Most American students have said goodbye to fancy(高级的) fruits these days. In school canteens across the country, cheaper fruits like apples and oranges have taken their places.
“People are afraid to spend now,” said Linda Morrow, who owns a shoe and handbag store. “They don’t know what the future will bring.”
During the financial crisis(金融危机), several of the country’s biggest banks have been forced to sell or close. This has made lots of Americans afraid to buy expensive goods.
Samira Marino, a restaurant owner in Miami, has found everyone is ordering water instead of juice and more people are sharing meals. In more than two dozen interviews with The Associated Press across the country last month, Americans talked about their concerns, from worries about small businesses to doubts about simply making ends meet.
The crisis began last year. Experts think it was because US banks lend money too easily. Last year a lot of people and companies, who borrowed money, have found themselves unable to pay it back. This left the banks, as well as the people who put their money in the banks, without money. Since the banks borrowed money between themselves and even across borders(国界), the whole world was in trouble.
This month the US government agreed on a $700 billion plan to try to save the financial market. But no one is sure whether it will help or not. President George W. Bush has warned it will take some time.
Last week top finance officials from 20 countries promised to work together to find a way out of the money trouble.
【小题1】Why are people in the US afraid to spend?