Festina lente – hurry slowly – is advice we have inherited from the ancient Romans. Western policymakers should now take it to heart. Confronted with huge fiscal deficits, many have concluded that they should hurry fiscal tightening on as fast as possible, in the hope that it will prove expansionary. What are the chances that they will be right? Small, I believe. Moreover, rather better alternatives are on offer. But their drawback is that they are unorthodox: alas, many “sound” people prefer orthodox recessions to unorthodox recoveries.
Festina lente（從容趕急）是我們從古羅馬人那里繼承來的忠告。西方政策制定者們現在應該把這句話放在心上。面對巨額財政赤字，許多人得出結論，他們應盡可能快地收緊財政，以期對經濟產生擴張效應。那么這些結論正確的可能性有多大呢？我認為很小。此外，還有一些比這更好的選擇。但這些選擇的弊端在于，它們是非正統手段：唉，許多“理性的”人寧愿選擇正統的衰退，也不想要非正統的復蘇。
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