookbuttoofastforadi
A、Sheboughtanewcar.B、Shewasinjuredinanaccident.C、ShewentoutwithDavid.D、Shehadalittleaccident.D细节题。浏览选项可知,每个
DougMorrellhadalreadyinstalledsolarpanelsonhishouseinCoopersville,Mich.,buthewaseagertogetalittlebitgreen
Heisgoodatworkingoutmathematicproblems,______(但是一谈到艺术),heknowslittleaboutit.
A、Runninggetsapersonwetterwhileraining.B、Runningfastkeepsapersontotallydrywhileraining.C、Runninghasalittleim
随机试题
心脏瓣膜听诊区错误的部位是()
治疗心功能不全,利尿剂的作用机制是
I型胃溃疡的最佳手术方式是
具有分离麻醉特点的药物是
建筑钢材中有害的化学元素有()。
消防安全重点单位的界定程序包括申报、核定、告知、公告等步骤。其中,公告是指公安机关消防机构于每年的()对本辖区消防安全重点单位进行核查调整,以公安机关文件形式上报本级人民政府,并通过报刊、电视、互联网网站等媒体将本地区的消防安全重点单位
灿烂的华夏历史少不了少数民族的参与,历史上下少数民族建立的国家或朝代与其民族对应错误的是()。
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处.使之呈现一定的规律性:
在因特网中,请求域名解析的软件必须知道()。
A、Becausetheyareafraidofgettingsick.B、Becausetherestaurantdoesn’thaveanyleft.C、Becausetheywantshrimpcocktaili
最新回复
(
0
)