At least as I read the history, by 1829, Western Europe’s technocratic economists had figured out why these periodic grand mal economic seizures occurred. That year, Jean-Baptiste Say published his Cours Complet d’Economie Politique Pratique, admitting that Thomas Malthus had been at least half right in arguing that an economy could suffer for years from a “general glut” of commodities, with nearly everybody trying to reduce spending below income – in today’s jargon, to deleverage.
在这里我感到十分困惑，不得不停下。至少从我所阅读的历史看，到1829年，西欧理论经济学家已经指出了为何会发生周期性、癫痫式的经济痉挛。1829年，萨伊（Jean-Baptiste Say）出版了《实用政治经济学全教程》（Cours Complet d’Economie Politique Pratique），承认马尔萨斯所指出的经济可能因商品的“一般过剩”遭受多年苦难，几乎所有人都要忙于将支出减到收入之下——用现在的行话说，就是去杠杆化——的论点至少有一半是正确的。而由于某甲的支出无非是某乙的收入，因此人人去杠杆只能导致萧条和高失业。