For over 20 years I have argued that Western Europe’s high unemployment rates are unsustainable. At the end of the 1970’s, monetarists bet that only a transitory and modest increase in unemployment could rein in the creeping – and trotting – inflation of the industrial west, and that in retrospect the cost of returning to effective price stability would be judged worthwhile.
在过去的20年里，我一直认为西欧的高失业率是不可持续的。在1970年代末期，货币主义者断言只有通过失业率短暂而温和的上升才能控制在西方工业化国家逐渐蔓延并正在加速的通货膨胀。他们还认为当我们将来回顾历史时，会认为为回归有效的价格稳定性所付出的成本都是值得的。在英国和美国这样的论断得到的印证。但在西欧却并非如此。