国家债务以空前速度增长，几乎无人准备遏制它。在周二中期选举前夕，民主党广告猛攻伊朗战争、油价和所谓的腐败。共和党警告社会主义、跨性别运动员和增税。两党竞选纲领中显眼地缺失了什么？美国飙升的赤字和债务。
The national debt is growing at an unprecedented pace and almost nobody is prepared to stop it Pablo Delcan for WSJ In the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democratic ads hammer at the Iran war, gas prices and alleged corruption. Republicans warn about socialism, transgender athletes and tax hikes. What’s conspicuously absent from both parties’ pitches? America’s soaring deficits and debt.
据广告追踪公司AdImpact统计，2018年中期选举期间，有140条政治广告谈论债务或赤字。今年仅有30条，在今年竞选议题中排名第52位。这并非因为债务问题消失了。恰恰相反。
During the 2018 midterms, 140 political ads talked about the debt or deficit, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. This year, just 30 did, ranking 52nd among topics in this year’s campaigns. This is not because the debt problem went away. Quite the opposite.
在截至9月30日的财政年度中，美国联邦公众持有债务首次在80年里达到国内生产总值（GDP）的100%。这比2001年水平高出两倍多，分析师预计二战后106%的纪录将在几年内被打破。
For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, U.S. publicly held federal debt reached 100% of gross domestic product for the first time in 80 years. That’s more than triple its 2001 level, and analysts expect the post-World War II record of 106% to fall in a few years.
截至9月30日的财政年度，年度赤字略低于2万亿美元，占GDP的6.2%。这是连续第七年超过5%，是至少一个世纪以来最长的此类纪录，且在战争、衰退或紧急状态之外属于前所未有。债务利息在短短四年内翻了一倍多，其成本现已超过军费开支。
The annual deficit for the year that ended Sept. 30 landed just shy of $2 trillion, or 6.2% of GDP. That’s seven consecutive years above 5%, the longest such streak in at least a century and unprecedented outside wars, recessions or emergencies. Interest on the debt more than doubled in just four years and its cost now exceeds military spending.
虽然目前尚无市场恐慌迹象，但债券市场的周期性剧烈波动——包括近期美国国债收益率飙升至24年高位——暗示了风险所在。
While there is no sign of market panic yet, periodic spasms in the bond market—including the recent jump in Treasury yields to 24-year highs—give a hint of what’s at stake.