監守自盜

Why should a financial engineer be paid four times to 100 times more than a real engineer? A real engineer build bridges. A financial engineer build -- dreams.

And, you know, when those dreams turn out to be nightmares -- other people pay for it.

For decades, the American financial system was stable and safe. But then something changed. The financial industry turned its back on society, corrupted our political system, and plunged the world economy into crisis. At enormous cost, we've avoided disaster and are recovering. But the men and institutions that caused the crisis are still in power, and that needs to change. They will tell us that we need them, and that what they do is too complicated for us to understand. They will tell us it won't happen again. They will spend billions fighting reform. It won't be easy.

But some things are worth fighting for.

—— The movie "Inside Job"

金融危機全過程中，資本貪婪的天性暴露無遺。華爾街金融衍生品創新並沒有降低次貸的風險。它只是把風險轉移和分散給了更多的人。而恰恰由於風險從金融機構中轉移了出去，金融機構得以更放心的吸納更多利率更高的次貸。其結果是，社會整體承擔了更高的風險，而集中在少數人身上的金融資本賺的盤滿缽滿。

這個冗長的金融鏈條中，每一環追求自己的利益最大化，但最終沒有帶來鏈條整體的效率最高。所以可以說，自由市場在這裡肯定是失靈的。

最可怕的事情，不是財富的損失，而是人性的迷失——在資本和利益的壓力下，到底誰是可以相信的？當看到Glenn Hubbard面對採訪時那些拙劣的態度，我很難很難相信這是我讀過的經濟學教材的作者，一個經濟學家，教授，學者。更不用提Greenspan和Bernanke兩位美聯儲主席。拒絕採訪無疑等於釋放一個信號：我有罪。這就是我心目中那種運籌帷幄之中，決勝千里之外，能預測未來，承擔一國之責任的央行行長？

當你已經開始接受利益，你就不可能擺脫干係，做獨立的學者或者廉潔的智囊。想起《吳敬璉傳》引用吳老的話：「作為經濟學家首要的職責是研究科學，發現真理，做一個有獨立立場的觀察者。」現在終於知道違背這個話會有什麼後果了。所以還是那個簡單的道理，判斷一個人或組織可信任與否，先看看有沒有利益衝突；而想要獲得別人的信任，同樣要好好選擇一下接受什麼利益。