導讀當全球輿論聚焦於關稅數字的起落、市場的即時震盪,以及政治博弈的口水戰時,橋水基金創始人雷·達利奧(Ray Dalio)卻在社交媒體上潑了一盆冷水:別被關稅的表象迷惑,我們正在經歷的,是一場“百年一遇的秩序重構”。為什麼說「關稅只是導火索」?達利奧在最新分析中指出,當下 99% 的討論都停留在關稅的「症狀層」—— 它如何衝擊股市、影響供應鏈、撕裂國際貿易關係。但很少有人追問:為什麼美國會選出一位以「關稅武器」為標籤的總統?如下提供雙語譯文供大家學習參考。中英對照正文At this moment, a huge amount of attention is being justifiably paid to the announced tariffs and their very big impacts on markets and economies while very little attention is being paid to the circumstances that caused them and the biggest disruptions that are likely still ahead. Don't get me wrong, while these tariff announcements are very important developments and we all know that President Trump caused them, most people are losing sight of the underlying circumstances that got him elected president and brought these tariffs about. They are also mostly overlooking the vastly more important forces that are driving just about everything, including the tariffs.當前,人們對已公佈的關稅及其對市場和經濟的重大影響給予了合理的高度關注,但對導致這些關稅的背景以及可能仍在前方的最大破壞卻關注甚少。別誤會我的意思,儘管這些關稅公告是非常重要的進展,而且我們都知道是川普總統促成了它們,但大多數人正在忽視讓他當選總統並帶來這些關稅的潛在背景。他們也大多忽略了推動幾乎所有事情(包括關稅)的更為重要的力量。The far bigger, far more important thing to keep in mind is that we are seeing a classic breakdown of the major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders. This sort of breakdown occurs only about once in a lifetime, but they have happened many times in history when similar unsustainable conditions were in place.需要牢記的一個更大、更重要的事情是,我們正在目睹主要貨幣、政治和地緣政治秩序的經典崩潰。這種崩潰一生大約只會發生一次,但在歷史上,當類似的不可持續條件存在時,這種情況已經發生過多次。More specifically:更具體地說:1 / The monetary/economic order is breaking down1 / 貨幣 / 經濟秩序正在崩潰because there is too much existing debt, the rates of adding to it are too fast, and existing capital markets and economies are supported by this unsustainably large debt. The debt is unsustainable because the of the large imbalance betweena) debtor-borrowers who owe too much debt and are taking on a too much debt because they are hooked on debt to finance their excesses (e.g., the United States) andb) lender-creditors (like China) who already hold too much of the debt and are hooked on selling their goods to the borrower-debtors (like the United States) to sustain their economies. There are big pressures for these imbalances to be corrected one way or another and doing so will change the monetary order in major ways.a)負債纍纍的債務方(例如美國),它們沉迷於借貸來為自己的過度消費融資,因而背負了過多債務;b)債權方(如中國),它們已經持有過多此類債務,並且沉迷於向債務方(如美國)出售商品以維持自身經濟。這些失衡存在著以某種方式得到糾正的巨大壓力,而糾正這些失衡將對貨幣秩序產生重大影響。For example, it is obviously incongruous to have both large trade imbalances and large capital imbalances in a deglobalizing world in which the major players can't trust that the other major players won't cut them off from the items they need (which is an American worry) or pay them the money they are owed (which is a Chinese worry). This is a result of these parties being in a type of war in which self-sufficiency is of paramount importance. Anyone who has studied history knows that such risks under such circumstances have repeatedly led to the same sorts of problems we're seeing now. So, the old monetary/economic order in which countries like China manufacture inexpensively, sell to Americans, and acquire American debt assets, and Americans borrow money from countries like China to make those purchases and build up huge debt liabilities will have to change. These obviously unsustainable circumstances are made even more so by the fact that they have led to American manufacturing deteriorating, which both hollows out middle class jobs in the U.S. and requires America to import needed items from a country that it is increasingly seeing as an enemy. In an era of deglobalization, these big trade and capital imbalances, which reflect trade and capital interconnectedness, will have to shrink one way or another. Also, it should be obvious that the U.S. government debt level and the rate at which the government debt is being added to is unsustainable. (You can find my analysis of this in my new book How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle.) Clearly, the monetary order will have to change in big disruptive ways to reduce all these imbalances and excesses, and we are in the early part of the process of it changing. There are huge capital market implications to this that have huge economic implications, which I will delve into at another time.