In the last few days the financial press has been dominated by the collapse of the pound and the subsequent spike in UK short bond yields. Much blame has been heaped on the proposals of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, with Twitter wags talking about the “KamiKwasi budget,” and so on. This may or may not be deserved; Unhedged is even more out of its depth than usual on that topic. Certainly the latest leg down in the pound looks like a direct response to the budget, as Katie Martin points out. And unfunded tax cuts in the face of inflation seem batty to us. But the overarching point is that the UK is not alone.
过去几天，英镑暴跌和随之而来的英国短期债券收益率飙升主导着金融媒体。很多人将其归咎于英国财政大臣夸西•克沃滕(Kwasi Kwarteng)出台的新预算，Twitter上有人调侃说这是“神风特工队夸西预算”(KamiKwasi budget)。这也许是他应得的，也许不是；这个话题超出本专栏的评论能力。最新一轮英镑下跌看上去肯定像是对预算的直接回应，就像凯蒂•马丁(Katie Martin)指出的那样。面对通胀，进行没有资金来源的减税看上去确实很冒失。但最重要的一点在于英国并非孤例。