The other day, I attended a dinner at New York’s Plaza hotel organised by a group called the “Citizens Budget Commission”. To the irreverent British observer the name sounds improbably earnest, however New Yorkers (to their credit) take citizens’ commissions seriously. My fellow diners were a host of luminaries including Ben Bernanke (the solemn, bearded Federal Reserve chairman) and Michael Bloomberg (New York’s mayor), who discussed the tidal wave of debt that is now engulfing the US.
几天前，我参加了一个在纽约广场大饭店(Plaza Hotel)举办的晚宴。晚宴的筹办方是一个叫做“公民预算委员会”(Citizens Budget Commission)的机构。无论纽约人对待各种公民委员会的态度有多么严肃（这一点值得赞扬），在我这位有点玩世不恭的英国观察人士看来，“公民预算委员会”这个名字都有点混搭的意味。与我一同参加晚宴的是一群政要名流，包括蓄着胡须、不苟言笑的美联储(Fed)主席本•伯南克(Ben Bernanke)、以及纽约市长迈克尔•布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)。大家在晚宴上谈论了即将吞没美国的债务浪潮。