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The United States' national debt is $12.5 trillion.
美国当前的国债规模是12.5万亿美元。
So lot's of people are freaked out.
所以很多人都抓狂了。
But how big is that really?
但12.5万亿美元的国债真的很多吗？
National income, the total value of everything the U.S. makes each year, is also huge.
我们的国民收入，也就是美国一年的总产值，数目也是惊人的。
And all that misses the most important point: the U.S. government can never run out of dollars.
但这些都没抓住最重要的一点，那就是美国政府永远不会缺钱。
Unlike you, or the company you work for or the town you live in, the federal government prints dollars.
跟大家或者大家卖命的公司又或者你所居住的城市不同，联邦政府有印刷货币的资格。
Or, actually, the Federal Reserve mostly makes it with computers.
准确地说，美联储主要是通过电脑印刷钞票的。
The only thing to worry about is inflation.
唯一值得大家担心的是通货膨胀。
If you have too much money chasing a fixed amount of stuff, that means higher prices.
如果商品数额有限但钱太多的话，就意味着商品价格要上涨。
And if inflation gets out of control, the Fed will slow down the economy by raising interest rates.
如果通胀失控，美联储就会通过提高利率来放慢经济增长的脚步。
Higher rates for the government mean even higher rates for businesses.
政府提高利率就意味着企业利率以更大的幅度增长。
That means less investment in the private economy and slower growth.
这也就意味着投资私有经济的规模会缩水，经济增速放缓。
That's why you worry about deficits, because they lead to inflation and higher interest rates.
这就是大家为赤字担忧的原因，因为赤字会引起通胀以及利率提高。
But these days inflation is the lowest it's been in 30 years, and interest rates are also near record lows.
然而，如今的通胀已经是最近30年最低水平了，利率也是降到了历史新低。
So we could reduce debt with higher taxes, or by cutting benefits,
所以，虽然我们可以通过提高税收或者降低福利水平来减少国债，
but that would take money out of people's pockets -- means fewer jobs, it means lower incomes.
但这些钱都要美国人民自己来掏，这也就意味着工作机会减少，收入减少。
So trying to reduce debt might actually make the debt situation worse.
总而言之，减少国债实则可能会让国债规模更加失控。
So let's think of something else to worry about...Debt just isn't a problem right now.
所以我们何不担心担心别的问题，现在我们的国债其实算不上什么大问题。
