What is required is easy fiscal policy today, together with plans to achieve fiscal rectitude in the long run. The difficulty with this Augustinian approach – “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet” – is that promises of future discipline usually are not credible.
事到如今，我们需要的是简单的财政政策，以及在长期内实现财政合理运行的计划。而这个奥古斯丁教义——“主啊，请使我变得纯洁，但别那么快实现”——类似的困难则在于对未来的操行许下的承诺通常是不可信的。政客们常说他们会在未来实现预算盈余，但却很少能兑现。