公众人物毕业演讲第309期:本伯南克2013普林斯顿(8)

 Honest error in the face of complex and possibly intractable problems is a far more important source of bad results than are bad motives

糟糕政策结果更主要的原因是 碰到复杂难解问题时所犯下的诚实错误 而不是出于恶劣动机

For these reasons, the greatest forces in Washington are ideas and people prepared to act on those ideas Public service, as I discovered, is not easy

因此 华盛顿最大的力量来自于观念 以及准备将这些观念付诸行动的人 根据我的观察 公共服务并不容易

But, in the end if you are inclined in that direction it is a worthy and challenging pursuit Number 6

但最终 如果你选择了这个方向 这绝对是值得干且有挑战性的追求 六

Having taken a stab at sociology and political science let me wrap up economics while I'm at it Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought

之前我讲了社会学和政治学 下面不妨再讲讲我总在打交道的经济学 经济学是一个高度复杂精密的思维领域

That is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong About the future, not so much

它精于向政策制定者们准确解释 他们在过去所制定的决策为何是错的 但关于未来 它所能做的并不多

However, careful economic analysis does have one important benefit which is that it can help kill ideas that are completely logically inconsistent or wildly at variance with the data

不过 谨慎的经济学分析有一个重要的好处 就是帮助剔除 那些完全不合逻辑或与数据不符的想法

This insight covers at least 90 percent of proposed economic policies Number 7 I'm not going to tell you that money doesn't matter

这对至少90%的经济政策提案都有作用 七 我不会告诉你们钱无所谓

Because you wouldn't believe me anyway In fact, for too many people around the world money is literally a life-or-death proposition

因为肯定没人会信我 实际上 对于世界上很多人 毫不夸张 钱是涉及到生死存亡的议题

But if you are part of the lucky minority with the ability to choose remember that money is a means, not an end A career decision based only on money

但如果你有幸成为具有选择能力的那少数人 请一定记得 钱只是手段 而不是目的 只基于钱