原文出於NY Times
There’s a word I keep hearing lately: “technocrat.” Sometimes it’s used as a term of scorn — the creators of the euro, we’re told, were technocrats who failed to take human and cultural factors into account. Sometimes it’s a term of praise: the newly installed prime ministers of Greece and Italy are described as technocrats who will rise above politics and do what needs to be done.
近來我常聽到一個單字「技術官僚」。有時候這單字會拿來嘲笑某人，像稱呼創造歐元的人都是技術官僚，說他們當初沒有把人為因素和文化因素列入考量。而有時候這單字則是拿來讚美某人，如稱呼希臘和義大利新上任的總理都是技術官僚，可以超越政治角度，確實完成該做的事。
I call foul. I know from technocrats; sometimes I even play one myself. And these people — the people who bullied Europe into adopting a common currency, the people who are bullying both Europe and the United States into austerity — aren’t technocrats. They are, instead, deeply impractical romantics.
不過我得說沒這回事，因為我認識這群技術官僚，甚至我自己有時候也扮演這角色。可是這群人─包含要建立歐洲統一貨幣的人、強迫歐洲和美國都要實施財政緊縮的人都不算什麼技術官僚，他們只不過是完全不切實際的夢想家罷了。
They are, to be sure, a peculiarly boring breed of romantic, speaking in turgid prose rather than poetry. And the things they demand on behalf of their romantic visions are often cruel, involving huge sacrifices from ordinary workers and families. But the fact remains that those visions are driven by dreams about the way things should be rather than by a cool assessment of the way things really are.
更精確的說，這群人是一派又無聊又古怪的夢想家。比起吟詩，他們更常發表誇大且乏味的散文，而且浪漫的腦袋總是提出十分殘酷的要求，要求普通勞工及家庭做出重大犧牲。但這些要求都是依照他們腦袋裡的妄想提出的，而非來自於對實際情形的精確評估。
And to save the world economy we must topple these dangerous romantics from their pedestals.
想要拯救世界經濟，就必須先把這些危險的夢想家趕下臺。
Let’s start with the creation of the euro. If you think that this was a project driven by careful calculation of costs and benefits, you have been misinformed.
先從歐元的誕生談起。若認為在歐元成立前有經過非常精準的支出與收益評估，那你肯定是受人誤導。
The truth is that Europe’s march toward a common currency was, from the beginning, a dubious project on any objective economic analysis. The continent’s economies were too disparate to function smoothly with one-size-fits-all monetary policy, too likely to experience “asymmetric shocks” in which some countries slumped while others boomed. And unlike U.S. states, European countries weren’t part of a single nation with a unified budget and a labor market tied together by a common language.
打從一開始，任何客觀的經濟分析都對歐洲能否邁向統一貨幣半信半疑。全歐洲各經濟體差異極大，很難有一體適用的財政政策，因此相當容易受到「不對稱衝擊」的影響，也就是指有些國家深陷不景氣，同時有些國家卻景氣過熱。此外與美國的各州不同，歐洲各國不屬於同一個國家，沒有統一的預算，也沒有共通語言的勞動市場。
So why did those “technocrats” push so hard for the euro, disregarding many warnings from economists? Partly it was the dream of European unification, which the Continent’s elite found so alluring that its members waved away practical objections. And partly it was a leap of economic faith, the hope — driven by the will to believe, despite vast evidence to the contrary — that everything would work out as long as nations practiced the Victorian virtues of price stability and fiscal prudence.
那為什麼這群「技術官僚」如此賣力推動歐元，完全無視眾多經濟學家提出的警告呢？部分是因為想完成統一歐洲的春秋大夢，這夢對歐洲菁英來說是如此誘人，所以很多人都未提出實質反對。另一部份是對經濟遽增的信心，儘管有大量證據反對，但還是盲目希望只要能維持維多利亞時代的物價穩定以及謹慎財政，一切都會完美運作。
Sad to say, things did not work out as promised. But rather than adjusting to reality, those supposed technocrats just doubled down — insisting, for example, that Greece could avoid default through savage austerity, when anyone who actually did the math knew better.
