(1). Paul Volcker, chairman of the Fed and America's doughtiest inflation-fighter, died on December 8th, aged 92
保罗·沃尔克是美联储主席和美国最勇猛的通货膨胀斗士,他于12月8日去世,享年92岁。
(2). 1:In his spells of leisure time, when he had any, Paul Volcker liked to go fishing.
2:Towering above a river in his jerkin and waders, fly cast, cigar firmly in mouth, was a good way to ruminate on big decisions.
3:And he believed in rumination.
4:"Procrastinate and flourish" was a favourite motto.
5:Another, from George Washington, which his father had kept above his desk when he was city manager of Teaneck, New Jersey, was: "Do not suffer your good nature...to say yes when you ought to say no."
1:当保罗有闲暇时间时,他喜欢去钓鱼。
2:穿着背心和水靴,紧紧叼着雪茄,高高耸立在一条河上,这是沉思重大决策的好方法。
3:他相信沉思。
4:“拖延和繁荣”是他最喜欢的格言。
5:另外一句则出自乔治·华盛顿,在担任新泽西州蒂内克市市执行长时,他父亲将这句话置于他桌子之上:“不要让你的善良本性受折磨...不要在该说不的时候说是。”
(3). 1:So when he was asked in 1974 to be president of the New York Fed, he went off on a fishing trip to chew it over.
2:And in meetings and congressional-committee hearings later, as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, he hid his bald head in smoke-clouds, as if he was slowly weighing up what answers he could possibly give.
3:His salvo against America's inflation in 1979, which slew the dragon for decades, therefore seemed unusually abrupt.
4:The times certainly required it, with annual inflation then at 12%.
5:And his measures, announced at an extraordinary press conference in the boardroom of the Federal Reserve building in Washington, were drastic.
1:所以保罗在1974年受邀担任纽约联邦储备银行行长时,开启了一次钓鱼之旅来好好思考这个问题。
2:随后,他在1979年至1987年之间担任美联储主席,在会议和国会委员会听证会上,保罗把他那光秃秃的脑袋藏在烟雾里,仿佛在慢慢地掂量他能说出什么答案。
3:因此,他在1979年对拖累美国几十年的通货膨胀的猛烈抨击显得格外突然。
4:当时也确实有必要,年通胀率达到12%。
5:在华盛顿联邦储备委员会大楼会议室召开的特别新闻发布会上,他宣布的措施也很极端。
(4). 1:From then on the Fed would control not the price of money, by adjusting the interest rate, but its supply, leaving interest rates to be set by the market.
2:He would force America into recession to cure people of their expectations that since prices would keep on rising, they must keep on spending.
3:The downturn that followed—double-dip, because he briefly took his foot off the brake—brought soaring unemployment, reaching 10.8% in 1982, and a federal funds rate of over 20%, the highest in history, before both rates and prices eased.
4:By 1983 inflation was less than 4%.
5:Yet he had been ruminating about the beast, and how to subdue it, since his Princeton student days.
1:从那时起,美联储不再通过调整利率来控制货币价格,而是调整它的供给,使市场决定利率。
2:人们预想,因为价格会持续上涨,所以他们必须得继续消费。保罗要迫使美国进入衰退来终止人们的这种预想。
3:接下来的衰退-再次衰退,因为他暂时没有踩刹车-带来了极高的失业率,1982年失业率达到了10.8%,联邦基金利率超20%,达到历史最高,之后利率和价格都有所下降。
4:到1983年,通胀率不到4%。
5:然而,从保罗在普林斯顿上学时起,他就一直在思考这头野兽,以及如何制服它。