THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM HAS REACHED the point of maximum peril. After years of profligacy, banks have all but stopped lending to each other as the US Congress decides whether to extend support. If the unravelling of the banking system continues, the economic consequences will be dire. Yet there is an even greater risk: that the politicians now contemplating Wall Street's follies draw the wrong conclusions and take the wrong decisions, losing their confidence in markets altogether.
这将不是第一次。1929年华尔街股灾后，市场被认为已经失效，美国立法者试图通过管制找到穿越危机的捷径。被广泛效仿的《司莫特-郝利关税法》(Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act)使成千上万种进口商品的有效税率提高了三倍，加深了1929年至1933年间的“大萧条”。而反市场情绪的盛行，让欧洲一些初具雏形的民主政治付出了更高昂的代价：法西斯主义。
您已阅读10%（658字），剩余90%（5843字）包含更多重要信息，订阅以继续探索完整内容，并享受更多专属服务。