During the past week, I have been travelling across America and lugging with me a controversial new book, The Great Deformation, by David Stockman. “Lugging” is particularly apt: this behemoth has 743 pages and weighs several pounds, at least in old-fashioned print. Perhaps that is no surprise: Stockman, a private equity player who served as budget director in the 1980s government of Ronald Reagan, is a distinctly angry man - with a lot to say. Most notably, he believes that the American government has badly lost its way in the past few decades, because crony capitalism has perverted policy-making and upturned free market principles. As a result, the country is now drowning in uncontrollable debt that will eventually bring it down and destroy the credibility of the Federal Reserve.
在過去的一週裏，我一直在美國各地旅行，拖著大衛•斯多克曼(David Stockman)所著的充滿爭議的新書《大變形》(The Great Deformation)。「拖著」一詞用得特別精當：這本書有743頁厚，重達數磅，至少從傳統印刷品來說是一個龐然大物。或許這並不令人意外：斯多克曼顯然是一位憤青，有許多話要說。他曾在上世紀80年代擔任隆納•雷根(Ronald Reagan)政府的預算辦公室主任，目前是一位私人股本玩家。最值得關注的是，斯多克曼認爲，由於裙帶資本主義扭曲了政策制定並顛覆了自由市場原則，美國政府在過去幾十年嚴重迷失了方向。結果造成現在美國債務失控，這最終會拖垮美國，並破壞美聯準(Fed)的信譽。