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Hello, I’m Craig and this is Crash Course Government and Politics
大家好，我是克雷格，这里是政府与政治速成班
and today we’re finally gonna talk about a topic I know that you've all been waiting for: Monetary and Fiscal policy.
今天我们终于要讨论一个我知道你们一直在等待的话题:货币和财政政策。
Hurray! You haven’t been waiting for monetary and fiscal policy?
欢呼！你不是一直在等待货币和财政政策吗？
Are you sure? I’ve been talking it up for weeks, you know?
你确定吗？我已经说了好几个星期了，你知道吗？
Well, let me see if I can’t convince you to be as excited as I am.
好吧，让我看看我是否能说服你像我一样兴奋。
Monetary Policy! Wooo! Fiscal Policy! Yeah! I want to get fiscal, fiscal.
货币政策!呜!财政政策!是啊!我想要财政的，财政的。
Come on and get fiscal… okay let’s start the show.
好了，我们开始吧。
Let’s start with monetary policy because it’s not at all controversial.
让我们从货币政策开始，因为它一点都没有争议。
Well, it kind of is controversial, but it’s less contentious than fiscal policy.
嗯，这有点争议，但它比财政政策争议小。
Monetary policy is basically the way the government regulates the amount of money in circulation in the nation’s economy.
货币政策基本上是政府调控国家经济中货币流通量的方式。
Controlling the money supply is the primary task of the Federal Reserve System and since it’s a little bit complicated, I’m going to talk about the other things that the Fed does first.
控制货币供应是联邦储备系统的首要任务，由于它有点复杂，我将先讲美联储做的其他事情。
The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913 to serve as America’s central bank.
美国联邦储备系统成立于1913年，是美国的中央银行。
Before then, there were state and local banks as well as a Bank of the United States, which was a much more limited central bank.
在那之前，除了美国的一家银行，还有州立银行和地方银行，而美国的中央银行要有限得多。
The Fed is made up of 12 regional banks, and two boards.
美联储由12家地区性银行和两个董事会组成。
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, who are appointed by the President, and the Federal Open Market Committee, which is partially appointed by the president.
联邦储备委员会，由总统任命，联邦公开市场委员会，部分由总统任命。
The Fed has two primary tasks: to control inflation and to encourage full employment, and it has four basic functions, but one of them is way more important than the others.
美联储有两项主要任务:控制通胀和鼓励充分就业。它有四项基本职能，但其中一项比其他重要得多。
The Fed is responsible, ultimately for clearing checks, and for supplying actual currency, most of which is kept in highly secure facilities staffed by robots.
美联储负责，最终是清算支票，并提供实际货币，这些货币大多存放在由机器人操作的高度安全的设施中。
With laser eyes. I don’t know if they have laser eyes.
激光眼睛。我不知道他们有没有激光眼睛。
The Fed also sets up rules for banks, although these can also be set by Congress.
美联储还为银行制定规则，尽管这些规则也可以由国会制定。
But the most important thing that the Fed does is loan money to other banks and set interest rates.
但美联储做的最重要的事情是向其他银行贷款并设定利率。
That’s why when you hear about the Federal Reserve, nine times out of ten it’s about interest rates, because that’s the main way the Fed controls the money supply.
这就是为什么当你听到美联储的时候，十有八九是关于利率的，因为这是美联储控制货币供应的主要方式。
The Fed loans money to banks, sweet, sweet money, which they in turn loan out to businesses and individuals and, like all loans, the Fed charges interest.
美联储把钱借给银行，然后再借给企业和个人，就像所有贷款一样，美联储收取利息。
The Fed sets the rate on the interest, called the discount rate, and this determines, mostly, how much money banks will borrow.
美联储设定利率，称为贴现率，这在很大程度上决定了银行将借多少钱。
The lower the rate, the more banks will borrow and the more money goes into circulation.
利率越低，银行就会借更多的钱，更多的钱进入流通。
Other banks peg the interest rates they charge to the Fed’s rate, charging slightly more, so in this way the Fed determines, or sets, interest rates in the economy as a whole.
其他银行将利率与美联储的利率挂钩，收取稍高的利率，这样美联储就决定或设定了整个经济的利率。
The Fed also creates regulations that control how much money circulates in the economy.
美联储还制定了控制经济中货币流通量的规定。
One of these is the bank reserve requirement, or the amount of money in cash that a bank has to have on hand.
其中之一是银行存款准备金率，即银行必须持有的现金数量。
Now the amount of money that a bank holds in reserve is only a fraction of the total amount of money held in deposit at the bank –
现在银行的储备金只占银行存款总额的一小部分
that’s why it’s called fractional reserve banking –
这就是为什么它被称为部分准备金银行
but the reserve requirement is there so that you don’t get catastrophic bank runs like we saw during the Great Depression when so many frightened depositors took their money out of banks that the banks failed.
