The Federal Reserve’s grand experiment is a flop. Not only has the second round of quantitative easing roiled markets, but it has become a lightning rod for debate in Washington, academia, and in policy and political circles around the world. The US central bank’s uncharacteristic defensiveness has only deepened the suspicion – putting over 30 years of hard-won credibility and independence at risk. Sadly, this backlash is well founded. The Fed is running a real risk of destabilising a still precarious post-crisis world.
美聯儲(Fed)的偉大實驗慘遭失敗。第二輪定量寬松(QE2)不僅擾亂了市場,而且成為美國政府、學術界以及全球政策和政治圈子辯論的焦點。美聯儲異乎尋常的防御姿態,唯一的效果是加深了人們的猜疑——將30多年來之不易的信譽和獨立性置于危險之中。遺憾的是,這種激烈反應是有充分理由的。美聯儲確有可能影響仍處于動蕩之中的后危機世界的穩定。