[经济学家]傲慢的欧元衰退之后.doc

[经济学家]傲慢的欧元衰退之后 After the fall 衰退之后The ECB’s dented reputation is in part a result of hubris about the euro傲慢的欧元某种程度上毁了欧洲央行的名声IT IS meant to be an example of European unity, but in response to the euro zone’s fiscal crisis the European Central Bank (ECB) is having a fight on several national fronts. Even as the bank’s dealers were pushing cash into the bond markets of selected euro-zone countries, its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, was trying to reassure Germans that the ECB had not lost its inflation-fighting zeal or its independence. He told Der Spiegel that it was “ridiculous” to believe that the decision to buy bonds, in the early hours of May 10th, was in response to political pressures. In a separate interview, he insisted that the bank’s monetary policy was unchanged and that its actions would not spur inflation. 原本想成为统一典范的欧洲，然而在应付欧元区的财政危机这个跟头上，欧洲央行正在不得不多线作战。正当央行的交易员把钞票投到选定的债券市场，欧洲央行行长特里谢试图安抚德国人，并说欧洲央行没有丧失阻止通货膨胀的决心，或是它的独立性。早在5月10日，为了缓解政治压力，特里谢就告诉明镜周刊，相信央行购买债券是“荒谬”的。而在另一个采访中，他却坚持说，央行的货币政策是一贯的而且这样的政策也不会刺激通胀。To back up that claim, the central bank conducted a special auction of one-week deposits on May 18th to “sterilise”, or soak up, the euro 16.5 billion ($20.4 billion) of cash it had created by buying bonds. Banks offered almost ten times what was required, which meant the ECB had to pay an interest rate of just 0.28%. The exercise was largely cosmetic given how much liquidity the ECB supplies to banks. But appearances count. “It’s as if the ECB has sinned and has to do penance,” says Julian Callow at Barclays Capital. 为了回应那样的声明，央行开展了为期一周的特别拍卖活东去“消毒”或者说是通过购买债券的形式，去吸收它制造的165亿欧元（204亿美元）的现金。欧洲央行提供了几乎是10倍的于需求债券，这意味着欧洲央行不得不以0.28%的利率去支付这笔利息。欧洲银行为给银行提供了过多的虚设流动性资产，然而表面上却是合理的。巴克莱投资银行经济学家的朱利安?卡洛说“这好像是欧洲央行犯了错，不得不在忏悔一样。”How did it get into such a pickle? In part because flaws in the construction of the euro left Mr Trichet with little choice: there was no other institution in place to help individual countries in crisis. The mainstay of the mutual-support package annou