经济学人104:经济学史 Centuries of trial and error

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review; Economic history；Centuries of trial and error；How economists² rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation³；

　　文艺；书评；经济学史；数百年的反复试验；经济学家们如何救人类于悲惨贫穷；

　　Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius. By Sylvia Nasar.

　　《宏伟事业——经济学天才的故事》西尔维亚·娜萨著。

　　In an essay in his popular magazine, Household Words, Charles Dickens issued a challenge to economists to humanise their discipline. “Political economy is a mere⁴ skeleton unless it has a little human covering and filling out,” he wrote in the inaugural⁵ issue in 1854. “A little human bloom upon it, and a little human warmth in it.”

　　查尔斯·狄更斯曾经办了一本颇受欢迎的杂志，叫《家常话》，1854年，在创刊号上，他给经济学家提出了一项挑战，即要让经济学更人性化，他说，“没有一点人性为其蔽体、充实其血肉，政治经济学就是一具骷髅。要有一点人性才能让它开花，让它有温度。”

　　This is a challenge to which economics and economists have mostly failed to rise. In her new book Sylvia Nasar, a former economics correspondent at the New York Times and now at Columbia University, has at least gone part of the way to satisfying Dickens's wishes. “Grand Pursuit” is a history of economics which is full of flesh, bloom and warmth. The author demonstrates that there is far more to economics than Thomas Carlyle's “dismal science”. And she does so with all the style and panache⁶ that you would expect from the author of the 1998 bestseller, “A Beautiful Mind”, about John Forbes Nash, the tortured genius behind game theory.

　　遗憾的是，大多时候，经济学以及经济学家并没有完成人性这点要求。但是，在这书里，狄更斯的愿望，至少已有部分得到满足。本书作者西尔维亚·娜萨，曾是《纽约时报》的经济专栏记者，如今就职于哥伦比亚大学，这本书记叙的经济学史有血有肉，有花有果，有热情有温度，作者可算证明了经济学不是托马斯·卡莱尔所讲的“沉闷的科学”。娜萨还写过一本书《美丽心灵》，那是1998年的畅销书，讲述受精神分裂症折磨的博弈论天才约翰·福布斯·纳什的故事。对于《美丽心灵》的作者，其文风和辞藻在《宏伟事业》中得到延续，不失读者所望。

　　It turns out that economists—or at least the handful of geniuses that Ms Nasar discusses—are a peculiarly interesting bunch. John Maynard Keynes was an exotic mixture of Bloomsbury intellectual and civil-servant mandarin⁸ with a touch of Puck thrown in. Joseph Schumpeter was an obsessive⁹ scholar who spent his spare moments riding thoroughbreds, collecting mistresses and, on the odd occasion, taking part in orgies. Irving Fisher, the Yale economist¹ who declared, in October 1929, that stocks had reached “what looks like a permanently¹⁰ high plateau”, was a health nut and prohibitionist¹¹. Joan Robinson, whom Schumpeter dubbed¹² “one of our best men”, wore Mao suits and pronounced that North Korea was bound to outperform the South.

　　原来经济学家都是特别有趣的一群人，至少娜萨女士在书里写的那些天才们都特别有趣。约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯是英国伦敦布鲁姆斯伯里区知识分子和政界要人的结合，还有点英国民间传说中迫克精灵的味道，是个奇怪的混合体。约瑟夫·熊彼得醉心学问，闲暇时爱骑好马，爱搜猎情人，偶尔参与狂欢。而耶鲁大学经济学家欧文·费希尔是一位十分注重健康生活的人，奉行禁酒，他在1929年十月判断股市到达“永久性的高点”。熊彼得封之为“我们最好的男人之一”的琼·罗宾逊夫人，喜欢穿中山装，断言朝鲜必定会胜过韩国。

