From < Testing all engines >摘自《经济学人》Feb 2nd 2006

For the time being, America's monetary policymakers think that their economy is still running pretty well. （1）This week, as Alan Greenspan handed over the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve to Ben Bernanke, the Fed marked the end of Mr Greenspan's 18-year reign by raising interest rates for the 14th consecutive meeting, to 4.5%.The central bankers also gave Mr Bernanke more flexibility by softening their policy statement: they said that further tightening “may be needed” rather than “is likely to be needed”, as before.

Most analysts expect the Fed to raise rates once or twice more, although the economy slowed sharply in late 2005. Real GDP growth fell to an annual rate of only 1.1% in the fourth quarter, the lowest for three years. （2）Economists were quick to ascribe this disappointing number to special factors, such as Hurricane Katrina and a steep fall in car sales—the consequence of generous incentives that had encouraged buyers to bring purchases forward to the third quarter. The consensus has it that growth will bounce back to an annual rate of over 4% in the first quarter and stay strong thereafter.

new words

reign     n 执政，主权，王朝；v 当政，统治，占优势
The reign of Queen Victoria lasted more than sixty years.
维多利亚女王的统治持续了六十多年。
incentive    a. 刺激的,鼓励的; n. 刺激,鼓励
He hasn't much incentive to work hard.
他没有努力工作的动力。

≡参考答案：≡

本周，随着格林斯潘把美联储主席的职务移交给伯南克，美联储举行第14次连续会议将利率上调至4.5％，这标志着格林斯潘先生18年任期的结束。 经济学家迅速把这个令人失望的数字归咎于特殊因素的影响，比如卡特里那飓风以及汽车销量的急速下降，这个下降是厂商的慷慨刺激促使消费者提前到第三季度购买汽车的结果。