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????因此，盡管“財政懸崖”的影響是非常真實的，但它其實更像是一個“財政斜坡”，他補充說。斯通更重要的一個觀點是，良好的決策需要時間。如果國會議員在財政懸崖幾周或一個月之后能夠拿出對策，經濟就會好起來的。

????但這本身依然是一個相對較短的時間窗口。鑒于歐洲和中國經濟的增長前景并不明朗，以及美國債務上限將于明年2月份到期這一事實，我們就很容易理解斯通描述的“喘息期”為什么可能不足以緩解投資者的憂慮。回想一下去年8月份在國會就聯邦債務上限問題匆匆達成協議之后市場的反應吧。當時，標準普爾500指數（Standard & Poor's 500）和道瓊斯工業平均指數（Dow Jones Industrial Average ）出現了幾乎兩年以來延續時間最長的連續下跌勢頭，華爾街的這些跡象表明，這項協議幾乎并未減緩投資者對于經濟前景的憂慮情緒。

????從技術角度來看，財政懸崖聽起來或許并不像大多數人想的那么可怕。但如今的不確定性多得令人難以置信，市場的寬容度似乎在與日俱減。

????譯者：任文科

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????So while the implications of a fiscal cliff are very real, it's more like a "fiscal slope," he adds. Stone's bigger point is that good policymaking takes time. If lawmakers go past the fiscal cliff by a few weeks or a month, the economy would be okay.

????But that itself is still a relatively short window. Given the host of economic uncertainties surrounding growth in Europe and China and the fact that the U.S. debt ceiling comes due in February, it's easy to see why the breathing period that Stone describes may not be enough to ease investors' worries. Recall the markets' reaction last August following the rush deal struck over the federal debt ceiling. Wall Street signaled that the deal did little to calm worries about the economy when the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw their longest losing streaks in nearly two years.

????Technically, the fiscal cliff may not sound as bad as most think. But these are incredibly uncertain times, and the market looks to be less and less forgiving.