　　Ms Nasar's story is made all the more appealing by the fact that she does almost nothing to conceal¹³ her prejudices. She has little time for Karl Marx, a man who was so convinced of his rightness, and so buried in his books in the British Library, that he failed to observe the world around him. He did not bother to visit a single British factory. He refused to exchange a word with the intellectual titans of the time, including Charles Darwin and George Eliot, both of whom lived just a few miles from his front door. He ignored overwhelming statistical¹⁴ evidence that the working class's share of the nation's wealth was increasing. By contrast, Alfred Marshall was everything that Marx was not: the embodiment of all that was best in Victorian high- mindedness. Marshall was alive to what was going on around him. He frequently visited factories and firms, and travelled around the world's new “empire of energy”, the United States. He threw his weight behind popular education and incremental¹⁵ reform.

　　娜萨女士从不费心遮掩自己的偏见，这让她的故事更有可读性。书中关于卡尔·马克思的篇幅甚短。马克思对自己的公正颇有信心，但他总在大英国书馆埋头读书，没有时间去好好观察身边的世界，他连一家英国工厂都没去参观过，也拒绝和当时思想大家交流。查尔斯·达尔文和乔治·艾略特离他住地几英里外，他们却从未讲过话。势不可挡的统计数据，足以表明工人阶级占有国家财富的份额在增长，他对此视而不见。阿尔弗雷德·马歇尔与马克思截然相反，他是维多利亚时期优秀品质的化身，关心身边世界，经常访问工厂企业，环游世界新的“活力帝国”——美国。他全心全力支持大众教育和逐渐改革。

　　In lesser¹⁶ hands Ms Nasar's story might have degenerated¹⁷ into a series of pen portraits: tittle-tattle for the middlebrow. But she unifies¹⁸ her account with a series of big questions. How, for example, did humanity escape from the grinding poverty that has been its lot through most of human history? Why was a static society replaced by a dynamic one? And how best to cope with the booms and busts¹⁹ that have been capitalism²⁰'s peculiar⁷ contribution to human life?

　　如果娜萨女士文笔稍差一些，这些故事就要成了一堆钢笔肖像速写，成了关于一帮知识界平庸人物的杂淡。但是她用一些大问题对叙述加以统一，比如，人类是如何从占据其历史大部分时间的凄惨贫穷中逃离出来的？比如，为何动态社会取代了静态社会？又比如，资本主义给人类生活带来它特有的贡献——经济繁荣与衰退的循环往复，对此什么才是最好的处理方式？

　　In Marx's view the capitalist system, for all its ability to unleash²¹ productive power, was haunted by a contradiction: the drive to increase profits would immiserate the poor and lead to crises of overproduction. But Marshall demonstrated that capitalism advances not by immiserating the poor, but by boosting productivity. Factory owners make relentless²² small improvements that allow them to produce both higher wages and lower prices, thereby²³ spreading the gains of material progress throughout society. Schumpeter further expanded the idea of productivity increases. The economy doesn't simply get bigger and bigger. It goes through a constant process of discombobulation as entrepreneurs invent new products and processes. Marx got it upside down: capitalism's recurrent crises actually make it stronger.

　　在马克思看来，资本主义系统，虽然能解放生产力，却有着不可调和的矛盾，即对高额利润的追逐将让劳苦大众的生活更为悲惨，并导致生产过剩，出现经济危机。但是根据马歇尔的论证，资本主义的发展并非依靠加大对穷人的剥削，而是靠着提高生产力。工厂主永不停止地进行微小的改进，因此在提高工资的同时能降低产品价格，从而使物质的进步惠及整个社会。熊彼得进一步充实了生产力发展的观点，经济的发展并非简单地变得越来越大，随着企业家发明新产品新工作程序，它经常经历混乱。马克思没有认识到周期性的经济危机事实上发展了资本主义。

　　Economics was a practical as well as an analytical²⁴ science. From the left, Beatrice Potter Webb argued that mass destitution²⁵ could be cured by “the household state”. Fisher showed that good management of the money supply could contribute to stability. Keynes insisted that crises could be prevented if the government could act as the spender of last resort, just as the central bank was lender of last resort.

