2018年经济学人 关于利息:低利率意味着不公平(2)

 

(A sailor who had already depleted¹ his supplies, leaving him with no additional hardtack of his own to eat today, would be in no position to repay borrowed biscuits either.)

(早已耗尽了自身供给，让自己今天没有额外的干粮吃的船员也不会有能力去偿还借来的干粮。)

That was bad news for thrifty² seafarers.

对于勤俭的船员来说，这属于坏消息。

But worse scenarios³ were possible.

但是，更坏的情况是有可能的。

If the sailors had washed ashore⁴ with perishable⁵ figs⁶ rather than imperishable hardtack, the rate of interest would have been steeply negative.

如果船员们是带着容易腐烂变质的无花果而不是不容易腐烂变质的硬面包被冲到岸上来的，利率会是陡峭的负的。

"There is no absolutely necessary reason inherent in the nature of man or things why the rate of interest in terms of any commodity standard should be positive rather than negative," Fisher concluded.

“在人或物的属性中，不存在为什么以任一商品标准来表示的利率应当是正的而不是负的的绝对必然的内在理由，”费雪总结道。

Two years ago, when the Bank of Japan(BoJ) began charging financial institutions for adding to their reserves at the central bank,

两年前，当日本银行开始对金融机构增加它们在央行的储备而收费时，

its negative-rate policy was harshly criticised for unsettling thrifty households, jeopardising bank profitability and killing⁷ growth with "monetary⁸ voodoo".

它的负利率政策受到了严厉地批评，被认为是搅乱了节俭的家庭，危及到了银行的盈利，而且还以“货币政策巫术”扼杀了增长。

Behind this fear and criticism was perhaps agut conviction that negative rates upended the natural order of things.

在这种担忧和批评的背后，可能是一种本能的认识，即负利率颠覆了事物的自然秩序。

Why should people pay to save money they had already earned?

为什么人们应当为存储早已挣到手的钱付费呢?

Earlier cuts below zero in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the euro area were scarcely more popular.

瑞士、丹麦、瑞典和欧元区的早先低于0的减息几乎一点也不受欢迎。

But these monetary innovations would have struck some earlier economic thinkers as entirely⁹ natural.

但是，这些货币政策方面的创新却会作为完全自然的创新而打动某些较早时候的经济学家。

Indeed, "The Natural Economic Order" was the title that Silvio Gesell gave to his 1916 treatise¹⁰ in favour of negative interest rates on money.

《自然的经济秩序》是西尔沃.格塞尔(SilvioGesell)给他1916年的一篇主张货币负利率的论文所起的题目。

In it, he span his own shipwreck¹¹ parable¹², in which a lone¹³ Robinson Crusoe tries to save three years' worth of provisions to tide him over while he devotes his energies to digging a canal.

在那篇论文中，他勾画了自己的海难寓言——独自一人的鲁滨逊一边试图把价值三年的给养储存起来渡过难关，一边把精力都用在开凿一条水道上面。

1 depleted   

adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Food supplies were severely depleted. 食物供应已严重不足。
• Both teams were severely depleted by injuries. 两个队都因队员受伤而实力大减。

2 thrifty   

adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的

参考例句：

• Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒，他是个生活节俭的人。
• She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女，每月都设法存些钱。

3 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

4 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

5 perishable   

adj.（尤指食物）易腐的，易坏的

参考例句：

• Many fresh foods are highly perishable.许多新鲜食物都极易腐败。
• Fruits are perishable in transit.水果在运送时容易腐烂。

6 figs   

figures 数字，图形，外形

参考例句：

• The effect of ring dyeing is shown in Figs 10 and 11. 环形染色的影响如图10和图11所示。
• The results in Figs. 4 and 5 show the excellent agreement between simulation and experiment. 图4和图5的结果都表明模拟和实验是相当吻合的。

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

9 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

10 treatise   

n.专著；(专题)论文

参考例句：

• The doctor wrote a treatise on alcoholism.那位医生写了一篇关于酗酒问题的论文。
• This is not a treatise on statistical theory.这不是一篇有关统计理论的论文。

11 shipwreck   

n.船舶失事，海难

参考例句：

• He walked away from the shipwreck.他船难中平安地脱险了。
• The shipwreck was a harrowing experience.那次船难是一个惨痛的经历。

12 parable   

n.寓言，比喻

参考例句：

• This is an ancient parable.这是一个古老的寓言。
• The minister preached a sermon on the parable of the lost sheep.牧师讲道时用了亡羊的比喻。

13 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。