GW, CC, and MM
The way a problem is seen may determine how or even if it gets solved.
看待问题的方式可能决定问题如何得到解决或是否得到解决。
Global warming (GW) and climate change (CC) are going to scramble many ideas about how developed economies work.
全球变暖（GW）和气候变化（CC）将扰乱有关发达经济体如何运作的许多想法。
At root, GW and CC must be seen as money problems, and modern money (MM) is the key to solving them.
从根本上讲，GW和CC必须被视为货币问题，而现代货币（MM）是解决它们的关键。
Energy companies spend money to find, extract, and market fossil fuels.
能源公司花钱寻找、提取和销售化石燃料。
Other companies use money to create products and services that consume fossil fuel energy.
其他公司利用资金来创造消耗化石燃料能源的产品和服务。
Money enables every step from ground to atmosphere and is the common ingredient of all aspects of the global warming problem.
金钱使得从地面到大气的每一步都成为可能，并且是解决全球变暖问题各个方面的共同因素。
Climate change results from global warming, and it too must be seen as a money problem.
气候变化是全球变暖的结果，它也必须被视为一个金钱问题。
Large regions of the country (and the world) face losses from rising sea levels, record storms, floods, fires, and draughts.
该国（以及世界）的大部分地区面临着海平面上升、创纪录的风暴、洪水、火灾和干旱造成的损失。
They will have to adapt, protect, abandon, or Nature will choose for them.
他们将不得不适应、保护、放弃，否则大自然会为他们做出选择。
Whatever they do or don’t do will involve money.
无论他们做什么或不做什么，都会涉及到金钱。
But every proposal to reduce human contributions to GW or deal with CC has to overcome the same question—how can you pay for it?
但每一项减少人类对 GW 的贡献或应对 CC 的提议都必须克服同样的问题——你如何支付费用？
The correct answer must be that money is not a scarce resource; it is an enabling, leadership tool to be created as it is needed.
正确答案一定是金钱不是稀缺资源；而是金钱。它是一种可根据需要创建的赋能领导工具。
The strongest argument for modern money is that despite what most people believe, it is vital for survival.
支持现代货币最有力的论据是，尽管大多数人都这么认为，但它对于生存至关重要。
Ironically, the basics of MM aren’t so modern.
讽刺的是，MM 的基础知识并不那么现代。
Since the United States began, the government has created dollars by paying them into the economy before it could tax any back out, and banks created dollars by lending before people could save and deposit them back.
自美国建国以来，政府通过在征税之前将美元存入经济来创造美元，银行在人们储蓄和存回之前通过放贷创造美元。
Government payments and bank loans were the horses—taxes and savings were the cart.
政府付款和银行贷款是马，税收和储蓄是车。
The economy could not have started with no dollars and now have trillions of them any other way.
经济不可能在没有美元的情况下启动，而现在以其他方式拥有数万亿美元。
But just as there climate change deniers, there are promoters of the myth that money is a scarce resource that limits what can be done about GW and CC.
但正如否认气候变化的人一样，也有人宣扬金钱是稀缺资源的神话，这限制了针对 GW 和 CC 的行动。
Some are both deniers and myth promoters who profit from fossil fuels and controlling money.
有些人既是否认者，又是神话的推动者，他们从化石燃料和控制金钱中获利。
Advocates of MMT have tended to debate other economists by showing why popular ideas about money are wrong.
现代货币理论的拥护者倾向于通过展示为什么流行的货币观念是错误的来与其他经济学家进行辩论。
I think a better case is that despite what most economists say, if we don’t want to surrender to GW and CC, unprecedented expenditures will be required, and they can only be made if the necessary dollars are created.
我认为更好的情况是，不管大多数经济学家怎么说，如果我们不想屈服于GW和CC，就需要前所未有的支出，而且只有创造出必要的美元才能进行。
GW and CC will require big changes in business and economic ideas.
GW和CC将需要商业和经济理念的重大改变。
Many still see natural resources and the environment as free gifts for humans to use as they wish.
