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The US Federal Reserve must do a better job of responding to the rising tide of economic anger in America that is leading to a surge in protectionist rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail, according to the newest member of its policy committee.
美聯儲(Fed)政策委員會的最新成員表示，美聯儲在迴應美國國內日益高漲的經濟憤怒浪潮時必須做得更好，這股憤怒正導致總統競選過程中保護主義言論升溫。
In an interview with the Financial Times, Neel Kashkari, who took over as head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve at the start of the year, warned the Fed must work harder to rebuild public trust and communicate with US citizens. Economic anger, he said, was “all around the country and it is non-partisan”.
在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時，今年初接任明尼阿波利斯聯邦儲備銀行(Minneapolis Federal Reserve)行長的尼爾慍什卡利(Neel Kashkari)警告稱，美聯儲必須在重建公衆信任、與美國公民溝通方面更加努力。他稱，經濟憤怒“遍佈全美，不分黨派”。
Mr Kashkari’s first public forays this week have quickly positioned him as an outspoken voice among policymakers.
卡什卡利在本週的首次公開發難，使他迅速樹立起直言不諱的政策制定者的形象。
As a senior Treasury official during George W Bush’s administration and the first term of Barack Obama, Mr Kashkari was a key architect of Wall Street’s 2008 bailout. But on Tuesday, in his first speech since joining the Minneapolis Fed, he called for regulators to consider breaking up the largest US lenders, which were still “too big to fail”.
作爲喬治圠布什(George W. Bush)政府時期以及奧巴馬第一任期時的財政部(Treasury)高級官員，卡什卡利是2008年華爾街紓困計劃的關鍵設計師。但在本週二，在他加入明尼阿波利斯聯儲後的首次演講中，他呼籲監管部門考慮拆分美國規模最大的一些銀行，稱它們仍然“太大而不能倒”。
In his FT interview he blamed the bailouts he oversaw as one of the “root causes for the loss of trust” in the US’s economic managers. Those actions had “really violated a core American belief” that risk takers had to bear the consequences of things going wrong, he said, and “it really leads to great anger if you violate the core beliefs of a society”.
在接受英國《金融時報》採訪時，他指責當年由他負責的紓困計劃是民衆對美國經濟管理者“失去信任的根源”之一。他稱，那些舉措“確實違反了美國的核心信念”，即風險承擔者不得不承擔事情出錯的後果，“如果你違反一個社會的核心信念，確實會造成極大的憤怒”。
The impact, he said, had been made worse by a history of opacity at the Fed and a past institutional reluctance to explain monetary policy clearly.
他稱，這股衝擊波因美聯儲不透明的歷史和以往在機構層面不願明確解釋貨幣政策而變得更糟。
The Fed was now paying the price for decades of “very poor” communications as it “adopted this Wizard of Oz routine that ‘We are so mysterious and you can’t understand what we are doing’”, he said, “and that really hurt trust between the people and the institution”.
他稱，美聯儲正在爲數十年來“採取‘我們那麼神祕，你搞不懂我們在幹什麼’這一綠野仙蹤般的套路”、導致“非常糟糕”的溝通付出代價，“而這確實損害了人們與這個機構之間的信任”。
Anger about the economy was also fuelling support for those advocating new barriers to protect US industry. “I don’t think protectionism is the right path. I think we need to promote free markets around the world. But some of the anger is understandable,” he said.
對於經濟的憤怒也使那些提倡設置新壁壘來保護美國產業的人得到更大支持。“我不認爲保護主義是正確的道路。我認爲我們需要在世界各地促進自由市場。但是其中一些憤怒是可以理解的，”他稱。
“We need to promote free markets on both sides. It can’t just be the American economy that is free and our trading partners are not free. So I understand that anger that is there. We need to push back against that [protectionist rhetoric] but also push out globally for free markets everywhere.”
