经济学人343:汽车城熄火抛锚(1)

 　　APART from more money, what the city of Detroit needs most is certainty. Both are in short supply at the moment. On March 21st a state-appointed review team unanimously agreed that it is suffering a “severe financial emergency”. The day before, Moody’s had downgraded more than $2.5 billion of the city’s debt, citing its lack of cash. Amid this deepening financial crisis the state of Michigan, local unions, the mayor, the city council and the courts are battling over the future of Motor City.

　　除了缺乏资金，底特律急需还有稳定；而就当前局势来言，两者都不乐观。在3月21日，州政府任命的调查组达成一致，认定底特律正处于“严峻的财务危机”中。前天，鉴于市政府在现金上捉襟见肘，穆迪投资评级机构将底特律所欠的25亿美元降级处理。眼看底特律深陷财政危机，苦苦挣扎，密西根州政府，底特律市长，当地各公会，以及市政委员会和法庭一一粉墨登场，就汽车城的未来你争我夺，互不相让。
　　The simplest solution, a state bail-out, is tricky 1. Both the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, and the head of the state’s House Appropriations 2 Committee, Chuck Moss 3, argue that yet another infusion 4 of cash will not solve Detroit’s underlying 5 problems. To prove his point, the governor recently reminded citizens that the city has borrowed $600m since 2005 just to get by. It is also planning, with some state support, to issue $137m in bonds in order to refinance its debt and create cashflow that will allow it to totter 6 on until the end of the financial year.
　　面对底特律棘手的现状，州政府救助这一看似最简单的解决方法已无济于事。密西根州州长Rick Snyder，连同州众议院拨款委员会委员长Chuck Moss表示即使再次注入资金也无法从根本上解决底特律所面临的问题。为了证实这一点。最近州长出面告知底特律居民，自从2005年起，底特律已举债6亿美元，且这笔钱仅够市政府勉强维持正常运营。除此之外，在州政府的协助下，底特律还计划发行价值一亿三千七百万美元的债卷，筹集来的资金用于债务重组和资金注入，好让这座汽车城蹒跚移到本财政年度期末。
　　Detroit’s financial problems have been building up for decades. City revenues have been hit by the collapse 7 of manufacturing, declining property values and the flight of better-off people to the suburbs. At the same time, the cost of servicing a still-sprawling city has not shrunk in proportion. Like many of America’s struggling municipalities, Detroit is paying pensions, entitlements and salaries far larger than it can afford.
　　冰冻三尺非一日之寒，底特律的财政问题是数十年来累积的结果。制造产业的崩塌，房地产衰退加上小康家庭蜂拥搬到郊区，使市政收入大幅缩水。但于此同时，民政服务开销却随着城区不断扩大而日益增长。同美国许多不断挣扎市政府一样，底特律将要支付的退休金，补贴和薪水已远超过其所能承受的范围。
　　Without new loans, the city will run out of cash in mid-May. The state is pushing it hard to sort out its structural 8 deficit 9. Late last year it began a financial review of Detroit which was the legal prelude 10 to bringing in an unelected emergency manager, as Michigan has done in several other distressed 11 cities.
　　没有新的贷款注入，在五月中旬底特律就会掏空口袋里的最后一枚铜板。严峻的现状迫使底特律急需找到解决结构性赤字的办法。去年末，一项对底特律财政状况的调查就已开展。此举也为指派危机总长从合法性上打下了伏笔。密西根州政府在其他危机重重城市也曾指派过危机总长。
　　Mr Snyder has said he would rather not use these laws in Detroit, and there is reason to believe him. Not only have they never been applied 12 to a city this size, but the takeover of a black city (with an all-black mayor and council) by a white governor has become racially charged. At one recent public meeting the crowd was unruly. “Before we let you take over our city,” one activist 13 shouted, “we will burn it down!”
　　但Snyder州长曾表态，不希望由危机管理员接手底特律。他也有他的苦衷：危机总长还从未接手过像底特律这样大规模的城市。更重要的是现已有人提出指控，认为由一个白人州长接管一个黑人种族为主的城市（市长和市委成员都为黑人）有种族歧视之嫌。在底特律最近一次公众聚会上，参与市民情绪激动，秩序混乱。更有甚者，一名活动参与者高呼：“在你们踏入我们的城市之前，我们就会先毁了它。”