BERKELEY – In the circles in which I travel, there is near-universal consensus that America’s monetary authorities made three serious mistakes that contributed to and exacerbated the financial crisis. This consensus is almost always qualified by declarations that the United States has been well served by its Federal Reserve chairmen since at least Paul Volcker’s tenure, and that those of us who have not sat in that seat know that we would have made worse mistakes.
伯克利——在我往来联系的圈子里，存在着一种近乎普遍的共识：美国货币当局犯下了三个促成并加剧本次金融危机的严重错误。人们在谈及这一共识时几乎总不忘附上说上一句：至少从保罗·沃尔克时期开始，美联储的主席们就已经干的不错了。另外，我们作为从未担此重任的旁观者应该明白，如果换作我们，错误将会更加严重。但无论如何限定，人们还是共同认为美国决策者们在下述三个时期中犯下了错误：