经济学人:因病施治,对症下药(2)

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and so vulnerable to the same forces that made the crisis possible in the first place. 使之在面对最初使这场危机成为可能的同样的力量时是如此的脆弱不堪。

Several shortcomings stand out. 几大缺陷原形毕露。

In dealing² with the Depression, governments ultimately discarded the gold standard, the global currency regime that helped propagate the disaster. 在应对大萧条中，各国政府最终抛弃了金本位制，这种曾经为那场灾难的传播起到了推波助澜作用的全球汇率制度。

Countries on gold sacrificed monetary-policy independence, and had to respond to a loss of market confidence with an economy-bashing increase in interest rates, for instance. 实施金本位制的国家奉献出了货币政策的独立性，却不得不对经济体打击利率上升的市场信心的失去作出反应。

The system transmitted distress³ around the world. 这一体系将沮丧传遍了整个世界。

When one country acted to build up its gold reserves, others saw a sudden drain on theirs. 当一个国家行动起来构建其黄金储备时，其他国家看到的是自身储备的骤然耗尽。

The sooner a country left gold in the 1930s, the sooner its recovery began. 在上世纪30年代，一个越早地放弃金本位制，其复苏越早地开始。

But the international system that facilitated the more recent financial crisis has been neither abandoned nor reformed. 但是，造成了最近这场金融危机的国际体系既没有被放弃也没有得到改革。

Open capital flows can put countries at the mercy of sudden swings in market sentiment. 开放的资本流动能够让国家成为市场情绪忽上忽下的牺牲品。

To manage this, many emerging markets accumulate foreign-exchange reserves, which can be drawn⁴ on in crisis. 为了治理这种情况，许多新兴市场积累了可以在危机中被提取出来的外汇储备。

But these reserves add to a global glut⁵ of capital which depresses interest rates and encourages borrowing. 但是，这些储备加重了一种抑制利率并鼓励举债的全球资本过剩。

Because reserves are so often held in the form of dollar-denominated bonds, they can destabilise the American economy. 由于储备常常都是以美元计价的债券的形式被持有，它们能够动摇美国经济。

They also heighten the world's exposure to American financial stumbles. 而且它还加大了世界各国之于美国金融动荡的风险敞口。

This regime helped turn an American housing bust⁶ into a global crisis, and remains⁷ in place now. 这种制度曾经促成了美国房地产泡沫成为一场全球危机的转化，而且如今依旧当道。

 

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