A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of sovereign default. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Brussels and Frankfurt, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, French socialists and German Christian Democrats. Churchillian doctors, they prescribe blood, sweat and tears – fiscal consolidation, tax increases and spending cuts. They swear, for the umpteenth time, that they will never surrender: Greece will be saved, Italy and Spain will not be abandoned and the rating of France will not be downgraded. In the face of adversity, they assure us that what cannot be achieved by austerity can be achieved by more austerity. An epidemic of holier-than-thou fiscal virtue is spreading throughout Europe and is fast transforming a series of uncoordinated fiscal retrenchments into a euro-wide contraction with dire implications for growth and employment.
歐洲正被一個(gè)幽靈纏身：那就是主權(quán)違約的幽靈。舊歐洲的所有大國(guó)已組成了一個(gè)神圣聯(lián)盟，力圖驅(qū)趕這個(gè)幽靈：布魯塞爾和法蘭克福，德國(guó)總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)和法國(guó)總統(tǒng)尼古拉?薩科齊(Nicolas Sarkozy)，法國(guó)社會(huì)主義者和德國(guó)基督教民主黨人。邱吉爾(Churchill)風(fēng)格的醫(yī)生們開(kāi)出了混合著血水、汗水和淚水的處方：財(cái)政整固、增稅和減支。他們第無(wú)數(shù)次發(fā)誓，自己永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)投降：希臘將得到拯救，意大利和西班牙不會(huì)被拋棄，而法國(guó)的信用評(píng)級(jí)也不會(huì)被調(diào)降。在逆境面前，他們向我們保證：通過(guò)財(cái)政緊縮無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)，可以通過(guò)更多的緊縮來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)。一場(chǎng)假仁假義的財(cái)政美德疫情正在整個(gè)歐洲地區(qū)蔓延，并迅速將一系列不協(xié)調(diào)的財(cái)政緊縮，轉(zhuǎn)變成一場(chǎng)橫掃歐元區(qū)的萎縮，這將對(duì)增長(zhǎng)和就業(yè)造成可怕的影響。