但存款准备金率的存在，是为了避免我们在大萧条时期看到的灾难性的银行挤兑。当时，许多惊恐的储户把钱从银行取出，导致银行倒闭。
Raising the reserve requirement reduces the amount of money in circulation and lowering it pumps more money into the economy.
提高存款准备金率会减少流通中的货币数量，降低存款准备金率会向经济中注入更多的资金。
The Federal Reserve also sets the interest rate banks charge to lend money to each other, which again controls the amount of money that circulates.
美联储还设定了银行间拆借的利率，这又一次控制了货币的流通量。
If banks are charging each other a lot of money to borrow, they won’t borrow as much,
如果银行向彼此收取高额贷款，它们就不会借那么多钱，
and they won’t lend as much to firms and individuals and there will be less money in the economy as a whole.
他们不会借给公司和个人那么多钱，整个经济中的钱也会减少。
There’s at least one more important way that the Fed influences the money supply in the U.S.and that’s through Open Market Operations.
美联储影响美国货币供应至少还有一个更重要的方式这是通过公开市场运作。
This is a fancy way to say that the Fed buys and sells government debt in the form of treasury bills, or government bonds.
这是美联储以国库券或政府债券的形式买卖政府债券的一种奇特的说法。
When the Fed sells bonds, it takes money out of the economy, and when it buys them more money goes into the economy.
当美联储出售债券时，它把钱从经济中抽走，当它购买债券时，更多的钱进入了经济。
This is the idea behind what was known as Quantitative Easing, which is really complicated.
这就是所谓的量化宽松政策背后的理念，这真的很复杂。
To be honest, I’m not crazy about wading into economics here, and thankfully there’s a whole other series to do that, but I have to mention inflation at this point.
老实说，我并不热衷于涉猎经济学，幸运的是，还有很多其他的系列文章可以做到这一点，但我必须在这里提到通货膨胀。
Inflation is a general rise in prices that can be caused by a number of things, but one of them is the amount of money that circulates.
通货膨胀是物价的普遍上涨，它可以由许多因素引起，但其中之一是流通的货币数量。
If there’s more money around, there’s more that can be spent and this makes it possible for prices to go up.
如果周围有更多的钱，就有更多的钱可以花，这就使得价格上涨成为可能。
But this isn’t an absolute rule, as of 2016 we’ve had years of basically zero interest rates,
如果周围有更多的钱，就有更多的钱可以花，这就使得价格上涨成为可能。
which means it’s really cheap to borrow money, which means that there should be a lot of money in circulation, yet inflation remains quite low.
这意味着借钱真的很便宜，这意味着应该有很多钱在流通，但通货膨胀率仍然很低。
Hey, it’s real cheap to borrow money. Can I borrow two bucks? No!
嘿，借钱真的很便宜。我能借两块钱吗?不!
He never has any money.
他从来没有钱。
Usually low interest rates tend to cause inflation and reduce unemployment,
通常低利率会导致通货膨胀，降低失业率，
and high interest rates are expected to cool down an overheating economy, but that hasn’t happened much in the past few years.
预计高利率将为过热的经济降温，但在过去几年里，这种情况并没有发生太多。
I’ll say again, I glad this isn’t an economic series.
我再说一遍，我很高兴这不是一个经济系列。
It’s important to note here that the Federal reserve is an independent body, meaning that its board of governors and chairperson are not elected or really subject to much regulation from Congress.
值得注意的是，美联储是一个独立的机构，这意味着它的理事会和主席不是由选举产生的，也不受国会的太多监管。
And they throw the best parties. That’s probably why.
他们举办最好的派对。这可能是为什么。
This is intentional and probably a good idea.
这是有意的，可能是个好主意。
Ideally, you want people in charge of the money supply to be able to look after broader interests than their own re-election,
理想情况下，你希望负责货币供应的人能够照顾比他们自己的连任更广泛的利益
and this is why the Fed is supposed to be insulated from politics and remain independent.
这就是为什么美联储应该远离政治，保持独立。
Ok, so that’s monetary policy, which is one lever that the federal government can use to influence the economy.
好的，这就是货币政策，这是联邦政府可以用来影响经济的一个杠杆。
Increasingly it’s the only lever, because in America we have a hard time with fiscal policy.
越来越多地，这是唯一的杠杆，因为在美国，我们的财政政策正处于艰难时期。
What’s that, you might be asking?
你可能会问，这是什么?
Fiscal policy refers to the government’s ability to raise taxes and spend the money it raises.
