Manhattan Project to prevent Hyper-Inflation

It’s ironic that, at this moment, when the truthfulness and utility of modern money theory (MMT) is being publicly realized—(and even potentially implemented !)—that its singular vulnerability must emerge as a real concern: hyper-inflation.

具有讽刺意味的是，此时此刻，当现代货币理论（MMT）的真实性和实用性被公众认识到（甚至可能被实施！）时，它的独特脆弱性必须成为一个真正令人担忧的问题：恶性通货膨胀。

The most recent thing I’ve written— Paying Ourselves to Save the Planet ­­ —addresses the issue of hyper-inflation as follows:

我最近写的文章《为拯救地球付出代价》解决了恶性通货膨胀的问题，如下：

“Hyper-inflation” is a rate of inflation that happens so rapidly there’s no opportunity for people and businesses to adjust.

“恶性通货膨胀”是指通货膨胀率发生得如此之快，以至于人们和企业没有机会进行调整。

Prices are, suddenly, noticeably higher—and then still higher tomorrow—and higher yet the day after.

价格突然明显上涨，明天还会上涨，后天还会上涨。

The money in my bank account suddenly can’t buy half of what it could last week.

我银行账户里的钱突然买不到上周的一半了。

In a rush to keep the economy from collapsing, the currency-issuing government issues more and more money to enable consumers to continue buying—and ultimately must begin adding more and more zeroes to its paper dollars.

为了防止经济崩溃，发行货币的政府发行了越来越多的货币，以使消费者能够继续购买——最终必须开始在纸币上添加越来越多的零。

This leads to economic and social chaos at every level.

这导致各个层面的经济和社会混乱。

It appears that hyper-inflation is caused by the government issuing too much money—and it’s for this reason that MMT is often attacked, by standard theory advocates, as a precursor to economic disaster.

恶性通货膨胀似乎是由政府发行过多货币造成的——正因为如此，现代货币理论经常被标准理论倡导者攻击为经济灾难的前兆。

The issuing of too much hyper-inflationary money, however, is a reflexive, emergency government response to another underlying problem that caused the hyper-inflation to get started in the first place.

然而，发行过多的恶性通货膨胀货币是政府对另一个导致恶性通货膨胀的根本问题的反射性紧急反应。

To say that “printing money” causes hyper-inflation is like saying “flames” cause a fire.

说“印钞”导致恶性通货膨胀，就像说“火焰”导致火灾一样。

The underlying problem that has caused every historical (and contemporary) instance of hyper-inflation is the same: the significant and general collapse of a nation’s production of goods and services.

导致历史上（和当代）每一次恶性通货膨胀的根本问题都是相同的：一个国家的商品和服务生产的严重而普遍的崩溃。

This happened in post-World-War-I Germany when the Weimar Republic shut down its manufacturing heartland as a refusal to acquiesce to unfair war reparations imposed by the Allies.

这种情况发生在第一次世界大战后的德国，当时魏玛共和国因拒绝默许盟军施加的不公平战争赔偿而关闭了其制造业中心地带。

It happened in Zimbabwe when Robert Mugabe evicted white landowners from their farms—which were the agricultural-financial foundation of the economy—and gave the land to new black owners without preparing them to operate the farms.

津巴布韦就发生了这种情况，当时罗伯特·穆加贝将白人土地所有者从他们的农场（这是经济的农业金融基础）驱逐出来，并将土地交给新的黑人所有者，而没有让他们做好经营农场的准备。

The ensuing collapse of the Zimbabwean agricultural economy quickly led to one of the most infamous hyper-inflations recorded.

随后的津巴布韦农业经济崩溃迅速导致了有史以来最臭名昭著的恶性通货膨胀之一。

This same general collapse of production is happening in Venezuela today, with the hyper-inflation being fueled further by a collapse in national income from oil exports—which had been used to import most of the goods on Venezuelan store-shelves.

今天，委内瑞拉也发生了同样的生产全面崩溃，石油出口国民收入的锐减进一步加剧了恶性通货膨胀——石油出口曾用于进口委内瑞拉商店货架上的大部分商品。

Result: empty shelves, but lots of bolivars in people’s pockets.

结果：货架空空如也，但人们的口袋里却有大量玻利瓦尔。

The book goes on to observe that none of the actions contemplated to “save the planet” from the climate-crisis would have the effect of causing “a significant and general collapse of a nation’s production of goods and services.” Quite the opposite, in fact, would be expected: The not-profit-making, public enterprise efforts would employ millions of people to produce a broad spectrum of goods and services—and that new employment, in turn, would support a broad spectrum of profit-making, private enterprise ventures.

该书接着指出，旨在从气候危机中“拯救地球”的任何行动都不会导致“一个国家的商品和服务生产的重大和全面崩溃”。事实上，人们的预期恰恰相反：非营利性的公共企业将雇用数百万人来生产广泛的商品和服务，而新的就业机会反过来又会支持广泛的营利性私营企业。

All along the lines that MMT has been arguing for years.

MMT 多年来一直在争论这一点。

This is not, however, what is happening now with the fight against the Coronavirus—and the desperate effort by governments to put money in the pockets of people who can’t work and businesses who can’t open their doors to customers.

然而，这并不是现在抗击冠状病毒的情况，也不是各国政府不顾一切地努力把钱放进无法工作的人和无法向顾客敞开大门的企业的口袋里。

So, while we’re discovering first hand and in real-time that, yes, sovereign currency issuing governments can, in fact, just create money so they can spend it—without having to collect it back in taxes, either now or in the future—we are also laying the groundwork for causing the hyperinflations described above: “A significant and general collapse” of our business and employment framework is happening before our eyes, while our government feverishly dishes out cash.

因此，虽然我们实时第一手发现，主权货币发行政府实际上可以创造货币，以便花掉它，而不必在现在或将来通过税收收回它，但我们也在为引发上述恶性通货膨胀奠定基础：我们的商业和就业框架的“重大而全面的崩溃”正在我们眼前发生，而我们的政府却疯狂地发放现金。

Not that the cash shouldn’t be dished out.

并不是说现金不应该被分发。

But it must be accompanied by an intelligent, comprehensive, and aggressive effort to shorten the “collapse” and restart production and consumption of goods and services—and the public must know this effort is being undertaken.

但它必须伴随着明智、全面和积极的努力，以缩短“崩溃”并重新启动商品和服务的生产和消费——而且公众必须知道我们正在采取这种努力。

Nothing short of a full-blown mobilization for a “Manhattan Project” to defeat the virus will get the job done.

只有全面动员“曼哈顿计划”来战胜病毒才能完成任务。

This must include, as a start , 100% testing and a centrally coordinated, federally mandated, production and manufacturing ramp-up of medical supplies, equipment, and emergency facilities.

作为开始，这必须包括 100% 的测试以及中央协调、联邦政府授权的医疗用品、设备和应急设施的生产和制造。

MMT, from my perspective, has never been about giving people money—its about paying people to produce not-profit-making goods and services which benefit collective society.

从我的角度来看，现代货币理论从来都不是给人们钱，而是付钱给人们生产非营利性的商品和服务，造福集体社会。

It would be a tragedy if the sovereign spending efforts now being envisioned and enacted accomplished only the first, and left the second undone—setting the stage for a hyper-inflation that might ruin the promise of modern money theory for a generation to come.

如果现在设想和实施的主权支出努力只实现了第一个目标，而没有完成第二个目标——为恶性通货膨胀奠定了基础，而恶性通货膨胀可能会毁掉现代货币理论对下一代人的承诺，那将是一场悲剧。