Wall Street Take a Dive
Ronald Reagan’s 1985 budget took a thunderous shelling last week. Day after day, jittery Wall Street investors fired sell orders, hitting stock prices with their heaviest declines since 1982. Testifying in Washington, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul V olcker fired the single most damaging salvo by warning that the deficits envisaged in the budget pose a “clear and present danger”, threatening to keep interest rates high and tip the economy into a new recession.
The size of the deficits is staggering. Rudolph Penner, director of the Congressional Budget Office, predicted that if policy is not changed, the flow of red ink will swell from $190 billion this year to $326 billion by 1989.
In testimony on Capitol Hill, the President’s men acknowledged that the economy was in danger. Chief Economic Adviser Martin Feldstein, known as the Administration’s “Dr.Gloom,”agreed with Penner’s warning that the deficit could reach the $300 billion range by the evd of the decade. If that happened, said Feldstein, federal borrowing would be swallowing 75% of American savings and putting powerful upward pressure on interest rates. Even Treasury Secretary Donald Regan, usually an optimist and a critic of Feldstein’s dour outlook, admitted that “without proper fiscal and monetary policies, there is a possibility of our slipping back into a recession in the U.S.”Unless the Federal Reserve speeds up growth of the U.S money supply , warned Treasury Under Secretary Beryl Sprinkel, a recession could start this year.
译文：华尔街股价下跌
罗纳德里根1985财政年度的财政预算，上周遭到了猛烈的抨击。
华尔街的投资者深感不安，每天都要下令抛售股票，压低股票价格，导致1982年以来最大幅度的下跌。
联邦储备局主席保罗沃尔克在华盛顿作证时，放了最厉害的一炮。
他告诫说：从财政预算中可以预见的赤字，带来“清清楚楚的、实实在在的危险”，使得利率居高不下，使得经济失去平衡。
赤字数额高得惊人。
国会预算审议室主任鲁道夫彭纳语言：如果政策不改变，赤字的泛滥将从今年的一千九百亿美元，增至1989年的三千二百六十亿美元。
总统的幕僚在国会作证时承认，经济处于危险状态。
总统的首席经济顾问马丁费尔斯坦，人称政府中的“忧郁博士”，他赞同彭纳提出的告诫：至80年代末，赤字将达到三千亿美元这一幅度。
费尔斯坦说，如果出现这一情况，联邦政府的举债将耗去美国人积蓄的75%，产生强大的压力是利率上涨。
财政部长唐纳德里甘本来是个乐天派，对费尔斯坦的忧郁观点常持批评态度，可是就连他也承认：“没有正确的财政金融政策，美国可能再度陷入经济衰退。
”财政部次长贝利尔斯普林克警告说：如果联邦储备局不加速美国的货币供应量，今年就会出现经济衰退。