一本美国经济历史书,原来美国也走过这么多弯路,有过这么多经济危机

　　庆幸的是,每次危机都能够靠内部,外部的力量化险为夷

　　内部的制衡/谈判/纠错,法律逐渐完善,市场日渐成熟.

　　还有'创新'.火车,钢铁,汽车,电,石油,信息技术.每一次新产品/新技术都推动经济往前进一步.

　　外部的一战,二战.起了催化剂的作用.

　　当然,每一次的繁荣之后,总有个经济危机.

　　次贷危机.据索罗斯说这是大萧条之后的危机,连格林斯潘也说这是'五十年或者百年一遇的事件'

　　这一次,美国靠着金融/IT的推动已经繁荣了20多年.未来的金融CREDIT似乎已经花完,IT带来的效率的提升也似乎达到了一个顶点. 接下来怎么办,危机已经来了,问题是能持续多久? 是已经到了中途,还是刚刚开始.

　　30年代大萧条后,又过了25年,股市才重返高点.现在喊着死了也不卖的,能再等25年吗?

　　也许美国应该庆幸全球化,全球化的风险转移,据说中国有上千亿的两美债券. 我们这次真的帮助了生活在资本主义水深火热中的美国穷人,以我们最擅长的冤大头方式.

　　这次似乎是全球化后的次大危机.我们只能祈祷美国那些金融天才能想办法把损失减到最小,尽快度过危机.成也萧何,败也萧何.

　　美国的历次经济危机,值得庆幸的是没有演变成严重的政治危机,社会动荡,最多是原总统下台,新一届班子上台.大家一起捱到下一次繁荣.

　　不能不想到中国,缺乏制衡,缺乏创新的中国.一旦危机来临,我们靠什么度过.

       I have been watching the TV show Mad Men for four seasons. The show has been uneven and at times cliché, but not without poignant moments. One thing that stuck with me wasn’t even a major plot point or regarding the main character Don Draper. It was a story told about Pete Campbell, a person born into a prominent New York family but did not inherit much wealth. One of the characters (I do not remember which one) explained that Pete’s grandfather had much wealth before the Great Depression, but he, like many others, panicked and sold all of his real estate holdings in Manhattan. Needless to say, the move didn’t pan out too well for him or for Pete. The character quipped that Pete’s grandfather lacked faith in America, a cardinal sin that cannot go unpunished.
　　
　　For some reason, I have always remembered this anecdote, and it was awoken by the great Warren Buffett, when wrote a New York Times piece during the Great Depression of our era and called for people to have confidence in the great country of the United States at the precise time when confidence was nowhere to be found. Buffett professes that the time is dire, but he was personally buying stocks, because he believed in America, a country that served two World Wars, a Great Depression, as well as numerous smaller wars and panics to become the prominent economic powerhouse in the world. By being on the polar opposite of Pete’s grandfather, Buffett was proven to be worthy of the name “Oracle of Omaha” as the U.S. economy made a ferocious come back from the brink of disaster.
　　
　　These stories were not included in John Gordon’s book, which was published before Mad Men debuted and before the Great Recession appeared. Yet the moral of the stories and the book remain the same: having faith in America pays.
　　
　　Nothing was foretold about America’s rise. The country was deemed unlikely to survive as an independent republic even by many of its founders. While the likes of Alexander Hamilton recognized America’s vast potential, there were simply too many things that could go wrong.
　　
　　If we were to look at experiences of other countries, such worries become instantly justified. Latin America, a continent blessed with more natural resources than the continent the United States was to occupy, never rose to the occasion and fell apart numerous times.
　　
　　America, however, avoided all traps. Numerous disasters struck even before the eventful twentieth century, as America engaged in a premature war with the world’s greatest power Great Britain, only to become a house divided in the tremendously costly Civil War. Besides political turmoil, America’s economic rise was also far from pre-ordained, as the country was hit with one panic after another.
　　
　　Yet somehow, America always picked itself up, and always came back stronger and more vigorous than ever, and this element is what makes the American story so fascinating. Just like Gordon described in his sub-title, America’s rise from a colony to superpower is truly an “Epic History of American Economic Power”.

       这本书在前勒口是如此自我推介的：“……讲述的是一个关于美国为财富而生，为财富而战，为财富而生生不息的伟大故事。”秉承威廉•曼彻斯特式的叙事风格，以历时性手法梳理资料写就《财富的帝国》，人们熟悉的那个商业史写作超男约翰•戈登再次在中国市场露面了！
　　
　　 这本书作为“资本三部曲”的收官之作，作者仍运用故事还原历史的手法来揭示美国以创富能力和经济力量傲视全球的机理——此书的副题便是：一个经济大国的史诗。与《伟大的博弈》、《资本的冒险》一道构成“资本市场-产业集群-国民财富”的序列，使这本书具有了观察美国经济史较为完整的视角，我们也能从时间坐标中遴选出影响美国经济进程的标志性事件或人物：汉密尔顿缔造合众国银行、淘金热拉动的西进运动、铁路计划、莫尔斯电报、金融-产业巨头、联邦储备制度、汽车制造兴盛、《格拉斯-斯蒂格法》、总统经济顾问委员会、里根自由市场经济……
　　
　　 在导言《追寻幸福》中，戈登就开宗明义地指出：“财富帝国的故事是一部史诗……，一部由数百万人书写的历史，他们克己守法，不断追求着个人利益，这就是自由的真谛了吧。”那么，由放任竞争起步的美国如何找到了正确的演进方向？部分第二章节的标题“以上帝和利润的名义”也许是简洁有力的提示，沿着这条线索追寻下去，这样深刻的传统隐现于戈登三部曲的始终，也可视为解读美国成就罗马帝国式辉煌的密钥。

支持。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

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