经济学之7个致命的谎言

Foreword 前言Warren Mosler is a rare bird: a self-taught economistwho is not a crank; a successful investor who is not a blowhard;a businessperson with a talent for teaching; a financier with atrue commitment to the public good.We have co-authored testimony and the occasional article,and I attest firmly that his contributions to those efforts exceeded mine.沃伦·莫斯勒是一种稀有的人：自学成才的经济学家，他不是怪人；他是一个成功的投资者，他不吹牛；他是一个具有教学天赋的商人；一个能把事实真相告诉公众的金融家。

我们有共同撰写的证词和偶尔写的文章，并且我坚定地证明他在这方面成就超过了我。

Many economists value complexity for its own sake. Aglance at any modern economics journal confirms this. Atruly incomprehensible argument can bring a lot of prestige!The problem, though, is that when an argument appears incomprehensible, that often means the person makingit doesn’t understand it either. (I was just at a meetingof European central bankers and international monetaryeconomists in Helsinki, Finland. After one paper, I asked avery distinguished economist from Sweden how many peoplehe thought had followed the math. He said, “Zero.”) Warren’sgift is transparent lucidity. He thinks things through as simplyas he can. (And he puts a lot of work into this - true simplicityis hard.) He favors the familiar metaphor, and the homelyexample. You can explain his reasoning to most children (atleast to mine), to any college student and to any player inthe financial markets. Only economists, with their powerfulloyalty to fixed ideas, have trouble with it. Politicians, of course, often do understand, but rarely feel free to speak their own minds.他尽可能简单的思考问题（他在这方面做了大量工作，真正的简单很难）。

他喜欢熟悉的隐喻，朴实的示例。

你可以把他的道理讲给大多数儿童（至少对我) ，讲给任何大学的学生，以及任何在金融市场上的人；唯独经济学家，他们有强大而忠诚的固定观念，就会遇到麻烦；政客们，当然，常常是明白的，但很少有说出自己的想法的自由。

Deadly Innocent Fraud #1:The federal government must raise funds throughtaxation or borrowing in order to spend. In otherwords, government spending is limited by its abilityto tax or borrow.Fact:Federal government spending is in no caseoperationally constrained by revenues, meaningthat there is no “solvency risk.”In other words,the federal government can always make any and allpayments in its own currency, no matter how largethe deficit is, or how few taxes it collects.致命的谎言1号：联邦政府必须通过税收或借款为其支出融资。

换句话说，政府支出受到税收和借款能力的限制。

事实真相：联邦政府支出无论如何不会在业务上受限于税收，它没有“偿付能力风险”。

换言之，联邦政府总能用他自己的货币支付所有任何款项，不管赤字有多么大，也不管税收有多么少。

Ask any congressman (as I have many times) or private citizen how it all works, and he or she will tell you emphatically that: “…the government has to either tax or borrow to get the funds to spend, just like any household has to somehow get the money it needs to spend.” And from this comes the inevitable question about healthcare, defense, social security, and any and all government spending:How are you going to pay for it???!!!去问任何一个国会议员（我碰到过很多次），或者普通公民，这一切都是如何运作的？他或她会坚定地告诉你：“…政府要花钱，无非是通过税收或借款，就像任何家庭一样，通过某种方式拿到需要花的钱。

”由此不可避免地引出了关于医疗保健、国防、社会保障和全部政府支出的问题：你打算如何付钱？？？！！！This is the killer question, the one no one gets right,and getting the answer to this question right is the core ofthe public purpose behind writing this book.In the next few moments of reading, it will all be revealedto you with no theory and no philosophy- just a few hard coldfacts. I answer this question by first looking at exactly how government taxes, followed by how government spends.How does the Federal Government Tax?这是致命的问题，一个没人清楚的问题，正确回答这个问题是我写这本书的公共目的核心。

接下来，它会向你透露几个冷冰冰的事实，不用理论，不用哲学。

我来回答这个问题，首先讨论政府的税收,然后讨论政府如何支出。

联邦政府如何收税？Let’s start by looking at what happens if you pay your taxes by writing a check. When the U.S. government gets your check, and it’s deposited and “clears,” all the government does is change the number in your checking account “downward” as they subtract the amount of your check from your bank balance. Does the government actually get anything real to give to someone else? No, it’s not like there’s a gold coin to spend. You can actually see this happen with online banking - watch the balance in your bank account on your computer screen. Suppose the balance in your account is $5,000 and you write a check to the government for $2,000. When that checks clears (gets processed), what happens? The 5 turns into a 3 and your new balance is now down to $3,000. All before your very eyes! The government didn’t actually “get” anything to give to someone else. No gold coin dropped into a bucket at the Fed. They just changed numbers in bank accounts - nothing “went” anywhere.让我们首先来看看如果你签署支票，缴纳税款以后会发生什么。