Economist, 经济学人杂志。是一份由伦敦经济学人报纸有限公司出版的杂志，于1843年9月由詹姆士�威尔逊创办。杂志的大多数文章写得机智，幽默，有力度，严肃又不失诙谐，并且注重于怎样在最小的篇幅内告诉读者最多的信息。杂志主要关注政治和商业方面的新闻，但是每期也有一两篇针对科技和艺术的报导，以及一些书评。
杂志中所有文章都不署名，而且往往带有鲜明的立场，但又处处用事实说话。主编们认为：写出了什么东西，比出自谁的手笔更重要。从2012年1月28日的那一期杂志开始《经济学人》杂志开辟了中国专栏，为有关中国的文章提供更多的版面。同时，《经济学人》也是极好的雅思阅读课外读物，很多时候，雅思阅读考试的文章就是出自其中。可以说经济学人相比较于其他国内外语报纸的态度更客观，视角更宽。
MARK CARNEY is a man on a macroeconomic tightrope. On August 7th the new governor of theBank of England promised that interest rates will stay low until the unemployment rate, now7.8%, has fallen to 7.0% or lower. He gave himself two get out clauses: his pledge is off ifinflation gets out of hand or if Britain's banks start to wobble. Mr Carney's announcementreflected the balancing act demanded of him: he must spur economic confidence withoutallowing inflation to erode wages and savings. The severity of the slump in British livingstandards shows just how tricky that task will be.
马克?卡尼(Mark Carney)正处于“宏观经济”这条钢丝绳上。这位新上任的英国银行行长承诺，将使利率维持在一个较低的水平，直至国内失业率由当前的7.8%降至7.0%甚至更低。他同时也为自己设立了两条“出局条款”：若通货膨胀难以掌控，或英国银行地位岌岌可危，他的承诺就并未兑现，那么他就会“出局”。 卡尼先生发布的条款也反映了公众对其在宏观经济之绳上平衡自如的期望：他必须在通货膨胀不会对公众的薪金和存款造成不利影响的情况下，带动英国经济重拾信心。然而英国民众生活水平急剧下降这一现象的严重性，则反映出卡尼先生肩上担子之重。
By some measures, the economy is moving from “rescue to recovery”—in the words of GeorgeOsborne, the Conservative chancellor of the exchequer. GDP grew by 0.6% in the secondquarter of 2013 and house prices by almost 4% year-on-year. Yet the wallets of many,particularly those on lower and middle incomes, bear little evidence of it. Inflation is relativelymodest, but wages lag far behind. A recent government-funded study found that 52% ofBritons are struggling to keep up with the bills.
英国政府通过采取一系列手段，用保守党财政大臣乔治?奥斯本(George Osborne)的话来说，英国经济正在由“抢救阶段进入复苏阶段”。国民生产总值(GDP)在2013年第二季度上涨0.6%，而房价则在以每年4%的速度攀升。尽管该势头较难从众多民众，尤其是中低层收入群体的收入及消费水平中体现出来。通货膨胀的趋势虽然平缓，但薪金却严重滞后。最近，一项政府资助的研究项目发现，52%的英国民众正在苦苦维持收支平衡。
Even comfortable areas are pinched. In Solihull, a leafy suburb of Birmingham, unemploymentis below average, but the cost-of-living crisis is acute. In 2010 only one client of its threeCitizens Advice Bureaus (CAB) needed an emergency food parcel. Today they give out oneevery two days, some to people in work who run out of cash before payday. A record 16,000people (nearly 8% of Solihull) passed through the charity's advice cubicles in 2012. Mostfrequently, they sought help with debt.
即使生活环境相对舒适的地区也感受到了压力。绿树成荫的索利赫尔位于伯明翰郊区，这里的失业率低于平均水平，但生活成本危机却相当严重。2010年，在当地三家公民咨询局(CAB)中只有一位客户索要了应急食品包，而如今一包应急食品包两天内就会被分发出去，其中一些是提供给那些青黄不接的工薪族。一项纪录表明，在2012年，16,000人(约占索利赫尔地区人数的8%)向慈善机构的咨询室寻求帮助并渡过难关，其中绝大多数是寻求债务帮助。
One such customer, David, used to make a decent living as a skilled tradesman, but is nowunemployed. He is behind on once-affordable gas, water and rent bills. His CAB adviserreckons he will never again earn what he used to, so is helping him cut costs he once consideredessential, like internet access and mobile phones, from his family's budget.
大卫就是上诉客户中的一员。他也曾是一位拥有体面工作且富有经验的商人，而现如今却处于失业状态，并且在曾一度可以支付得起的天然气费、水费和房租中苦苦挣扎。他在公民咨询局(CAB)的顾问推算出他的收入将不会再回到从前的水平，于是便帮助大卫从他的家庭预算中削减了诸如网费和话费等，那些曾经被认为是必要的开支。
A Spartan future awaits the 40% of working-age Britons who, like David, are falling behind.They are in the bottom half of the income scale but, unlike the poorest 10%, predominantlylive off wages, not benefits. Their predicament dates to the early 2000s, when GDP andearnings peeled apart. Living costs have since left median wages far behind (see chart 1).
约有40%正处于工龄期的英国人像大卫一样，生活水平一落千丈，迎接他们的将是一个斯巴达式的未来——他们占收入群体底层人数的一半但又与最贫困潦倒的(占收入群体底层人数的10%)，主要将收入花费在维持基本生活而没有其他补贴的人不同。他们的窘境可以追溯到21世纪初，当时国民生产总值(GDP)与公民收入不对等，公民生活费用已远远超出其中等收入水平。
The plate tectonics of the labour market offer the best explanation for this. With a decliningindustrial base, the British economy needs fewer mid-level skilled workers. Most new posts arelow- or high-paying ones (see chart 2). Many in the middle lack the skills to move up and arepushed towards the low-wage end of the economy. Machinists and tradesmen become cashiersand call-centre workers.
通过研究英国劳务市场的组成可以很清晰的解释这一现象：工业基础弱化导致当前英国经济水平下，市场几乎不需要中等技术水平的从业者，且绝大多数工作岗位是提供给低薪或高薪要求的人。很多中等水平的从业者缺乏提升自身的技术而最终得到较低的报酬，像一些机械工程师和零售商，最终却变成了收银员和呼叫中心的工作人员。
Successive governments have bolstered the disposable incomes of the 40% with tax credits.According to the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank, in 1977 the state supplemented theirwages by one percentage point of national income. By 2008-09 the top-up was 3.7 percentagepoints. This helped disguise the decline in the group's share of national original income from30% to 22%.
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