富人：人人喊打？

編者按：本文選自4月2日出版的《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》雜志，本刊稍微加以擴(kuò)充。受金融危機(jī)影響，許多問(wèn)題暴露出來(lái)，似乎全世界人民都在憎恨富人。文章認(rèn)為一味抨擊富人無(wú)濟(jì)于事，制度會(huì)自我更正，增稅應(yīng)謹(jǐn)慎，但應(yīng)加強(qiáng)監(jiān)管，堵住制度漏洞，讓人無(wú)機(jī)可乘。加強(qiáng)監(jiān)管也是諾貝爾經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)獎(jiǎng)得主保羅?克魯格曼在本期《財(cái)經(jīng)評(píng)論》中的觀點(diǎn)。

Stones thrown through a banker's windows in Edinburgh, workers 'bossnapping' executives in France, retrospective 90% tax rates proposed in Washington, and now a riot in London as G20 leaders arrived for their summit. Bankers who were once courted by politicans and businessmen find themselves scorned at parties, and financial workers in the City of London are advised by their companies to dress more casually to avoid angry crowds. A sea change in social attitudes that could have profound effects on politics and the world economy is under way.

在愛(ài)丁堡，一名銀行家的窗玻璃被石頭砸碎了；在法國(guó)，工人們“挾持”了公司主管；在華盛頓，有人提議實(shí)行有追溯力的90%稅率；現(xiàn)在，二十國(guó)集團(tuán)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人紛至沓來(lái)出席峰會(huì)時(shí)，倫敦又發(fā)生了騷亂。銀行家曾是政客與生意人的座上賓，如今在黨內(nèi)卻遭到奚落，倫敦金融城的金融機(jī)構(gòu)建議其員工穿著隨意些，以免被激憤的群眾盯上。社會(huì)態(tài)度正發(fā)生根本性轉(zhuǎn)變，可能會(huì)對(duì)政治和世界經(jīng)濟(jì)產(chǎn)生深遠(yuǎn)影響。

The rich are certainly not the only targets in the current populist backlash. Frightened by the downturn, people are furious with politicians, central bankers and immigrants. But a rising wave of anger is directed against the new 'malefactors of great wealth'. Today's villains are a larger and more global bunch than the handful of American robber barons Teddy Roosevelt denounced a century ago; and most of them are bankers and fund managers, rather than owners of trusts and railroads. Yet the themes are similar to those at the end of that previous gilded age: rising inequality - the top 0.1% of Americans earned 20 times the income of the bottom 90% in 1979 and 77 times in 2006 - and a sense that the greedy rich have cheated decent working people of their rightful share of the pie.

老百姓反映如此強(qiáng)烈，針對(duì)的當(dāng)然不只是富人。受經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)驚嚇，人們對(duì)政客、中央銀行行長(zhǎng)和移民怒不可遏。但怒火越來(lái)越燒向新的“為富不仁者”。同一個(gè)世紀(jì)前泰迪?羅斯福（西奧多?羅斯福）譴責(zé)的一小撮美國(guó)斂財(cái)大亨相比，現(xiàn)在的反面人物為數(shù)更眾，更普遍；他們多為銀行家和基金經(jīng)理，而非托拉斯和鐵路的老板。但現(xiàn)在跟上一個(gè)黃金年代末期相比，主旨大同小異：不平等在加劇——1979年，最富裕的0.1%美國(guó)人的收入是90%最低收入者收入的20倍，而2006年是77倍——人們感覺(jué)貪得無(wú)厭的富人詐取了規(guī)矩守法的勞動(dòng)人民應(yīng)得的財(cái)富。

The payment of banking executives have been a particular target for public opprobrium, especially given their complicity in the global crisis. The large bonuses paid out to workers in the financial sector have never been popular, and are doubly hated nowadays. For those who believe themselves to be working both hard and competently - as most of us do - it seems obscene that financial workers seem to believe themselves entitled to receive gigantic paychecks after their colossal failures. This is especially the case when companies are being propped up by public money, such as the former American giant AIG, whose staff not only attempted to continue receiving bonuses, but blew $440,000 on a spa retreat just after being bailed out by the Treasury. Some have publically complained about being 'cheated' of their bonuses, an self-indulgent and wilfully blind attitude that makes them seem the epitome of a system built to cheat regular folk out of their money.