例如,在一個去全球化的世界裡,存在巨大的貿易失衡和資本失衡顯然是不協調的,在這個世界裡,主要參與者無法相信其他主要參與者不會切斷他們所需物品的供應(這是美國的擔憂),或者不會償還所欠的債務(這是中國的擔憂)。這是這些各方處於一種自給自足至關重要的 “戰爭” 狀態的結果。任何研究過歷史的人都知道,在這種情況下,此類風險反覆導致了我們現在看到的同類問題。因此,像中國這樣的國家廉價製造、向美國出售並獲取美國債務資產,而美國從中國等國家借錢進行這些購買並積累巨額債務的舊貨幣 / 經濟秩序將不得不改變。這些顯然不可持續的情況因導致美國製造業惡化而變得更加不可持續,這既掏空了美國中產階級的就業機會,又迫使美國從一個它越來越視為敵人的國家進口所需物品。在去全球化時代,這些反映貿易和資本相互關聯的巨大貿易和資本失衡將不得不以某種方式縮小。此外,美國政府的債務水平及其新增債務的速度顯然是不可持續的。(你可以在我的新書《國家如何破產:大周期》中找到我對此的分析。)顯然,貨幣秩序將不得不以具有破壞性的重大方式改變,以減少所有這些失衡和過度,而我們正處於這一變化過程的早期階段。這對資本市場有著巨大的影響,進而對經濟產生巨大影響,我將在其他時間深入探討。2 / The domestic political order is breaking down2 / 國內政治秩序正在崩潰due to huge gaps in people's education levels, opportunity levels, productivity levels, income and wealth levels, and values—and because of the ineffectiveness of the existing political order to fix things. These conditions are manifest in win-at-all-cost fights between populists of the right and populists of the left over which side will have the power and control to run things. This is leading to democracies breaking down because democracies require compromise and adherence to the rule of law, and history has shown that both break down at times like those we are now in. History also shows that strong autocratic leaders emerge as classic democracy and classic rule of law are removed as barriers to autocratic leadership. Obviously, the current unstable political situation will be affected by the other four forces I’m referring to here—e.g., problems in the stock market and economy will likely create political and geopolitical problems.原因在於人們在教育水平、機會水平、生產力水平、收入和財富水平以及價值觀方面存在巨大差距,也在於現有政治秩序無力解決這些問題。這些情況表現為右翼民粹主義者和左翼民粹主義者為爭奪執政權力和控制權而進行的不惜一切代價的鬥爭。這導致民主制度崩潰,因為民主制度需要妥協和遵守法治,而歷史表明,在我們現在所處的這種時期,這兩者都會崩潰。歷史還表明,隨著經典民主和經典法治作為專制領導的障礙被移除,強大的專制領導人會應運而生。顯然,當前不穩定的政治局勢會受到我在這裡提到的其他四種力量的影響 —— 例如,股市和經濟問題可能會引發政治和地緣政治問題。3 / The international geopolitical world order is breaking down3 / 國際地緣政治秩序正在崩潰because the era of one dominant power (the U.S.) that dictates the order that other countries follow is over. The multilateral, cooperative world order the U.S. led is being replaced by a unilateral, power-rules approach. In this new order, the U.S. is still largest power in the world and is shifting to a unilateral, "America first" approach. We are now seeing that manifest in the U.S. led trade-war, geopolitical war, technology war, and, in some cases, military wars.因為由一個主導力量(美國)支配其他國家遵循的秩序的時代已經結束。美國領導的多邊合作世界秩序正在被單邊的 “實力即規則” 的方式所取代。在這個新秩序中,美國仍然是世界上最強大的力量,並正在轉向單邊的 “美國優先” 政策。我們現在看到這一點體現在美國領導的貿易戰、地緣政治戰、技術戰,以及在某些情況下的軍事戰爭中。4 / Acts of nature (droughts, floods and pandemics) are increasingly disruptive4 / 自然災害(乾旱、洪水和流行病)的破壞性越來越大5 / Amazing changes in technology such as AI will be highly impactful to all aspects of life,5 / 人工智慧等技術的驚人變化將對生活的各個方面產生重大影響,including the money/debt/economic order, the political order, the international order (by affecting interactions between countries economically and militarily), and the costs of acts of nature.包括貨幣 / 債務 / 經濟秩序、政治秩序、國際秩序(通過影響國家間的經濟和軍事互動)以及自然災害的成本。Changes in these forces and how they are affecting each other is what we should be focusing on.我們應該關注這些力量的變化以及它們之間的相互影響。For that reason, I urge you to not to let news-grabbing dramatic changes like the tariffs draw your attention away from these five big forces and their interrelationships, which are the real drivers of Overall Big Cycles changes. If you allow yourself to be distracted by them, you will a) miss how the conditions and the dynamics of these big forces are causing these news-making changes, b) fail to think through how these news-making changes will affect these big forces, and c) fail to keep focused on how this Overall Big Cycle and the parts that drive it typically transpire, which will tell you a lot about what is likely to happen.