经济学人:过剩学问:产能过剩和产能不足(2)-英语课

时间：2019-02-25 作者：英语课 分类：经济学人财经系列

英语课

　　In Britain the Luddites broke stocking frames to stop machines taking their jobs. 在英国，卢德派分子已经开始破坏织袜机，以阻止机器抢了他们的饭碗。

　　On the other hand, global demand was damaged by failed ventures in South America and debilitated 1 by the eventual 2 downfall of Napoleon. 另一方面，全球需求因为在南美洲的失败投机而元气大伤，因为拿破仑的最终倒台而一蹶不振。
　　In Britain government spending was cut by 40% after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. 在英国，1815年的滑铁卢战役后，政府开支被砍掉了40%。
　　Some 300,000 discharged soldiers and sailors were forced to seek alternative employment. 大约30000名解甲归田的士兵和水手被迫另谋生路。
　　The result was a tide of overcapacity, what Say's contemporaries called a “general glut 3”. 其结果是一波产能过剩，即萨伊的同辈人所说的“总体性供过于求”（general glut）。
　　Britain was accused of inundating 4 foreign markets, from Italy to Brazil, much as China is blamed for dumping products today. 就像当今的中国一样，当时的英国被指向从意大利到巴西的外国市场倾销商品。
　　In 1818 a visitor to America found “not a city, nor a town, in which the quantity of goods offered for sale is not infinitely 5 greater than the means of the buyers”. 1818年，一位前往美国的游客发现“没有一座城市或者城镇，其被用于出售的商品数量不是无限地大于购买者能力”。
　　It was this “general overstock of all the markets of the universe” that came to preoccupy 6 Say and his critics. 就是这种“世间所有市场的总体存货过剩”最终吸引了萨伊和他的评论。
　　In trying to explain it, Say at first denied that a “general” glut could exist. 在试图解释这种过剩时，萨伊一上来就否认，“总体性的”供过于求可能存在。
　　Some goods can be oversupplied 7, he conceded. 他承认，有些商品可能是被过度供给了。
　　But goods in general cannot. 但是，商品总体是不可能的。
　　His reasoning became known as Say's law: “it is production which opens a demand for products”, or, in a later, snappier formulation: supply creates its own demand. 他的推理成为了著名的萨伊定律（Say's law）:“正是生产开启对产品的需求”，或者是用后来更时髦的公式来说，就是：供给创造自己的需求（supply creates its own demand）。
　　This proposition, he admitted, has a “paradoxical complexion 8, which creates a prejudice against it”. 他承认，这种观点有一种“似是而非的情况，这造成了一种对它的偏见”。
　　To the modern ear, it sounds like the foolhardy belief that “if you build it, they will come”. 对于现代人来说，这听上去像是那种“只要建，就有人来”的愚蠢信条。
　　Rick Perry, America's energy secretary, was ridiculed 9 after a recent visit to a West Virginia coal plant for saying, "You put the supply out there and the demand will follow." 日前，美国能源部长里克·佩里在访问了西佛吉尼亚的一座煤矿后，曾因为“把供给摆在那里，需求就会随之而来”的言论遭到嘲笑。