Nigel Lawson was the longest serving as well as the most controversial of Margaret Thatcher’s chancellors. His inaugural Adam Smith Lecture (reprinted in the January issue of Standpoint) shows him true to form. It is entitled “Five Myths and a Menace”. His menace is – or should be to Financial Times readers – the least controversial of his assertions. It is that of a “recrudescence of protectionist sentiment that threatens to repeat the disaster of the 1930s”. The “myth” on which I wish to concentrate is his fifth – that big current account imbalances are unnatural and dangerous. He is broadly right, but the argument needs to be taken further.
在玛格丽特•撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)的内阁大臣中，尼格尔•劳森(Nigel Lawson)是任期最长、最有争议的一位。从他的首次“亚当•斯密演讲”(Adam Smith Lecture)中可以看出，他还是老样子。演讲题为《五个谎言和一个威胁》(Five Myths and a Menace)，《立场》杂志(Standpoint) 1月刊对全文进行了转载。他所讲的威胁是他所有主张中争议性最小的——对英国《金融时报》的读者而言应该是这样。这种威胁指的是“有可能再现上世纪30年代灾难的保护主义情绪重新抬头”。我想重点探讨的“谎言”是他列出的第五个：庞大的经常账户失衡是有违规律且危险的。他基本上说的不错，但应进一步进行论证。