For the last three years, the consensus has been that the US economy was on the verge of a robust and self-sustaining recovery that would restore above-potential growth. That turned out to be wrong, as a painful process of balance-sheet deleveraging – reflecting excessive private-sector debt, and then its carryover to the public sector – implies that the recovery will remain, at best, below-trend for many years to come.
纽约—欧元区发生无序危机的风险已为人们所认识到，但对于美国，人们的普遍看法仍是乐观。在过去三年中，共识一直是美国经济快要实现稳健的自我维持复苏，将重回超过潜在增长率的增长阶段。这是错的，因为痛苦的资产负债表去杠杆化过程——反映了私人部门的过度负债及其后负债向公共部门转移——意味着即使在最好的情形下，复苏在未来多年内也打不到趋势水平。