美国第一任女财长就职信：K型经济的恶果50年前已埋下_风闻

来源：罗汉堂观点

1月26日，在宣誓就任美国第78任财政部长后，珍妮特·耶伦致信财政部84000名公务员，以下是信件中英文全文：

各位亲爱的同僚们：

我叫珍妮特·耶伦。就在刚刚，我宣誓就职美国第78任财政部长。能够加入到这庞大的84000人的团队中，我感到非常荣幸，无以言表。

当拜登总统问我愿不愿意出任财政部长的时候，我答应了。很大一部分原因是我知道我会跟什么样的同事一起工作。我在美联储工作14年，虽然和财政部诸位并不是直接同事，但是我们曾在金融危机时心心相惜，共同战斗过。我记得在深夜参加过无数的电话会议。我深深钦佩财政部各位专家的奉献精神和创造力。

现在，我们需要再次并肩战斗。

这一次的危机显然和2008年的危机不同。不仅规模比之前有过之而无不及，程度也是毁灭性的。全行业停摆，1600万美国人待业，食物银行储备逐渐减少。

我知道许多同僚从一开始就在努力应对这场危机。比如说，如果没有财政部，美国人不会收到《关怀法案》的疫情财政纾困金。此时此刻，我们必须坚持到底。我们要确保更多美国人有尊严地挺过这场疫情的最后几个月，然后帮助他们安全复工。

这个任务将会占据我们接下来的工作日程（甚至可能还有“夜”程）。但在我们为了恢复疫情带来的打击日夜兼程的同时，我们也不能忽略自己的基本职责，仍然要恪尽职守，做好从监管金融市场，到管理国家财政，再到与美国盟友合作加强全球经济和打击非法金融等重要工作。

另外，我们还有一系列长期目标。

如果你在过去几周听过拜登总统的演讲，你应该对“四大历史性危机”的说法并不陌生。新冠是其中一个，除此之外，这个国家还需应对气候危机，系统性的种族危机，和演化了近五十年的经济危机。

大家都担心经历K型复苏——但其实早在疫情之前，我们就生活在K型经济之中，富者愈富，而另一些人群则越来越被忽视。

我相信我们的部门在不管应对哪一个危机时都可以发挥重要作用。

说到底，经济学并不是一个存在于教科书里的学科，更不是一堆理论的合集。**我从学界进入到政府是因为我坚信经济政策对于增进社会福祉有强大的作用。**我们可以，也应该，用我们所学来对抗不平等，种族歧视和气候变化。

这些都是颇具野心的目标。我深知这其中没有任何一个能单靠我和部长办公室周围的小团队的努力就实现。我们需要一个兼容包并的环境，才能将这个机构的天赋和才华发挥到极致。所以，在接下来的几周，我计划与你们每一个人见面，我希望听到你们告诉我什么需要被改变、我们在哪方面可以做的更好。我十分期待这次的“倾听之旅”。接下来几天，等我们决定好如何安排这些线上会议，会通知大家更多详情。

在我的提名确认听证会中，我解释了我成为经济学家的缘由：是因为我的父亲。我父亲是一位在布鲁克林一个工薪阶层聚集的街区工作的医生。他是大萧条时代出生的孩子。晚上他回到家，总会跟我们讲他的哪位病人丢了工作，或者付不起医药费。

我父亲对经济困难有近乎本能的反应。到现在，他说的那些话依然是我童年最清晰的记忆之一。可能这也是为什么，过了这么多年，我依然试图像我父亲看待他的学科一样看待我的学科—经济学，我相信经济学可以帮助人们。

我知道你们很多人都如此相信。你们相信经济政策可以让人们生活得更好**；你们相信数据，更能发现数据之下的人性光辉。**

未来充满不确定性，我不能保证什么。但我希望当经济学家回首美国的这段历史，他们会说，这种信仰帮助我们留下了一个更强大繁荣的国家。

最后，我想再次表达能和各位敬业的公务员一起工作的荣幸，非常期待尽快与你们见面。

真诚地，

耶伦部长

以下为英文原文：

Dear colleagues,  

My name is Janet Yellen, and a short while ago, I was sworn in as the 78th Secretary of the Treasury. It’s an incredible honor to join this team of 84,000 public servants. I can’t overstate that. 

When President Biden asked if I would accept the position of Treasury Secretary, I said “yes” in large part because I knew who I would be working with. I had just spent fourteen years at the Federal Reserve. The Treasury staff weren’t exactly our coworkers. But during the financial crisis, the two teams grew close. I remember participating in a countless string of late-night conference calls and admiring the dedication and creativity of Treasury’s experts. Your work helped save the economy from its worst crisis since the Depression.

Now we need to do it again. 

Of course, the current crisis is very different from 2008. But the scale is as big, if not bigger. The pandemic has wrought wholesale devastation on the economy. Entire industries have paused their work. Sixteen million Americans are still relying on unemployment insurance. Food bank shelves are going empty.

I know many Treasury employees have been responding to the economic emergency since the beginning. Without Treasury, for instance, Americans would not have received economic impact payments from the CARES Act. But now we must complete the task. We must help the American people endure the final months of this pandemic by making sure they have roofs over their head and food on the table. Then, we must assist them in getting back to work safely.

This task will occupy our days (and probably many of our nights) in the near future. But even as we work to recover from this pandemic, we cannot forget about the Department’s usual business; the essential work that ranges from overseeing financial markets, to managing the nation’s finances, to strengthening the global economy and fighting illicit finance in partnership with America’s allies. 

Then, there is another set of long-term objectives. 

If you have listened to President Biden speak over the past few weeks, you have heard him talk about “four historic crises.” COVID-19 is one. But in addition to the pandemic, the country is also facing a climate crisis, a crisis of systemic racism, and an economic crisis that has been building for fifty years. 

People worry about a K-shaped recovery to the pandemic – and that is a cause for concern – but long before COVID-19 infected a single individual, we were living in a K-shaped economy, one where wealth built on wealth while certain segments of the population fell further and further behind. 

I believe our Department can play a major role in addressing each of these crises. 

After all, economics isn’t just something you find in textbook. Nor is it simply a collection of theories. Indeed, the reason I went from academia to government is because I believe economic policy can be a potent tool to improve society. We can – and should – use it to address inequality, racism, and climate change.  

These are ambitious goals, and I am fully aware none of them will be accomplished by working exclusively with a small team out of the Secretary’s office. Ours will have to be an inclusive Department. We must tap the full measure of the institution’s talent and expertise.  That is why over the next few weeks, I plan to meet with each office and bureau. I want to hear from you about what needs changing and what we can do better.  I’m excited about this “listening tour,” and you can expect more details in the coming days as we determine how to conduct these meetings virtually. 

During my confirmation hearing, I spoke about why I became an economist. The reason was my father. He was a doctor in a working-class part of Brooklyn. He was also a child of the Depression. He would come home at night, and he would tell us when one of his patients had lost a job or couldn’t pay. 

My father had such a visceral reaction to economic hardship. Those moments remain some of the clearest of my early life, and they are likely why, decades later, I still try to see my science – the science of economics – the way my father saw his: as a means to help people. 

I know that many of you share this sensibility. You see economic policy as a way to improve people’s lives; you see the humanity beneath the data. 

I cannot be sure about the future, but I expect that when economists look back at this period in American history, they’ll conclude that perspective helped us leave behind a stronger, more prosperous country. 

I am profoundly glad to be working alongside dedicated public servants once again. I look forward to meeting you. And I hope to do so in person sooner rather than later. 

Sincerely, Secretary Yellen 

（完）

耶伦成为美国历史上首位女性财政部长。（图片来源：路透社）