The second surprise in 2005 was that while oil prices increased far more than expected, the economic dampening effect seemed somewhat muted in most places, at least until the last part of the year. Because of higher oil prices, for example, America’s spending on oil imports has increased by roughly $50 billion a year – money that otherwise would have been spent mostly on goods made in America.
但这并非 2006 年美国和全球前景暗淡的唯一原因。2005 年第二件出人意表的事件是在油价涨幅大大超过预期的同时，在绝大多数地区，经济的抑制性效果好象没有怎么表现出来，至少到今年最近一段时间为止，情况是这样。比如，因为油价上涨，美国在石油进口上的支出一年内增加了约 500 亿美元，而这些钱本来会主要花费在美国制造的商品上。