财政政策指的是政府提高税收和花掉所筹集资金的能力。
Since I know that by this episode you’ve been paying a lot of attention to American politics, you know that in the past 20 or 30 years,
因为我知道在这一集里，你们一直在关注美国政治，在过去的二三十年里，
at least, Americans have generally been reluctant to raise taxes, and somewhat reluctant to have the government spend money.
至少，美国人一般不愿增税，也不愿让政府花钱。
The difference between these two goals – spending money and not raising taxes – largely explains why we have deficits.
这两个目标——花钱和不增税——之间的差异，在很大程度上解释了我们为何会出现赤字。
Before we get into tax policy, which I know is what you’ve been waiting for, calm down,
在我们讨论税收政策之前，我知道这是你们一直在等待的，冷静下来，
I need to point out that the way the government can spend more money on programs than it takes in taxes is by borrowing it, which the government does by, you guessed it, selling bonds.
我需要指出的是政府在项目上的花费比它在税收上的花费要多的方法是通过借款，你猜对了，政府是通过出售债券来实现的。
Good thing we talked about Open Market Operations.
好在我们谈到了公开市场运作。
Let’s tax the Thought Cafe people with a lot of work, by talking about taxes and spending in the Thought Bubble.
让我们通过谈论税收和支出，在思想泡泡中向思想咖啡馆的人们征税。
First, ever since Ronald Reagan came to office there has been a hostility towards higher taxes and government spending that is theoretically based in an idea called supply side economics.
首先，自罗纳德•里根上任以来，人们一直对提高税收和政府支出抱有敌意，这种敌意理论上基于一种被称为供应侧经济学的观点。
I’m not going to discuss the details of the theory or even whether it’s right or wrong or somewhere in between,
我不会讨论这个理论的细节，甚至不会讨论它是对是错，或者介于两者之间，
but the basic thrust is that if you lower taxes on businesses and individuals, the individuals will be able to spend more, the businesses will be able to invest more, and the economy as a whole will grow.
但最基本的主旨是，如果你降低企业和个人的税收，个人将能够消费更多，企业将能够投资更多，整个经济将会增长。
It’s a simple and politically powerful idea and has set the terms of the debate for a generation.
这是一个简单而具有政治影响力的想法，为一代人的辩论设定了条件。
In general, over the past 30 years the trend is for there to be lower federal taxes and for them to be less progressive, meaning that wealthier people pay a lower percentage of their income in Federal taxes.
总的来说，过去30年的趋势是降低联邦税收，减少累进，这意味着富人缴纳的联邦税占其收入的比例更低。
The wealthy still pay the largest share of federal taxes overall, though, so it’s not completely accurate to say that they aren’t paying.
不过，总体而言，富人仍在缴纳联邦税收中所占比例最大，所以说他们没有缴纳并不完全准确。
Since Reagan, and especially during the presidency of George W. Bush, income tax rates on the highest earners have fallen, as have taxes on estates (although they did go up again) and on capital gains and dividends.
自里根以来，尤其是在乔·W.布什担任总统期间，最高收入者的所得税税率下降了，遗产税(尽管后来又上涨了)、资本利得税和股息税也下降了。
President Obama did raise tax rates, but primarily on people earning above $450,000 a year.
奥巴马总统确实提高了税率，但主要针对年收入超过45万美元的人。
Corporate tax rates have also declined and Social Security taxes have gone up, which is important because this is the federal tax that most of us are most likely to pay.
公司税也下降了，社会保障税上升了，这很重要，因为这是我们大多数人最有可能支付的联邦税。
Overall the percentage of revenue that the federal government receives from taxes has held pretty steady at between 43% and 50%.
总的来说，联邦政府从税收中获得的收入比例一直稳定在43%到50%之间。
If you’re interested in the numbers, for 2013 the government received almost $2.8 trillion in tax revenues.
如果你对这些数字感兴趣，2013年政府获得了近2.8万亿美元的税收收入。
And it spent $3.5 trillion, which math tells us means a deficit of around 700 billion dollars.
它花费了3.5万亿美元，数学告诉我们这意味着大约7000亿美元的赤字。
Thanks, Thought Bubble.
谢谢，思想泡泡。
When people say that they need to cut spending and balance the budget, this is what they are talking about,
当人们说他们需要削减开支和平衡预算，这就是他们所说的，
but it’s not quite as simple as just spending less, because there are some places where the government can’t cut spending even if they want to.
但这并不像减少开支那么简单，因为有些地方即使政府想削减开支也无法削减。
There are certain items in the federal budget that must be spent because they are written into law by Congress.
联邦预算中有些项目必须支出，因为它们是由国会写入法律的。
These are called uncontrollables, or mandatory spending.
