公共课英语一模拟题2020年(297).docVIP

公共课英语一模拟题2020年(297) (总分-20,考试时间180分钟) 阅读理解 Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of a new discussion paper looking at "the return of the East Asian savings glut". A summary of his paper begins in arresting fashion with statistics: 【R1】__________ Prior to the financial crisis, many economists fretted about the problem of global imbalances. Measurement error aside, global trade balances; surpluses in some countries offset deficits in others. Why do such imbalances matter? They can create problems in a few ways. Large surpluses can be a side effect of very high savings rates, for example. The large imbalances of the 2000s seemed to reflect unnaturally high savings, which contributed to a "global savings glut" that depressed interest rates and encouraged reckless borrowing. 【R2】__________These sorts of problems still apply in some circumstances. Yet another worry has grown more salient in the post-crisis period: the demand drain imposed on the global economy by surplus countries. A rising surplus in one country implies a rising deficit in another. That deficit represents a demand drain; spending that might otherwise have taken place within the economy flowing abroad into another economy. 【R3】__________However, when interest rates are near zero and political constraints prevent governments from using active fiscal policy, the demand drain is dangerous: it generally results in weaker demand, and slower growth. Imbalances today look slightly different than they did a decade ago. Then, America accounted for nearly all of the global deficit, while oil-exporting economies were responsible for most of the surplus. Oil balances are less important now, since America produces much more oil domestically than it used to, and since global oil prices have fallen. Instead, the surplus countries are high-saving goods exporters in Europe and East Asia. The big deficit economies, somewhat strikingly, are now America, Australia, Britai