当前位置: 首页> 书评> 正文

货币战争用《货币战争》来扯淡

  • 小小评论家小小评论家
  • 书评
  • 2023-03-26 04:03:35
  • 75

“美联储:私有的中央银行” 不算夸张地说,直到今天,中国可能也没有几个经济学家知道美联储其实是私有的中央银行。所谓“联邦储备银行”,其实既不是“联邦”,更没有“储备”,也算不上“银行”。多数中国zf的官员可能会想当然地认为是美国zf 发行着美元,实际情况是,美国zf 根本没有货币发行权!1963年肯尼迪总统遇刺后,美国zf 最终丧失了仅剩的“白银美元”的发行权。美国zf 要想得到美元,就必须将美国人民的未来税收(国债),抵押给私有的美联储,由美联储来发行“美联储券”,这就是“美元”。“美联储”的性质和来历在美国的学术界和新闻媒体中,是一个大家心照不宣的“禁区”。媒体每天可以长篇累牍地辩论“同性恋婚姻”这类无关痛痒的问题,而对到底谁控制着货币发行,这样一个关系到每一个人、每一天、每一分钱收入、每一项贷款利息支付的“利益攸关”的问题,几乎只字不提。读到这里,如果您有吃惊的感觉,说明这一问题是重要的,而您居然不知道。这一章将讲述被美国主流媒体刻意“过滤”掉的美联储成立的辛秘,当我们拿着放大镜,用慢镜头回放这一影响世界历史进程的重大事件的最后关头时,事件发展将精确到以小时为单位。

读到这一段话的时候,我就很深刻地被作者给震撼到了,显然作者就是“那少数几个知道美联储其实是私有的中央银行的经济学家”咯,当然前提是作者算得上是一个经济学家。我不得不对这样的说辞感到很困惑,稍微有点金融学背景的人也肯定刷刷瞪大了眼睛,这段时间我也正在看《货币金融学》Frederic S.Mishkin,不妨把其中介绍美联储的内容找出来看一看:

二十世纪以前,美国政治的一个主要特征是对中央集权的恐惧,这不仅体现在宪法的制约和平衡上,而且表现在对各个州权利的保护上。这种对中央集权的恐惧症是美国长期抵制建立中央银行的原因之一,而另外一个原因是美国社会长期以来对金融业持怀疑态度,而中央银行恰恰是金融业的突出代表。美国公众对银行的中央集权的敌意,对建立一个类似英格兰银行那样的单一中央银行形成了巨大的阻力。有两种担忧十分盛行:一是华尔街的金融业(包括大公司和大银行)可能操纵中央银行,进而控制经济;二是联邦***掌控中央银行运作会导致***过多干预私人银行事务。在中央银行应当是一家私人银行还是一个***机构的问题上,存在着巨大的分歧。对这些问题的争执结果是一个折中方案的出台。国会在1913年的《联邦储备法》中,精心设计了一套制约和平衡的体系,于是创立了拥有12家地区联邦储备银行的联邦储备体系。

Before the 20th century a major characteristics of American politics was the fear of centralized power as seen in the checks and balances of the Constitution and the preservation of state's rights. The fear of centralized power was one source of the American resistance to the establishment of a centralized bank. Another source was the traditional American distrust of moneyed interests the most prominent symbol of which was a central bank. The hostility of the American public to banks and centralized authority created great opposition to the establishment of a single central bank like the Bank of England. Fear was rampant that the moneyed interests on Wall Street (including the largest corporations and banks) would be able to manipulate such an institution to gain control over the economy and that federal operation of the central bank might result in too much government intervention in the affairs of private banks. Serious disagreements exists over whether the central bank should be a private bank or a government institution. Because of the heated debates on these issues a compromise was struck. Congress wrote an elaborate system of checks and balances into the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which created the Federal Reserve System with its 12 regional Federal Reserve banks.

由此可见联邦储备体系的建立是充分考虑到了所面临的潜在金融业团体以及政治团体压力,而为保证权力有效的分化,设立了12家地区性的联邦储备银行的分权体系,这样货币政策决策就能代表所有地区的利益了。作为联邦储备体系的核心机构联邦储备委员会,在事实上控制了联邦储备体系的方方面面,而委员会的7名委员经参议院同意后,由总统任命,为了限制总统对美联储的控制,并使美联储独立于其他政治势力,董事的任期长达14年,但不得连任。在面临经济,官僚和政治因素等外部压力时,美联储一直保持着相当的独立性,事实上,它是世界上独立性最强的中央银行之一。

At the head of the Fed is the seven-menber Board of Governors headquartered in Washington D.C. Each governor was appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. To limit the president's control over the Fed and insulate the Fed from other political pressures the governors serve one renewable 14-year term. You can see that the Fed has extraordinary independence for a government agency and is one of the most independent central banks in the world.

所以,美联储是私有的中央银行的说法不够准确,而且即使是作为私有的美联储由于其自身的结构特点仍然可以保持独立性。每年美联储扣除费用后的净收益高达280亿美元,而这笔费用的大部分都上交到了财政部,但这笔收入赋予了美联储相对于其他***机构重要的优势:它不必受制于通常由国会控制的拨款程序。同时,美联储在制定各种经济政策上有着其特殊的独立性,也并非如作者所扬言得受到了各大金融巨头的挟持。

The Fed has had net earnings after expenses of around $28 billion per year because it returns the bulk of these earnings to the Treasury it does not get rich from its activities but this income gives the Fed an important advantage over other government agencies: it is not subject to the appropriations process usually controlled by the Congress.

阅读全文