这些被称为不受控制，或强制支出。
One uncontrollable that relates to monetary policy is interest payments on federal debt.
与货币政策有关的一个无法控制的因素是联邦债务的利息支付。
The government can’t not pay its interest, otherwise no one would lend us money.
政府不能支付利息，否则没人会借钱给我们。
That's just how lending works, or it's supposed to work.
这就是贷款的运作方式，或者说应该是这样的。
Farm price supports – subsidies – are also counted as uncontrollables, and they are important, but not nearly as important as the two big-ticket mandatory spending items.
农产品价格支持——补贴——也被认为是不受控制的，它们很重要，但没有两项大额强制性支出那么重要。
These are social security and Medicare, and they are paid for with dedicated federal taxes.
这些是社会保障和医疗保险，它们由专门的联邦税收支付。
They provide income and health insurance for elderly people and it’s unlikely that the amounts the government spends on them is going to decline anytime soon for three reasons.
他们为老年人提供收入和健康保险，政府花在老年人身上的钱短期内不太可能减少，原因有三。
First, is that the population is aging, meaning that the percentage of older Americans is rising in proportion to younger Americans.
首先，人口正在老龄化，这意味着老年美国人与年轻美国人的比例正在上升。
This means that more people will be receiving Social Security payments, which leads us to the second reason they are unlikely to go down: people like them.
这意味着越来越多的人将获得社会保障金，这就引出了他们不太可能下降的第二个原因:人们喜欢他们。
The third reason is more political: older people tend to vote more regularly, so a politician who wants to keep their job is unlikely to vote for cuts in Social Security or Medicare.
第三个原因更具政治性:老年人倾向于更经常地投票，所以想保住工作的政客不太可能投票支持削减社会保障或医疗保险。
So, here’s the thing about the Federal Reserve and economics:
所以，这是关于美联储和经济学的事情:
The American economy is really huge, and really complicated, and has some issues that need addressing.
美国经济非常庞大，非常复杂，有一些问题需要解决。
Whether you care a lot about budget deficits or don’t think they're a big deal will depend a lot on your feelings about economics in general, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
不管你是否非常在意预算赤字，还是认为它没什么大不了的，这在很大程度上取决于你对经济学的总体看法，但有几件事要记住。
First, there's only a limited range of programs on which the government can choose to spend or not spend.
首先，政府可以选择在有限的程序范围内花钱或不花钱。
These are called discretionary spending and when people call for cuts in government spending, this is what they mean.
这些被称为自由支配支出，当人们呼吁削减政府支出时，这就是他们的意思。
By far the largest chunk of government spending goes into defense, over $600 billion in 2013, but the next largest item is healthcare for the poor, Medicaid, at $498 Billion.
到目前为止，政府支出中最大的一项是国防，2013年超过6000亿美元，但第二大项目是面向穷人的医疗保健，医疗补助，为4980亿美元。
Nothing else even comes close.
没有什么比这更接近了。
Spending on the Department of Education, for example, was $41 billion in 2013.
例如，2013年教育部的支出为410亿美元。
The second thing to bear in mind is that in addition to cutting spending, the government could balance its budget by doing what everyone loves - raising taxes.
要记住的第二件事是，除了削减开支，政府还可以通过做所有人都喜欢的事情来平衡预算——增税。
It's done this on occasion, but the political consequences can be pretty tough.
这种情况时有发生，但其政治后果可能相当严重。
Just ask George H.W.Bush.
问问老布什就知道了。
Finally, the combination of Americans’ aversion to raising taxes and the government’s limited ability to cut spending means that monetary policy becomes its major lever in broad-based macroeconomic policy.
最后，美国人对增税的反感，加上政府削减支出的能力有限，意味着货币政策将成为其广泛宏观经济政策的主要杠杆。
That’s why we paid so much attention to the Federal Reserve system at the beginning of this episode, and why you probably should too.
这就是为什么我们在这节课开始时对联邦储备系统如此关注的原因，也是为什么你们可能也应该关注的原因。
Thanks for watching.
谢谢观看。
See you next time.
下次见。
Crash Course Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.
政府与政治速成班是与PBS数字工作室联合制作的。
Support for Crash Course: U.S. Government comes from Voqal.
对美国政府速成课的支持来自Voqal。
Voqal supports nonprofits that use technology and media to advance social equity.
Voqal支持使用技术和媒体促进社会公平的非营利组织。
Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Voqal.org.
更多关于他们的使命和倡议，请访问Voqal.org。
Crash Course was made with the help of all these broad based macroeconomic policy makers.
速成班是在所有这些广泛的宏观经济决策者的帮助下进行的。
Thanks for watching.
感谢收看。
