NEW YORK – The best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse, that we pulled back from the precipice on which we seemed to be perched in late 2008, and that 2010 will almost surely be better for most countries around the world. The world has also learned some valuable lessons, though at great cost to both current and future prosperity – costs that were unnecessarily high given that we should already have learned them.
纽约——如果要为2009年说几句好话，我们顶多能说，情况本来会更糟，2008年下半年我们仿佛在悬崖边徘徊，后来总算没掉下去，而在2010年，世界上大多数国家的情况八成会有所改善。全世界也已经得到了一些宝贵的教训，尽管现在和未来的经济为此付出了巨大的代价——这代价原本未必会这么大，如果我们早点懂得那些道理的话。