VOA慢速英语20061013a

ECONOMICS REPORT - Edmund Phelps Wins Nobel Prize for EconomicsBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, October 13, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


Edmund Phelps

Edmund Phelps has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize for Economics. Mister Phelps is a professor of economics at Columbia University in New York City. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Mister Phelps for his work in macroeconomics. That is the study of large forces that affect economies at the national or international level.

Mister Phelps correctly identified the relationship between unemployment and inflation. Since the nineteen thirties, policymakers in many nations dealt with unemployment in the same way. They would let inflation increase to create jobs.

For example, they would make credit easier to get. As a result, people would buy more goods. Businesses would hire workers to meet growing demand, forcing prices up. For many years, policymakers accepted that reducing unemployment required higher inflation.

Mister Phelps found that inflation did temporarily increase employment. But he discovered that, over the long term, inflation hurt job creation. His ideas were proved by economic conditions in America in the nineteen seventies. That period was known for stagflation: having high unemployment and high inflation at the same time.

Edmund Phelps also found that if employers expect low inflation in the future, they are more likely to hire workers.

Today, economic policy experts believe the best way to create jobs is to fight inflation.

Mister Phelps also studied national savings¹ over long periods of time. Common sense suggests that a very high savings rate is best. But, Mister Phelps showed that national savings rates can be too high. He argued that saving too much limited demand in the present, which could slow growth.

The best savings rate is not so high that it limits demand in the present. And it is not so low that it limits growth and investment in the future. Still, he argued that governments should take action to raise national savings.

Edmund Phelps did much of his research in macroeconomics during the late nineteen sixties and early seventies. His work continues to influence economists². And it has helped change policy at central banks, which now consider fighting inflation a main goal.

Mister Phelps will receive about one million four hundred thousand dollars.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts³ and archives are at www.unsv.com. I'm ________.

1 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

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 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句