People who outbid others in auctions sometimes pay too much, a phenomenon known as the winner's curse. Yet the plan outlined last week by Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, for pricing the toxic assets clogging up the financial system provides private investors with an unusually strong incentive to overpay: the government is proposing to pick up most of the tab if the assets turn out to be worth much less than was spent on them. Indeed, the more aggressively investors compete in bidding for these assets, the worse off the taxpayers will be. I call this the taxpayers' curse.
拍卖活动的中标者有时出价过高，这种现象被称为“赢家的诅咒”。但美国财长蒂姆•盖特纳(Tim Geithner)上上周提出的、为充斥金融体系的不良资产定价的计划，向私人投资者提供了异乎寻常的激励，诱惑他们高价收购不良资产：如果资产价值最终远低于收购价格，则大部分损失将由政府买单。实际上，投资者对这些资产的竞购越积极，结果对纳税人就越不利。我将这称为“纳税人的诅咒”。