经济学人:全球最重要的资产市场是否已经崩溃?
I n 1790 america’s finances were in a precarious state: debt-servicing costs were higher than revenues and government bonds traded at 20 cents on the dollar. Alexander Hamilton, the country’s first treasury secretary, wanted a deep and liquid market for safe government debt. He understood the importance of investor confidence, so proposed honouring all debts, including those of states, and offering to swap old debt, at par, for new bonds with a lower interest rate. This was controversial. Shouldn’t speculators who picked up cheap debt in secondary markets be paid less? Yet Hamilton could not be swayed: “When the credit of a country is in any degree questionable, it never fails to give an extravagant premium, in one shape or another, upon all the loans it has occasion to make.” 1790 年,美国的财政状况岌岌可危:偿债成本高于收入,政府债券的交易价格为 20 美分。该国第一任财政部长亚历山大·汉密尔顿希望为安全的政府债务建立一个有深度且流动性强的市场。他了解投资者信心的重要性,因此提议兑现所有债务,包括各州的债务,并提出将旧债务按面值换成利率较低的新债券。这是有争议的。在二级市场获得廉价债务的投机者不应该得到更少的报酬吗?然而汉密尔顿无法动摇:“当一个国家的信用出现任何程度的问题时,它