许多人仍然将自然资源和环境视为人类的免费礼物，可以随意使用。
That view must fade as GW and CC are recognized as the real diving factors.
随着 GW 和 CC 被认为是真正的跳水因素，这种观点必须消失。
Environmentalists have made that point for decades but the general public has had little sense of urgency.
环保主义者几十年来一直强调这一点，但公众却没有什么紧迫感。
With sea levels and temperature changes being measured with increasing accuracy, the Wall Street federal debt clock should be replaced by flood gages and population shifts.
随着海平面和温度变化的测量精度越来越高，华尔街联邦债务时钟应该被洪水测量和人口变化所取代。
Money will change from being seen as a scarce resource to being a tool that humans create and use.
金钱将从被视为稀缺资源转变为人类创造和使用的工具。
Measurements show the planet is warming and sea levels are rising at increasing rates, so the most critical resource is time.
测量结果显示，地球正在变暖，海平面正在以越来越快的速度上升，因此最关键的资源是时间。
There is no substitute and whatever is wasted can never be recovered.
没有替代品，任何浪费的东西都无法恢复。
But economists and businesses use the time value of money or discounting to show how the value of today’s investments decrease over time.
但经济学家和企业使用货币的时间价值或贴现来显示当今投资的价值如何随着时间的推移而减少。
Tax laws reinforce this view.
税法强化了这一观点。
This may make sense for individual companies but not for the whole country because, except for foreign transactions, interest payments and receipts net out to zero.
这对于个别公司来说可能有意义，但对于整个国家来说则不然，因为除了国外交易之外，利息支付和收入净额为零。
If all companies make similar decisions that way, the country can make the wrong decisions because of a flawed analysis technique.
如果所有公司都以这种方式做出类似的决定，那么该国可能会因为分析技术的缺陷而做出错误的决定。
Companies depreciate fixed assets over time on the assumption that they will wear out or become obsolete.
公司假设固定资产会磨损或过时，因此会随着时间的推移对其进行折旧。
But the opposite can be true; some well-chosen assets are going to increase in value.
但事实也可能相反。一些精心挑选的资产将会增值。
This has always been true, hence speculations and long term investments.
这一直是事实，因此存在投机和长期投资。
But GW and CC may push the pace and magnitude of increases to new levels.
但 GW 和 CC 可能会将增长的速度和幅度推向新的水平。
Land is assumed to be fixed, so it is not depreciated.
假设土地是固定的，因此不会折旧。
But CC will cause some land to decrease and some to increase in utility and value.
但CC会导致一些土地减少，一些土地效用和价值增加。
The future of the country can be affected by whether new money is used to preserve democracy or increase wealth concentration.
新资金是否用于维护民主或增加财富集中度可能会影响国家的未来。
The use of desirable and endangered land is a good example.
对理想和濒危土地的利用就是一个很好的例子。
The most valuable real estate in Miami has been on low ground near the Atlantic.
迈阿密最有价值的房地产位于大西洋附近的低地。
But the city is on porous rock so retaining walls won’t work because water can leak under them.
但这座城市建在多孔岩石上，因此挡土墙不起作用，因为水可能会从挡土墙下面渗漏。
Higher ground, back from the ocean, has been less valuable and that is where poorer people have lived.
远离海洋的地势较高的地方价值较低，而那里是较贫穷的人居住的地方。
Now, speculators are buying up that land and displacing the inhabitants.
现在，投机者正在购买那片土地并取代居民。
The net effect will be to leave a few rich people much richer and many poor people much poorer.
最终的结果将是让少数富人变得更加富有，而许多穷人变得更加贫穷。
Do we want that pattern to be repeated all across the country?
我们希望这种模式在全国范围内重复吗？
The debate between proponents of free markets and industrial policy is another area where choices will have enduring effects.
自由市场和产业政策支持者之间的争论是选择将产生持久影响的另一个领域。
Books have been written on this, but I will make one point.