因此,我敦促你不要讓關稅等吸引眼球的戲劇性變化分散你對這五大力量及其相互關係的注意力,它們才是整體大周期變化的真正驅動力。如果你讓自己被它們分散注意力,你將:a)錯過這些大力量的狀況和動態如何導致這些成為新聞的變化,b)未能深入思考這些成為新聞的變化將如何影響這些大力量,c)未能持續關注這個整體大周期及其驅動部分通常是如何演變的,而這將告訴你很多可能發生的事情。I also urge you to think about the interrelationships that are critically important. For example, think about how Donald Trump's actions on tariffs will affect 1) the monetary/market, economy order (it will be disruptive to it), 2) the domestic political order (it will likely be disruptive to it as it will probably undermine his support), 3) the international geopolitical order (it will be disruptive to it in many obvious ways that are financial, economic, political, and geopolitical) 4) climate (it will somewhat undermine the world’s ability to deal with the climate change issue effectively), and 5) technology development (it will be disruptive in some positive ways to the U.S., like bringing more technology production into the U.S., and in some harmful ways, like being disruptive to the capital markets that are needed to support technology development and in too many other ways to innumerate here.)我還敦促你思考至關重要的相互關係。例如,思考唐納德・川普的關稅行動將如何影響:1)貨幣 / 市場、經濟秩序(它將對其造成破壞),2)國內政治秩序(它可能會對其造成破壞,因為可能會削弱他的支援),3)國際地緣政治秩序(它將在金融、經濟、政治和地緣政治等許多明顯方面對其造成破壞),4)氣候(它將在一定程度上削弱世界有效應對氣候變化問題的能力),5)技術發展(它將以一些積極的方式對美國造成破壞,比如將更多技術生產帶回美國,也以一些有害的方式造成破壞,比如破壞支援技術發展所需的資本市場,以及太多其他方式難以在此一一列舉)。As you do this, it’s helpful to keep in mind that what is happening now is just a contemporary version of what has happened innumerable times throughout history. I urge you to study the actions that policy makers took in analogous past cases in which they found themselves in similar positions to help you build a list of things that they might do—things like suspending debt service payments to "enemy" countries, establishing capital controls to prevent the free flow of capital out of the country, and imposing special taxes. Many of these things would’ve been unimaginable not long ago, so we should also study how these policies work. The breakdowns in the monetary, political, and geopolitical orders that take the forms of depressions, civil wars, and world wars, that then lead to the new monetary, political orders that govern interactions within countries, and the geopolitical orders that govern interactions between countries until they break down, have all happened repeatedly and are the most important things to understand well. I described them in detail in my book Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order so you can see it clearly laid out there. The Overall Big Cycle is described in six clearly identifiable stages that unfold as one order becomes the next. It is laid out in such detail that it is easy to compare what is now happening with what typically happens, so it is possible to identify what stage the cycle is in and what is likely to come next.在這樣做時,記住現在發生的事情只是歷史上無數次發生過的事情的當代版本,這會很有幫助。我敦促你研究政策制定者在過去類似情況下採取的行動,以幫助你列出他們可能採取的行動清單 —— 比如暫停向 “敵對” 國家償還債務、建立資本管制以防止資本自由外流,以及徵收特別稅。許多這些事情在不久前還難以想像,所以我們也應該研究這些政策的效果。貨幣、政治和地緣政治秩序的崩潰表現為蕭條、內戰和世界大戰,然後導致新的貨幣、政治秩序(管理國家內部的互動)和地緣政治秩序(管理國家之間的互動,直到它們崩潰),這些都反覆發生,是需要很好理解的最重要的事情。我在《應對變化中的世界秩序的原則》一書中詳細描述了它們,所以你可以在那裡清楚地看到。整體大周期被描述為六個清晰可辨的階段,隨著一個秩序轉變為下一個秩序而展開。它被描述得如此詳細,以至於很容易將現在發生的事情與典型情況進行比較,因此有可能確定周期處於那個階段以及接下來可能會發生什麼。When I wrote that book and my other books, I hoped, as I still do, that I would be able 1) to help policy makers understand these forces and interact with them to produce better policies so we get better results, 2) to help individuals who can collectively but not individually affect policies to deal with these forces well so they could get better results for themselves and those they care about, and 3) to encourage smart people who have different views than mine to have open, thoughtful exchanges with me so that we can all try to get at what is true and what to do about it.當我寫那本書和其他書時,我希望(現在仍然希望)能夠:1)幫助政策制定者理解這些力量並與之互動,以制定更好的政策,從而獲得更好的結果,2)幫助那些能夠集體但無法單獨影響政策的個人更好地應對這些力量,從而為自己和他們關心的人獲得更好的結果,3)鼓勵與我有不同觀點的聰明人與我進行開放、深思熟慮的交流,以便我們都能努力找出真相以及該做什麼。 (黯曉)