The US election: it’s all about Elon Musk! Or so it might seem. The Tesla boss has thrown money and airtime at Donald Trump. A Republican win could put Musk in government, while a win for Democrat Kamala Harris could — he has joked — put him in prison. More likely, the contest will change his fortunes in more prosaic ways.

美国大选：全看埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)！至少看起来是这样。特斯拉(Tesla)老板给了唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)资金和流量。共和党获胜可能会让马斯克进入政府，而民主党的卡玛拉•哈里斯(Kamala Harris)获胜可能会——马斯克开玩笑说——让他进监狱。更有可能的是，这场竞选将以更为平淡的方式改变他的命运。

Musk’s sprawling business empire makes the election outcome very much in his interest — but it’s not clear he loses either way. Take Tesla, which sells half of all electric cars in the US. Democrats like clean transport. But if a triumphant Trump scraps some clean-car subsidies, Tesla’s lead over less-advanced rivals like General Motors looks more secure. Whoever wins, Americans will keep buying electric cars. In any case, Tesla’s $785bn market valuation hangs more on robotaxis and humanoid robots.

马斯克庞大的商业帝国使选举结果对他的利益至关重要，但他无论如何都不会输。以特斯拉为例，在美国销售的电动汽车中有一半来自特斯拉。民主党人喜欢清洁交通。但如果特朗普胜出后取消一些清洁汽车补贴，特斯拉对于通用汽车(General Motors)等技术较落后的竞争对手的领先地位看起来更加稳固。无论谁赢，美国人都会继续购买电动汽车。无论如何，特斯拉7850亿美元的市值更多地取决于无人出租车和类人型机器人。

Seen from space, Musk has more to gain from a Republican win. He sees a trip to Mars — an important goal for his rocket-maker SpaceX — as unlikely under the Democrats. But be America red, blue or purple, Nasa and SpaceX are tied at the hip. The US space agency has notched up nearly $10bn of obligations to SpaceX since 2019, according to federal records. A Harris administration might not love that, but will have to live with it.

从太空中看，共和党获胜对马斯克更有利。他认为在民主党人执政下，前往火星——他的火箭制造商太空探索技术公司的重要目标——是不太可能的。但无论美国是哪个党执政，美国国家航空航天局(Nasa)和太空探索技术公司(SpaceX)的命运紧密相连。根据联邦记录，自2019年以来，美国航天局已经欠了太空探索技术公司近100亿美元。哈里斯政府可能不太喜欢这一点，但将不得不接受。

——本文2024年11月5日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Elon Musk has parked his Tesla on the White House lawn 

A Trump supporter brandishing a machete at a polling station in Florida. Ballot boxes set on fire in three separate states. Envelopes full of white powder sent to election boards. Shots fired at a Democratic party office in Arizona. And two attempts on the life of the Republican candidate.

一名唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)支持者在佛罗里达州的一个投票站挥舞着大砍刀。三个州的投票箱遭到纵火。有些寄往选举委员会的信封装满了白色粉末。亚利桑那州民主党办公室遭枪击。还有两次针对共和党候选人特朗普的暗杀企图。

The 2024 presidential campaign has already been marred by “unprecedented” violence, or threats of violence, against public figures and election workers, according to US officials. Law enforcement agencies are braced for civil unrest, regardless of who wins. 

据美国官员称，2024年总统竞选已遭受了“前所未有”的针对公众人物和选举工作人员的暴力或暴力威胁。无论谁获胜，执法机构都做好了应对国内骚乱的准备。

Instead of seeking to calm tensions, campaigners have traded ever more aggressive barbs. In recent decades “there has been nothing like this rhetoric in national elections,” said Alex Keyssar, a Harvard historian of US democracy. While “avid partisans” deployed menacing speech in previous clashes, this time “the violent rhetoric is coming from the top”, he added. 

竞选者非但没有寻求平息紧张形势，反而进行了更加激烈的互相抨击。哈佛大学(Harvard)美国民主历史学家亚历克斯•凯萨尔(Alex Keyssar)说，近几十年来，“全国大选中从未出现过如此激烈的言辞”。他补充说，在以前的交锋中，“狂热的支持者们”曾发表过气势汹汹的言论，而这次“暴力言论来自高层”。

——本文2024年11月5日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 How violence became a theme of America’s election

On Tuesday, Americans will vote in what will probably be the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. The candidates couldn’t be more different, but the challenge left to them will be the same — how to renew a sense of national purpose and dynamism in a country that may well have reached the peak of its competitive powers.

美国将在周二举行也许注定是我们有生之年最重要的总统选举。两位候选人的鲜明反差堪称前所未有，但是摆在他们面前的挑战将是一样的——在这个竞争力很可能已经过了巅峰状态开始走下坡路的国家，重新激发民族目标感和活力。

America is still enjoying its post-pandemic growth spurt. But major economic, political and social headwinds lie ahead. Partisan politics will not end with this election; indeed, they may get worse. Productivity is slowing, the population is ageing, social media silo-bubbles create division and the country faces competitive threats from China and other emerging markets, which are increasingly banding together in their own post-Washington consensus alliances.

美国仍处于“后疫情”时代的迅猛增长中。但是经济、政治和社会方面都困难重重。党派政治不会随着这次选举落幕而烟消云散；事实上还可能变得更糟。生产力放缓了增长，人口正在老龄化，社交媒体“筒仓泡沫”(silo-bubble)制造分裂，国家面临来自中国及其他新兴市场的竞争威胁，后者结成了“后华盛顿共识”联盟，日益加强合作。

Yes, the US still has a dynamic business environment, great universities, rich natural resources and a relatively robust industrial base. Yet it struggles with bureaucracy and inefficiency in both the public and private sectors, a self-interested elite, a workforce that isn’t tooled up for the 21st century and a desperately weakened sense of national unity. Most importantly, America today no longer has a common purpose, or even a sense of what the common good might be.

是的，美国仍然拥有生机勃勃的商业环境、了不起的大学、丰富的自然资源以及相对强盛的工业基础。然而也有棘手的问题，比如公私部门都存在官僚主义盛行和效率低下的现象，精英阶层只顾着自己的利益，劳动力缺乏21世纪需要的技能，国民团结一心的感觉已被严重削弱。最重要的是，当今美国已经没有了共同目标，甚至没有关于共同利益可能是什么的信念。

——本文2024年11月5日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Whoever wins, America will still need to turn itself around

The UK government’s new regime to attract wealthy foreigners is too short-term and risks turning London into “a bigger version of the Bahamas”, non-doms and their advisers have warned.

非英居籍人士及其顾问警告称，英国政府为吸引外国富人而制定的新制度过于短期，有可能将伦敦变成“更大版的巴哈马”。

Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in her Budget last week the abolition of the non-dom regime, which allows UK tax residents whose permanent home or “domicile” is overseas to avoid paying British tax on their foreign income or capital gains for 15 years.

英国财政大臣蕾切尔•里夫斯(Rachel Reeves)在上周的预算案中确认将废除非英国居籍税收制度，该制度允许永久居住地或“居籍”在海外的英国税务居民在15年内的海外收入或资本收益免缴英国税款。

It will be replaced from April 6 2025 by a four-year residence-based scheme, which Reeves said would provide “internationally competitive arrangements for people coming to the UK on a temporary basis”. 

从2025年4月6日起，该制度将被一项为期四年的居住税制所取代，里夫斯表示，该计划将为“临时来英人士提供具有国际竞争力的安排”。

——本文2024年11月5日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 UK tax plan for wealthy foreigners risks turning London into ‘bigger version of Bahamas’