銀行主管的收入尤其受到公眾的批評(píng)，特別是鑒于他們?cè)谌蚪鹑谖C(jī)中的共謀關(guān)系。金融從業(yè)人員的高額獎(jiǎng)金向來(lái)不受民眾喜歡，如今更是惹人厭。對(duì)于認(rèn)為自己努力并勝任工作的人——我們大多數(shù)人就這樣——金融從業(yè)人員嚴(yán)重失職卻自認(rèn)應(yīng)該得到巨額回報(bào)似乎是可憎的。當(dāng)靠公眾血汗錢(qián)支撐的公司，如前保險(xiǎn)業(yè)巨頭美國(guó)國(guó)際集團(tuán)，其主管不僅企圖繼續(xù)拿獎(jiǎng)金，甚至在剛得到財(cái)政部紓救后就在一個(gè)溫泉度假地?fù)]霍了44萬(wàn)美元后，民眾更加認(rèn)為這些人可恨。某些人公開(kāi)抱怨其獎(jiǎng)金被“騙走”，這種自私自利且頑固不化的漠視態(tài)度，使之似乎成了一個(gè)哄騙普通老百姓血汗錢(qián)的制度的縮影。

Some of this cheating has been of an old familiar sort: building Ponzi schemes and bribing politicians to secure favourable deals. There are greyer areas, in which the rich hide their cash in tax havens and get tax law written to their advantage - witness the indefensible treatment of private-equity profits. But what makes the rich's behaviour so galling for many critics is that their two greatest crimes were committed in broad daylight, as they were part of the system itself.

一些欺詐手段并不新鮮：設(shè)下旁氏騙局，賄賂政客以達(dá)成利己交易。還有更灰色的地帶，即富人把現(xiàn)金藏在避稅天堂，使所編纂稅法對(duì)己有利——且看稅法對(duì)私募股權(quán)收益的規(guī)定是多么站不住腳。但富人的行為之所以令人如此惱怒，是因?yàn)樗麄兊膬纱笞镄惺窃诠馓旎罩滤鶠?，而它們是制度本身的一部分?/p>

The Two Great Cheats

兩大騙術(shù)

The first charge is that the rich created a new form of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose capitalism. Traders and fund managers got huge rewards for speculating with other people's money, but when they failed the parent company, the client and ultimately the taxpayer had to pay the bill. Monetary policy contributed to this asymmetry of risk: when markets faltered central banks usually rescued them by cutting interest rates.

第一項(xiàng)指控是富人創(chuàng)造了一種新形式的莊家通吃資本主義制度。證券經(jīng)紀(jì)人和基金經(jīng)理拿別人的錢(qián)進(jìn)行投機(jī)而獲得高額回報(bào)，但當(dāng)他們把總公司搞垮后，客戶(hù)和納稅人卻要買(mǎi)賬。貨幣政策導(dǎo)致了風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的不對(duì)稱(chēng)：市場(chǎng)動(dòng)蕩時(shí)，中央銀行往往通過(guò)降息來(lái)拯救。

The second charge is that the bankers and fund managers were not doing anything useful. Unlike the 'deserving' rich entrepreneurs who set up Microsoft and Google, the 'undeserving' traders and brokers just shuffled money around the system to nobody's profit but their own. Yet they were receiving salaries far greater than qualified professionals in other fields, including far more vital tasks like medicine, education, and engineering. The faster the money went round, the larger the financial sector loomed in the rich countries' economies. At its peak it contributed 41% of domestic American corporate profits, more than double the rate two decades ago. As finance grew, the banks got ever bigger - too big to fail, eventually, so when they tottered taxpayers had to prop them up. Far from epitomising capitalism, the undeserving rich undermined it: it was socialism for the wealthy.

