降息：经济复苏乏力，美国重施故技

    全球股市大跌后，为重振经济复苏，美联储再次祭出了降息大旗。

    美国联邦公开市场委员会（Federal Open Market Committee）周二放出消息，政府计划大幅降低利率。自2008年以来，政府便一直使用降息手段来缓解借贷压力以促使投资者将资本注入股市等风险市场。与以往不同的是，此次美联储（Federal Reserve）明确提出了时间限定，并称至少在2013年年中之前，基准利率都将处于历史最低水平。

    或许有些人认为这一举措堪称果敢，但是它却难以扭转目前经济复苏的颓势。这一举措无非再次证实了人们熟知的事实：经济糟透了！

    美国联邦公开市场委员会会议之后，美联储在接下来的声明中证实了这一计划。与预期的一样，这一举措观望态度十足，并无任何激烈之处。该举措还包括进行大规模的国债收购，暨所谓的量化宽松政策。（详见：《美联储救市无方》一文）

    现在，似乎美联储正高挂免战牌。这也情有可原的。政府也可以向经济注资数十亿美元，但是谁敢保证疲软的经济就会因此好转，恼人的失业率就会因此下降。

    “我认为美联储在恢复经济的举措上已是黔驴技穷，”哥伦比亚大学（Columbia University）经济学教授大卫•贝姆在一封邮件中写道，“宽松货币政策、量化宽松以及宽松的赤字政策这些经典的宏观经济处方已经被运用到了极致，但是经济却已经不再买账。”

    人们的反应并不强烈。毕竟，公司现金流非常充足。美国也并未出现严重的流动性问题。

    “经济复苏的障碍另有文章：消费者负债过多，房产过剩，劳动力受教育水平偏低，”贝姆补充道，“要在短时间内解决这些结构性问题基本上是不可能的。就算砸再多的钱也很难起作用。”

    In a bid to reboot the economic recovery following a global stock rout, the Federal Reserve is sticking by its old toolbox.

    The Federal Open Market Committee today signaled plans to keep interest rates exceptionally low. Officials have resorted to this policy prescription since 2008 in hopes of helping keep borrowing rates low and driving investors into riskier assets like stocks. What's different this time is that the Fed has explicitly spelled out a timeline, saying that it would keep its benchmark interest rate at a record low at least through mid-2013.

    This might sound like a bold move to some, but it likely won't do much to jolt our tepid economic recovery. The action merely underscores what most of us already know: The economy stinks!

    The Fed essentially confirmed that in a statement following the FOMC meeting. As expected, it adopted a wait-and-see approach without embarking on anything too dramatic, including unleashing another round of large-scale bond purchases called quantitative easing. (See: Don't look to the Fed for a rescue)

    For now, it seems the Fed is sitting idle. And who could blame it? Officials could pump billions of dollars into the economy but it's questionable if that will really do much to spur faster growth or bring down our annoyingly high unemployment rate.

    "My take on the Fed is that they do not have any effective tools available to help the economy," writes Columbia University economics professor David Beim in an e-mail. "The classic macroeconomic prescription of easy monetary policy has been used to the max, together with quantitative easing, together with very loose fiscal policy, and these have not budged the economy."

    This isn't all that surprising. After all, companies are flushed with cash. The nation isn't exactly suffering from a liquidity problem.

    "…The obstacles to economic recovery lie elsewhere: over-indebted consumers, over-built real estate and under-educated workers," Beim adds. "Fixing these structural problems in a short time frame, however, is unlikely. Throwing more money at them is ineffectual."