2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：德国和欧元

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Germany and the euro

　　德国和欧元

　　You Kant do that

　　请依法办事

　　Many Germans fear that the European Central Bankis not on their side

　　很多德国人担心欧洲央行不是他们这一阵营的

　　HORST SEEHOFER, premier of Bavaria, sums upGerman attitudes to the European Central Bank (ECB). Based in Frankfurt, but run by MarioDraghi, an Italian, the ECB said on September 4th that it would cut its interest rate to 0.05%and start buying asset-backed securities from banks to get them to lend. By opening themoney tap, taking on debt and buying “junk”, Mr Seehofer told Bild, Germany's biggest tabloid,the ECB frightens people. “It must be our job to criticise these policies.”

　　巴伐利亚州州长霍斯特·泽霍费尔向欧洲央行(ECB)表明了德国的态度。坐落于法兰克福，但如今却被意大利人马里奥·德拉基掌舵的ECB，在9月4日公开表示，将基准利率下调至0.05%并从放贷银行购买资产抵押债券。泽霍费尔向图片报透露，ECB借着开通资金流、承担债务和购入“低档债券”的方式来恐吓民众。他表示“我们的职责就是批评这些政策。”

　　Like others on the centre-right, Mr Seehofer frets that a new anti-euro party, the Alternative forGermany, will poach voters by bashing the ECB. The Alternative has just got into its first stateparliament and may get into two more on September 14th. But scepticism about the ECB isgrowing across the country. Hans-Werner Sinn, boss of Munich's Ifo Institute and aneconomist, echoes Mr Seehofer: the ECB has “cut interest rates by too much”; and it is notauthorised to buy bonds “as this is a fiscal and not a monetary-policy measure. Such a policywould be at the expense of European taxpayers, who would have to pay for the losses incurredby the ECB.”

　　与其他中右翼党派一样，泽霍费尔同样忧心德国新选择党—一个新的反欧元党派—会借机抨击ECB来拉拢选民。而新选择党才刚刚成功进入第一个州议会，在9月14日新选项党还可能会成功进入另外两个。但是ECB质疑论正在这个城市大肆传播。慕尼黑经济研究所所长汉斯-维尔纳·辛恩也在泽霍费尔之后随声附和：ECB已经“降低基准利率太多”;而且ECB并未得到购买债券的授权，因为这并不是一个货币政策措施而是一个财政法令。而这样的一个政策将以欧洲的纳税人为代价，让他们不得不为ECB引起的损失买单。

　　Mainstream views in Germany are diverging from those elsewhere in the euro zone and inAnglo-Saxon countries. The world outside Germany is afraid of deflation. Germans, however,worry that cheap money could lead eventually to inflation. This may be surprising, since pricesin the euro zone are rising by only 0.3% a year, far below the ECB's 2% target. But inflationfears have been etched into the German psyche since the hyperinflation of 1922-23.

　　现今德国国内的主流观点便是与那些欧元区的其他国家和盎格鲁-撒克逊国家分道扬镳。除德国之外，全世界都惧怕通货紧缩。然而，德国人忧心的却是宽松货币政策最终可能引发通货膨胀。由于欧元区的价格一直在不断上涨，每年涨幅仅为0.3%，这相较于ECB2%的目标已经是很低了，在这种状况下，德国人的此种担忧让人颇感意外。但是自从经历过1922-1923年的恶性通货膨胀之后，德国人对通货膨胀的恐惧已经深入骨髓。

　　Many are cross that cheap money is crushing interest rates on savings accounts and capital life-insurance policies, a common form of retirement planning. Real returns on such savings arelaughable, just when greying Germans need them. Low rates may boost shares and property,but ordinary Germans shun such assets. One argument they use against low rates, indeed, isthat they create asset bubbles.

　　也有许多人持相反的观点，他们认为宽松货币政策正压制储蓄账户和资本人寿保险政策的基准利率。这种储蓄的实际回报效果却让人觉得可笑，仅仅是在头发花白的德国人需要之时才会出现。低利率可能会刺激股票和房地产行业，但是普通的德国人还是会避开这两样资产。而实际上这些普通人用来反对低利率的一种说法便是，这样做会引起资产泡沫。

　　But the roots of German scepticism are more fundamental, argues Marcel Fratzscher, head ofthe German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, in a forthcoming book, “The GermanyIllusion”. Anglo-Saxon economists are guided by the utilitarian philosophy of John Stuart Mill orJeremy Bentham, asking merely if a policy works. Germans side with Immanuel Kant, believingthat nothing works except through law, and are horrified when the ECB strays from its narrowmandate.

　　但是，马塞尔·弗雷兹策尔—柏林德国经济研究所所长—在他即将出版的书《德国的幻象》中表示，德国质疑论的来源更加坚实。盎格鲁-撒克逊那群仅要求这政策能奏效的经济学家们，皆以约翰·斯图尔特·密尔或是杰里米·边沁的功利主义哲学为指南。那些拥护伊曼努尔·康德的德国人，坚信任何事情只有借以法律手段才能奏效，而且在ECB打破自身的局限颁布条令之时，他们也被震惊了。

　　Germans felt it was doing this in 2012 when Mr Draghi announced that the ECB would, undercertain conditions, buy the bonds of euro countries in crisis. Outside Germany, this isconsidered the most effective step in the euro crisis to date. Inside Germany, it is seen asillegal. The ECB would indirectly finance governments when it may only manage the moneysupply, ruled the German constitutional court in February (though it referred the issue up tothe European Court of Justice).

　　当德拉基宣布ECB会在某些情况下购买身处危机中的欧元区国家债券之时，德国人意识到ECB曾在2012年就这样做了。在德国之外，这种举措被认为是迄今为止在欧元危机之中最奏效的一步。而在德国国内，这种行为却被认为是违法的。当ECB仅能控制货币供应之时，它会间接的向政府融资，对此，德国宪法法院已在二月份作出裁决。

　　Buying asset-backed securities from banks is, by this logic, another step in the wrongdirection. Worse, Germans fear that it could lead to “quantitative easing”: printing money tobuy bonds. “Breaking the rules destroys trust,” warns Ralph Brinkhaus, a Bundestag memberfrom the centre-right party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. And it sends the wrong message tocrisis countries, he adds, by reducing the pressure on them to reform.

　　按照这种“德国认为是违法的”的逻辑，那么ECB从银行购买资产抵押债券也是在错误方向上的另外一步了。更糟的是，德国人害怕的是，ECB的这种做法会导致“量化宽松”：也就是印钞买债券。德国总理默克尔所属基督教民主联盟籍议员Ralph Brinkhaus 提出警告 “打破规则摧毁信任”。而且他补充道，这些做法通过减少改革的压力，给那些身处欧元危机中的国家发送了错误的信息。

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