Are financial crises an inevitable feature of capitalism? Must the government rescue the system when huge crises occur? In his book Stress Test, Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and US Treasury secretary during the 2007-09 crisis, answers “yes” to both questions. Yet these answers also harm the legitimacy of a market economy. It is bad enough if capitalism is crisis-prone. It is worse still if the state feels obliged to rescue those whose folly or criminality caused the damage, to protect the innocent.
金融危机是资本主义的一个不可避免的特点吗？当严重危机爆发，政府必须救助金融体系吗？蒂莫西•盖特纳(Timothy Geithner)在他的《压力测试》(Stress Test)一书中，对这两个问题给出了肯定答案。2007至2009年危机期间，盖特纳曾任纽约联邦储备银行(Federal Reserve Bank of New York)行长、美国财政部长。但这样的答案也有损市场manbetx20客户端下载 的合法性。资本主义易发生危机，这一点已经够糟糕了。而对于那些用愚蠢或犯罪行为给manbetx20客户端下载 造成损害的人，政府感觉必须提供救助，从而保护无辜民众，这一点就更加糟糕了。