第二項(xiàng)指控是銀行家和基金經(jīng)理皆尸位素餐。有別于創(chuàng)立微軟和谷歌的“名正言順”的實(shí)業(yè)大亨，“言不正名不順的”經(jīng)紀(jì)人只是把錢(qián)在制度內(nèi)東挪西轉(zhuǎn)，中飽私囊。他們的收入遠(yuǎn)高于其他行業(yè)有真才實(shí)干的人，如醫(yī)療、教育和工程等更重要的行業(yè)。錢(qián)周轉(zhuǎn)得越快，金融業(yè)在富國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)中的比重就越大。在其巔峰時(shí)期，金融業(yè)創(chuàng)造了美國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)公司總利潤(rùn)的41%，比二十年前不止翻了一番。隨著金融業(yè)壯大，銀行規(guī)模也越來(lái)越大——大到不能倒閉，最終，它們動(dòng)搖時(shí)，納稅人就得去扶持。名不正言不順的富人根本不是代表，而是破壞了資本主義制度：這是有錢(qián)人的社會(huì)主義。

These two charges run together, but the second has much less justification. Enormous though the cost of bailing out the banks has been, there is nothing inherently undeserving about finance; even in their flawed state, more liquid markets have brought huge benefits to the rest of the economy. The lower cost of capital has made it easier for industry to invest, innovate and protect itself against interest and exchange-rate risk. Trying to single out financiers from entrepreneurs is a fool's errand: you will end up hurting both.

這兩項(xiàng)罪狀緊密相連，但第二項(xiàng)有些牽強(qiáng)附會(huì)。雖然紓困銀行的花費(fèi)巨大，但金融本質(zhì)上并非名不正言不順；即使弊病叢生，流動(dòng)性更強(qiáng)的市場(chǎng)也給經(jīng)濟(jì)其他部門(mén)帶去了巨額收益。資本成本低使工業(yè)更容易進(jìn)行投資、創(chuàng)新并規(guī)避利息和匯率風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。試圖把金融家同實(shí)業(yè)家分開(kāi)是枉費(fèi)心機(jī)：會(huì)造成兩敗俱傷。

The heads-I-win charge is not entirely proven, either: some of the people who ran banks did lose when they went bust. Yet even a newspaper as inherently pro-business as this one has to admit that there was something rotten in finance: the basic capitalist bargain, under which genuine risktakers are allowed to garner huge rewards, seems a poor one if taxpayers are landed with a huge bill for it all. Hence the anger.

第二項(xiàng)莊家通吃的指控也并非證據(jù)十足：一些銀行破產(chǎn)后其管理人員也有所損失。但即使是像我們這種以商為本的雜志也得承認(rèn)，金融體系的確存在腐敗：資本家之間進(jìn)行交易，真正的冒險(xiǎn)家能攫取巨額回報(bào)，但如果納稅人要為此買(mǎi)下高額賬單，交易就是不足稱(chēng)道的。因此人們感到憤怒。

A Time for Correction and Brown Paper Bags

改正與低調(diào)的時(shí)期

Periods of excess, when inequality has grown, tend to be followed by eras of reform: Roosevelt bust the trusts and shortly afterwards Congress moved towards introducing a federal income tax. Part of the genius of capitalism is its ability to adjust to disruption from within and attacks from without.

無(wú)節(jié)制的時(shí)期，不平等加劇，之后往往伴隨著改革的時(shí)代：羅斯福解散了托拉斯，不久后國(guó)會(huì)通過(guò)聯(lián)邦所得稅法。資本主義制度的特征之一就是面對(duì)內(nèi)在干擾和外在攻擊時(shí)能做出調(diào)整。

Indeed, the system is already beginning to correct itself. As our special report this week points out, the rich are not as rich as they were: some $10 trillion, around a quarter of the wealthy's assets, has been lost. Inequality will decline. Investment banks and hedge funds are shrinking; private-equity groups are struggling to finance takeovers. Having discovered how volatile markets can be, banks will be less keen on trading in the future. There is even a correction going on in conspicuous consumption: Net-a-porter, a pricey website, offers to deliver designer outfits to its customers in brown paper bags.

