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走进神秘的美联储

理查德·费舍

美联储达拉斯联邦储备银行主席


我非常荣幸地见证了一个全新的,积极融入全球化的中国的诞生。1979年年初,在卡特总统任职期间,我陪同财政部部长布卢门撒尔到北京会见邓小平副总理和财政部部长张劲夫。中美双方通过谈判解决了解放战争造成的两国财产争议,重启中美贸易大门。20年后,我作为克林顿总统的美国贸易谈判代表,参与中美双边贸易协议的谈判和签订,这个协议为中国加入WTO扫清了道路。

可以说,我是中国再次融入世界的第一见证人。但我发现,中国仍然存在一些习惯性的抵触情绪,这种情绪阻碍了中国全面了解自己所处的世界,也阻碍了中国更好地融入世界。一个例子就是中国对世界上最重要的中央银行——美联储存在误解。

这种误解最有力的证据就是《货币战争》一书在中国的流行。《货币战争》在中国不仅是流行读物,甚至被不少政府官员传阅,它成了曲解美联储目的和功能的错误信息源头。美国也存在类似《货币战争》的阴谋论,但这些观点只在极端政治群体中流行,并非主流。

王健作为美联储达拉斯联邦储备银行的资深中国问题专家和出色的经济学家,为大家精彩地还原了美联储真实的历史和功能。我强烈建议中国的政府官员阅读这部作品,同时也把它推荐给希望了解世界上最强大的中央银行的学者、财经从业人员、商业精英和思想界领袖。

理查德·费舍主席简介:费舍主席和中国的关系源远流长。1979年,他陪同美国财政部部长布卢门撒尔访华,是中美两国关系正常化,重启双边贸易之门的重要策划者和主要参与者。1997年至2001年担任美国贸易谈判代表期间,他参与了中美关于中国加入WTO的谈判,推动了协议的签订。2005年后,费舍任美联储达拉斯联邦储备银行主席,直接参与制定美国货币政策。

I had the good fortune to be a witness to the birth of the new, globally engaged China. In early 1979, at President Carter's behest, I accompanied Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal in his meetings with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and Finance Minister Zhang Jinfu for negotiations settling the counterclaims our countries had on each other over property seized during the Communist Revolution and opening up our economies to trade with each other. Two decades later, working as President Clinton's deputy U.S. trade representative, I helped negotiate the bilateral accord with the U.S. that paved the way for China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

I have been a firsthand witness to China's remarkable reengagement with the world. Yet I have also seen vestigial reactionary impulses that, in my view, impede China's full understanding of the world she now operates within, restraining the effectiveness of that reengagement. One example is the incomplete understanding bordering on ignorance about the operations of the Federal Reserve, the world's pivotal central bank.

Exhibit A of this phenomenon is the popularity of the book Currency Wars. It has not only been a bestseller in China; it has been read and reread by many government officials, instilling insidious misunderstandings of the purposes and functions of the Federal Reserve. These views are not dissimilar to those harbored by conspiratorial theorists within the extreme right and left wings of the American political spectrum.

Jian Wang, senior China specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a rising star economist, has written a superb Mandarin-language book about the true history and workings of the Federal Reserve. I strongly recommend this book to Chinese officialdom, as well as for Chinese scholars, financiers, business operators and thought leaders seeking to understand the whys and wherefores of the world's most powerful central bank.

President and CEO

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas