托福阅读机经背景文化类：只为重建信心.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料托福阅读机经背景文化类：只为重建信心 Books and Arts; Book Review;Rehabilitating capitalism 文艺;书评;振兴资本主义 For those who have lost faith 只为重建信心 Why Capitalism? By Allan Meltzer. 《为何是资本主义?》作者：Allan Meltzer A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity. By Luigi Zingales. 《为人民的资本主义：重拾美国繁荣时期消失的天才》作者：Luigi Zingales The financial crisis has led some people to question the viability of America’s economic system. Socialism’s appeal has faded in Russia and China, and to a degree in other countries that once were its champions, such as India and Cuba. But American-style capitalism has not had an easy time of it either. Crashing financial markets, bank bail-outs and high unemployment have all added to a growing sense of unease about a system that is based on private ownership of resources. 当前这场金融危机让人不由得开始质疑美国经济体系的可行性。社会主义的光环在俄罗斯和中国已逐渐褪去，甚至在像印度和古巴这样一度全权拥护社会主义的国家，它也早已不再神圣无比。但美式资本主义过的也并不轻松。不断崩溃的金融市场，银行紧急财政援助，再加上居高不下的失业率，这都导致人们对这一建立在资源私有基础上的经济体制倍感不安。 “Why Capitalism?” by Allan Meltzer, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is an extended response to some of the calls he has received in recent years. The most thought-provoking came from a woman in Germany who, after reading the New York Times, wondered if, only two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she was actually witnessing the implosion of the system that brought it down. Capitalism’s core defence, Mr Meltzer argues, is that it is the only system that leads to freedom and economic growth. It is less good at ensuring virtue or stability; failure is an inherent part. Indeed the author’s observation that “capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. It doesn’t work well,” has already been widely circulated. However, the sins attributed to capitalism—corruption, fraud and greed, to name but three—are not only pervasive in systems where the state controls production, but far more damaging and far less likely to be rectified. Meltzer指出资本主义的最