As the Group of 20 meets to seek common ground on protectionism, this year’s euro crisis will hover over their deliberations. The crisis that erupted in Greece has again exposed the fragility of a key element of currency-pooling arrangements: the important value created by a pooling of interests tends to be distributed disproportionately in favour of the financially less collegial members of the pool. Thus, unless restrained, too often, some members will try to exploit their advantage, as Greece brazenly did in recent years.
20国集团(G20)已经召开,寻找在保护主义问题上的共同立场。在各方商议过程中,今年发生的欧元危机将是一个绕不开的话题。在希腊爆发的这场危机,再次暴露出“货币共享机制”(currency-pooling arrangement)的一个关键要素的脆弱性:利益共享所带来的重要价值,在成员间往往分布不均,对财政上不那么“合群”的成员有利。因而,除非加以约束,否则一些成员往往会设法利用他们的优势。近些年希腊就是厚着脸皮这么干的。