“我們需要促進雙方的自由市場。不能只有美國經濟是自由化的，而我們的貿易伙伴的經濟不自由。所以我理解當前存在的憤怒。我們需要頂住（保護主義言論），但也要在全球各地推動自由市場。”
His words come amid a presidential election campaign dominated by frustration about sluggish growth since the 2007-09 financial crash. Some 72 per cent of people feel the economy is still in recession, according to the American Values Survey released in November, even though economic analysts say the Great Recession ended in mid-2009.
他發表言論之際，人們對自2007-09年金融危機以來增長乏力的沮喪感主導着美國總統競選的氛圍。去年11月發佈的《美國價值觀調查》(American Values Survey)顯示，大約72%的人覺得經濟仍然處於衰退狀態，儘管經濟分析人士稱“大衰退”已在2009年年中結束。
That frustration has spilled over into antipathy towards the Fed itself, and on both sides of the political divide. Democratic lawmakers have questioned the central bank’s decision to lift interest rates, warning it could stifle wage growth, while Republicans are calling for greater scrutiny of the Fed’s decisions amid lingering anger over the scale of its interventions during the crisis.
這種沮喪感已瀰漫爲人們（政治分界線的雙方都是如此）對美聯儲本身產生厭惡。民主黨議員質疑美聯儲加息的決定，警告它可能抑制工資增長，與此同時，共和黨人士呼籲對美聯儲的決策加強審查，其背景是人們仍對金融危機期間美聯儲的干預規模耿耿於懷。
But above all it has helped fuel the rise of populist candidates such as Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who have both urged greater effort to protect US industry from cheap imports and foreign competition.
但最重要的是，這助長了民粹主義候選人的氣焰，比如自稱民主社會主義者的伯尼儠德斯(Bernie Sanders)和共和黨領跑者唐納德礠朗普(Donald Trump)。他們二人都敦促爲保護美國產業免受廉價進口商品和外國競爭的衝擊付出更多努力。
Mr Kashkari praised the work of Janet Yellen, the Fed chair, but said the central bank needed to go further.
卡什卡利稱讚了美聯儲主席珍妮特耶倫(Janet Yellen)的工作，但是他稱美聯儲需要更進一步。
Ms Yellen was “trying to do the right thing for the country”, and if people got to know her and other people in the Fed system “they would be very proud we have this institution in our country”, but “we don’t really let them see in”.
耶倫“正嘗試着爲國家做正確的事”，如果人們瞭解她和美聯儲系統內的其他人員，“他們會爲我們國家擁有這樣的機構感到非常自豪”，但是“我們沒有真的讓他們瞭解”。
“I think we could do a better job,” he said. “The press conferences [held quarterly by the Fed chair] are a step in the right direction and Chair Yellen is very candid in those press conferences and addresses the questions directly. That’s positive.” But the Fed needed to “look for more opportunities like that. It has to happen on all levels.”
“我覺得我們能做得更好，”他稱，“（美聯儲主席每季度舉行一次的）新聞發佈會是向着正確方向邁進的一步，耶倫主席在新聞發佈會上非常坦誠，直接回答問題。這是積極進展。”但是美聯儲需要“尋找更多這樣的機會。進步必須體現在所有層面。”
Monetary policy was hugely complicated and it was not possible to explain every twist and turn to the whole population. That meant it was critical the public trusted the Fed, he said.
貨幣政策非常複雜，不可能向所有人解釋清楚政策制定的每個環節。他稱，這意味着公衆信任美聯儲很關鍵。
“You are not going to have the population as a whole understand all the nuances of what we are talking about here. They need to trust us. They need to know that we care. If they trust us and know that we care, they are going to give us the benefit of the doubt on some of the complexities they may not fully understand.”
“你沒法讓所有人都理解我們現在所討論的每個細微之處。他們需要信任我們。他們需要知道我們在意。如果他們信任我們，知道我們在意，他們就會在一些他們可能不能完全理解的複雜問題上對我們‘疑罪從無’。”
