来源：《基督科学箴言报》
刊登日期：2021年3月31日
Of all the global awards handed out each year, one announced on March 25 was hardly noticed. Yet it should be. The trade publication Central Banking recognized the U.S. Federal Reserve as Central Bank of the Year. The main reason: In early April 2020, the Fed prevented widespread panic in world financial markets over fears of economic disaster from the pandemic.
在每年颁发的所有全球奖项中，3月25日宣布的一个奖项几乎无人关注。然而，它本该得到关注的。行业出版物《中央银行》将美国联邦储备委员会评为年度中央银行。主要理由是：2020年4月初，美联储阻止了全球金融市场因担心疫情带来的经济灾难而产生的广泛恐慌。
“That financial markets did not completely break down was primarily due to the actions of one central bank, the US Federal Reserve,” the publication stated. “Under the stewardship of its chairman, Jerome Powell, the Fed acted rapidly and boldly to avert a meltdown – not just in the US, but in markets across the world. The Fed pulled out all the stops in its efforts to shore up US dollar liquidity. And it did so extraordinarily quickly.”
该出版物说：“金融市场没有完全崩溃，主要是由于一个中央银行，美国联邦储备委员会的行动。在美联储主席鲍威尔的组织下，美联储迅速而大胆地采取行动，不仅在美国，而且在全球市场，都避免了金融危机。美联储竭尽全力支撑美元流动性，而且行动速度非常快。”
The Fed, for example, set up “swap lines” with more than a dozen other central banks to allow them to inject U.S. dollars into their economies. That and other innovative responses kept credit flowing and averted a “financial crisis that could have evolved into another Great Depression,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told the publication.
例如，美联储与十几个其他国家的央行建立了“美元流动性互换机制”，允许它们向各自的经济中注入美元。国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯塔利娜•格奥尔基耶娃在接受《中央银行》采访时表示，这些创新举措保持了信贷流动，避免了“可能演变成另一场大萧条的金融危机”。
While much of the world was dealing with a fear of COVID-19, the Fed was dealing with another fear. Global output was declining, far more than during the 2008 financial crisis. In the United States, the rate of people participating in the labor market saw the biggest drop since World War II. A year later, financial stress from the pandemic “has been largely avoided so far, owing to the unprecedented policy actions taken,” according to a new IMF report.
当世界上大部分地区都在应对对新冠肺炎的恐惧时，美联储正在应对另一种恐惧。全球产出在下降，降幅远远超过2008年金融危机期间。在美国，劳动力市场参与率出现了二战以来的最大降幅。一年后，国际货币基金组织的一份新报告称，由于采取了前所未有的政策行动，新冠大流行造成的金融压力“迄今已基本避免”。
Because financial stability has largely been preserved, the expected “scarring” in the global economy is less than from the financial crisis 12 years ago, the report finds. In fact, the world has seen a few benefits. In the U.S., even though employment has more ground to regain, the number of new businesses reached a record high in the third quarter of 2020.
报告发现，由于金融稳定在很大程度上得到了维护，全球经济预期中的“创伤”比12年前的金融危机要小。事实上，世界已经看到了一些好处。在美国，尽管就业市场还有待恢复，但新企业数量在2020年第三季度创下了历史新高。
The Fed was hardly alone in taking action. The world’s three major central banks – in the U.S., Japan, and Europe – expanded their balance sheets by about $8 trillion in response to the pandemic. And they will continue to play a vital role in supporting economic recovery.
采取行动的不止美联储一家。全球三大央行——美国、日本和欧洲——为应对新冠大流行，将其资产负债表扩大了约8万亿美元。它们将继续在支持经济复苏方面发挥重要作用。