難過的是，事情終究沒有像先前保證的那般完美。然而這群所謂技術官僚不僅沒有配合現實調整制度，反而還加倍下注，例如堅持只要希臘遵守極嚴格的財政緊縮就一定不會違約，可是任何一個會算數的人都知道答案不是如此。
Let me single out in particular the European Central Bank (E.C.B.), which is supposed to be the ultimate technocratic institution, and which has been especially notable for taking refuge in fantasy as things go wrong. Last year, for example, the bank affirmed its belief in the confidence fairy — that is, the claim that budget cuts in a depressed economy will actually promote expansion, by raising business and consumer confidence. Strange to say, that hasn’t happened anywhere.
我特別要指名歐洲央行(E.C.B.)，本來該是最終的技術官僚機構，然而在情況出錯時卻反而躲進幻想世界裡。如去年就證實了歐洲央行深信信心神話，聲稱在經濟不景氣時縮減預算反而會促進經濟成長，因為如此一來會提升商業與消費者信心。不過很奇怪，這預測從來就沒有發生。
And now, with Europe in crisis — a crisis that can’t be contained unless the E.C.B. steps in to stop the vicious circle of financial collapse — its leaders still cling to the notion that price stability cures all ills. Last week Mario Draghi, the E.C.B.’s new president, declared that “anchoring inflation expectations” is “the major contribution we can make in support of sustainable growth, employment creation and financial stability.”
如今歐洲面臨危機，除非歐洲央行介入，阻止財政崩壞的惡性循環才能控制這場危機，可是歐洲領導人還是堅信物價穩定是所有問題的解答。上個星期歐洲央行的新總裁德拉吉宣稱「固定通貨膨脹預期是我們幫助經濟持續成長，創造就業，穩定經濟所能做的主要貢獻。」
This is an utterly fantastic claim to make at a time when expected European inflation is, if anything, too low, and what’s roiling the markets is fear of more or less immediate financial collapse. And it’s more like a religious proclamation than a technocratic assessment.
這聲明徹頭徹尾就是胡言亂語，比較像是宗教宣言而不是技術評估。真要說起來歐洲的通膨預期反而還太低，而且市場上瀰漫的恐懼是擔心財政的立即崩潰。
Just to be clear, this is not an anti-European rant, since we have our own pseudo-technocrats warping the policy debate. In particular, allegedly nonpartisan groups of “experts” — the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Concord Coalition, and so on — have been all too successful at hijacking the economic policy debate, shifting its focus from jobs to deficits.
不過要聲明，這篇文章不是拿來謾罵歐洲，因為我們也有群假扮成技術官僚的人在扭曲政策。此外還有其他據說是秉持中立的「專家」組成的團體如盡責聯邦預算委員會、反赤字協和聯盟等，成功挾持經濟政策的辯論焦點，把目光從就業轉移到赤字上。
Real technocrats would have asked why this makes sense at a time when the unemployment rate is 9 percent and the interest rate on U.S. debt is only 2 percent. But like the E.C.B., our fiscal scolds have their story about what’s important, and they’re sticking to it no matter what the data say.
真正的技術官僚會想尋求解答，想了解為什麼失業率高達9%而美國國債利率只有2%。然而我們的財政嘮叨大嬸，如歐洲央行對事情的輕重緩急卻有自己的看法，而且不管數據如何解釋都無法改變意見。
So am I against technocrats? Not at all. I like technocrats — technocrats are friends of mine. And we need technical expertise to deal with our economic woes.
那麼我是反對技術官僚囉？也不盡然。我喜歡技術官僚，其中有些人還是我的朋友，而且我們還需要專業的意見來處理目前經濟困境。
But our discourse is being badly distorted by ideologues and wishful thinkers — boring, cruel romantics — pretending to be technocrats. And it’s time to puncture their pretensions.
但我們的討論已經被意識形態和癡心妄想嚴重扭曲，這群無聊又殘忍的夢想家假裝自己是技術官僚，是時候戳破他們吹的牛皮了。
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