　　经济学是一门分析科学，也是一门实践科学。比阿特丽斯·波特·韦伯认为“每个家庭自为国家”能够解决大众贫穷的问题，费希尔让我们知道，对货帀供应进行良好管理有助于保持经济稳定。凯恩斯坚持认为，如果政府能在最后时刻出手消费，中央银行能在最后时刻提供贷款，便能阻止经济危机的发生。

　　“Grand Pursuit” peters out at the end. It is easy to see why Ms Nasar thought Amartya Sen might be the right terminus for her train. He is an economic genius who has devoted²⁶ his life to thinking about the elimination²⁷ of the most dramatic form of want: famine. But it is, nevertheless, odd to end a history of economics without discussing the financial crisis of 2007-08 and the furious arguments it has engendered²⁸ within the economics profession. Surely the likes of Paul Krugman and Lawrence Summers should have had at least a walk-on role at the close of the story. But that is a blemish²⁹ in what is generally a wonderful book. “Grand Pursuit” deserves a place not only in every economist's study but also on every serious reader's bedside table.

　　《宏伟事业》逐渐进入尾声，娜萨女士选择阿马蒂亚·森作为本书最后一位经济学家，原因可以理解，阿马蒂亚·森是一位经济学天才，毕生研究怎样消除饥荒。但是，作为一本写经济学历史的书，没有论及2007-08年的经济危机以及由此产生的激烈论争就结束了，这不合常理。像保罗·克鲁格曼，劳伦斯·萨默斯这些人，本该在本书最后章节有所提及，。不过，这本书总体来说很精彩，《宏伟事业》不仅值得每一位经济学家研读，也可作为严肃书籍读者的床头书。

1 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

2 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

4 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

5 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

6 panache   

n.羽饰；假威风，炫耀

参考例句：

• She dresses with great panache.她穿著十分浮华。
• Her panache at dealing with the world's media is quite astonishing.她应付世界媒体的派头非常令人吃惊。

7 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

8 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

9 obsessive   

adj. 着迷的, 强迫性的, 分神的

参考例句：

• Some people are obsessive about cleanliness.有些人有洁癖。
• He's becoming more and more obsessive about punctuality.他对守时要求越来越过分了。

10 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

11 Prohibitionist   

禁酒主义者

参考例句：

12 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 conceal   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽

参考例句：

• He had to conceal his identity to escape the police.为了躲避警方，他只好隐瞒身份。
• He could hardly conceal his joy at his departure.他几乎掩饰不住临行时的喜悦。

14 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。

15 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

16 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

17 degenerated   

衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The march degenerated into a riot. 示威游行变成了暴动。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track. 铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。

18 unifies   

使联合( unify的第三人称单数 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• Team-Based Concurrent Engineering Unifies your design team and aids complex debug efforts. 以团队为基础的并行工程使你的设计团队融为一体并协助复杂的调试。
• He saw God's complete moral excellence that unifies His attributes. 他看见上帝完美的道德贯穿着祂所有的属性。

19 busts   

半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕

参考例句：

• Dey bags swells up and busts. 那奶袋快胀破了。
• Marble busts all looked like a cemetery. 大理石的半身象，简直就象是坟山。

20 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

21 unleash   

vt.发泄，发出；解带子放开

参考例句：

• They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
• Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。

22 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

23 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

24 analytical   

adj.分析的；用分析法的

参考例句：

• I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
• As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。

25 destitution   

n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷

参考例句：

• The people lived in destitution. 民生凋敝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His drinking led him to a life of destitution. 酗酒导致他生活贫穷。 来自辞典例句

26 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

27 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

28 engendered   

v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The issue engendered controversy. 这个问题引起了争论。
• The meeting engendered several quarrels. 这次会议发生了几次争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》

29 blemish   

v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点

参考例句：

• The slightest blemish can reduce market value.只要有一点最小的损害都会降低市场价值。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。