关于这一点已经有书了，但我要强调一点。
The recoveries of Germany and Japan after World War II and more recently the growth of the Chinese economy show how well industrial policy can work.
德国和日本在二战后的复苏以及最近中国经济的增长表明了产业政策的有效性。
When western economists told the Japanese that they were doomed to subsistence existence after the war, their reaction was, “If that is what your economics says, we must invent another one.”.
当西方经济学家告诉日本人，他们在战后注定要生存时，他们的反应是，“如果这就是你们的经济学所说的，我们必须发明另一种经济学。”。
So they did.
他们就这么做了。
GW and CC are going to force major changes in energy, manufacturing, transportation, agricultural, construction, public utility, insurance, and other major industries.
GW和CC将迫使能源、制造、交通、农业、建筑、公用事业、保险和其他主要行业发生重大变革。
All of them will be forced to develop new technologies, invest in new plants, train or retrain employees, and absorb losses by writing off past investments.
所有这些公司都将被迫开发新技术、投资新工厂、培训或再培训员工，并通过冲销过去的投资来吸收损失。
Even more extensive than mobilizing the US economy for World War II, the changes will have to be made concurrently and continue for decades.
这些改变的范围甚至比动员美国经济参加二战还要广泛，这些改变必须同时进行，并持续数十年。
Economic analysis that are predicated on industries returning to equilibrium will not serve for what is coming.
以行业恢复平衡为基础的经济分析不适用于即将发生的事情。
Vast amounts of modern money will be required and some of it will be wasted.
将需要大量的现代资金，其中一些将被浪费。
Everybody knew that the tools of war would be destroyed or scrapped when the war was over.
大家都知道，战争结束后，战争工具就会被销毁或报废。
Mobilizing for GW and CC will be somewhat similar as again, the need will be to save time, not money.
GW 和 CC 的动员将有点类似，需要的是节省时间，而不是金钱。
There are other areas of economic thought that won’t be suitable for dealing with GW and CC.
还有其他经济思想领域不适合处理 GW 和 CC。
Military planners have often been accused of preparing to fight the last war again.
军事规划者经常被指责准备再次打上一场战争。
That is what main-stream economists are doing.
这就是主流经济学家正在做的事情。
I submit that the best way to sell the idea of sovereign modern money is to go beyond operational details, for which there are alternatives, and show why creating enough money is fundamental to coping with changes that we cannot avoid.
我认为，推销现代主权货币理念的最佳方式是超越运营细节（对此还有其他选择），并表明为什么创造足够的货币对于应对我们无法避免的变化至关重要。
The scarce money myth must be exposed.
货币稀缺的神话必须被揭露。
One critical weakness is that it is silent on how money is created.
一个关键的弱点是它对货币是如何创造的保持沉默。
It does not explain how this country went from zero dollars to having trillions of them without runaway inflation.
它没有解释这个国家如何从零美元到拥有数万亿美元而没有失控的通货膨胀。
It must be shown to be a tool of conservatives who want to maintain the status quo because it benefits them.
必须证明它是保守派的工具，他们希望维持现状，因为这对他们有利。
Another weakness is that the myth offers no hope for dealing with GW and CC adequately.
另一个弱点是这个神话没有提供充分处理 GW 和 CC 的希望。
For example, the sequential steps that would result from a proposed carbon tax could not come close to working within the limits of time or absorbing the inevitable losses of sunk costs.
例如，提议的碳税所产生的后续步骤无法在时间限制内发挥作用，也无法吸收不可避免的沉没成本损失。
The scarce money myth is to the knowledge of sovereign modern money as a geocentric model of the universe was to the heliocentric model of the solar system.
稀缺货币神话之于主权现代货币知识，就像宇宙的地心模型之于太阳系的日心模型一样。
The first was a dead end.
第一个是死胡同。
The second led to historic progress including the space program.
第二个导致了包括太空计划在内的历史性进展。
Promoters of the myth should be challenged to show why it is not another dead end.
这个神话的推动者应该受到挑战，证明为什么它不是另一个死胡同。