的確，制度已開(kāi)始自我改正。本期《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》的特別報(bào)道指出，富人不像以前那樣有錢(qián)了：他們已損失約10萬(wàn)億美元，即總財(cái)富的四分之一左右。貧富差距將減小。投資銀行和對(duì)沖基金日漸萎縮；私募機(jī)構(gòu)正為并購(gòu)融資。發(fā)覺(jué)市場(chǎng)反復(fù)無(wú)常后，銀行今后進(jìn)行交易將更加審慎。甚至炫耀性消費(fèi)也有所節(jié)制：奢侈品網(wǎng)站Net-a-porter 開(kāi)始用牛皮紙袋給顧客寄名牌服裝。

The market's self-correction will not be enough, however. Higher taxes will eventually be inevitable, since so many governments have lurched heavily into deficit. But politicians must tread carefully. Tax rises right away would be a rotten idea, since for the moment fiscal stimulus is needed. And even when governments raise the money, they should first get rid of deductions and reverse unmeritocratic measures (such as George Bush's repeal of America's death tax) rather than jacking up income-tax rates to punitive levels. Squeeze the rich until the pips squeak, and the juice goes out of the economy.

然而，市場(chǎng)的自我改正是不夠的。由于許多政府赤字高筑，高額的稅收最終將無(wú)法避免。但政治家們必須謹(jǐn)慎行事。立馬增稅是個(gè)餿主意，因?yàn)槟壳靶枰氖秦?cái)政刺激。即使政府要籌資，首先也得廢除減稅政策，并撤銷(xiāo)反精英主義的措施（如布什取消遺產(chǎn)稅），而不是把個(gè)人所得稅驟升至懲罰性水平。榨干富人，經(jīng)濟(jì)就失去了活力。

As for heads-I-win capitalism, the problem of asymmetric risk should shrink, because the rule changes needed to make the financial system safer will also remove unwarranted profits. Contra-cyclical capital requirements, forcing banks to build more reserves during good times, will leave them less cash to splurge on bonuses. Many of the sweetest sources of profit sprang up in the cracks between regulatory systems; governments are now filling in these gaps. If central banks focus on asset markets when they rise as well as when they fall, they will remove much of the froth. Treat a bank that becomes too big to fail like a utility, and it will make less money.

至于資本主義制度的莊家通吃，由于使金融體系更安全的規(guī)則變化也會(huì)消除來(lái)路不明的利潤(rùn)，風(fēng)險(xiǎn)不對(duì)稱(chēng)的問(wèn)題將減弱。反周期性資本規(guī)定迫使銀行在繁榮時(shí)期增加準(zhǔn)備金，這將減少他們用于獎(jiǎng)金的現(xiàn)錢(qián)。許多暴利都源于監(jiān)管體系的漏洞；政府現(xiàn)在正填補(bǔ)漏洞。如果中央銀行在資本市場(chǎng)上漲和下挫時(shí)期都嚴(yán)密監(jiān)管，就會(huì)擠掉很多泡沫。把太大而不能倒閉的銀行當(dāng)成公共事業(yè)來(lái)對(duì)待，它的利潤(rùn)就會(huì)下降。

Curbing the excesses of wealth, then, will be a side effect of regulations designed to make capitalism work better. Such measures will not provide the lyrics to revolutionary anthems, but they are going to be better than going after the wealthy. The rich are an easy target. But when you try to bash them, you usually end up punching yourself in the nose.

旨在優(yōu)化資本主義制度的監(jiān)管措施同時(shí)也將遏制財(cái)富的過(guò)度膨脹。此類(lèi)舉措不會(huì)產(chǎn)生凱歌共譜的效果，但好于追著富人喊打的做法。樹(shù)大易招風(fēng)。可如果你想教訓(xùn)一下他們，往往會(huì)傷了自己。