一些读者，尤其是非美国人，可能会好奇华盛顿反复就债务上限和政府停摆争吵不休意味着什么。这可以理解。在世界上几乎每个国家，当立法机构批准一份导致净新增借款（例如500亿欧元（558亿美元））的预算时，政府因此被授权承担该债务以融资预算。在美国则不然。在那里，预算和借款授权是两个……
Some readers, especially non-Americans, might wonder what the recurring squabbles in Washington over the debt ceiling and government shutdowns mean. That’s understandable. In virtually every country in the world, when the legislature approves a budget that results in net new borrowing of, say, 50 billion euros (US$55.8 billion), the government is thereby authorised to take on that debt to finance the budget. Not so in the United States. There, the budget and borrowing authorisation are two...