(单词翻译:单击)
In late 2016 former governor Sarah Palin accused president-elect Donald Trump of taking part in crony capitalism, this was following the deal Trump made with an air conditioning company to keep a number of jobs in the United States. Many believe Trump used his new powers to sway the deal, which involved $7 million dollars in incentives to the company. This outwardly has the potential to stray into favoritism; the basis of crony capitalism. So what exactly is crony capitalism?
2016年底，前州长萨拉·佩林指责当选总统唐纳德·特朗普参与裙带资本主义，此前，特朗普与一家空调公司达成协议，在美国保留大量工作岗位。许多人认为，特朗普利用他的新权力左右了这笔交易，这笔交易涉及向该公司提供700万美元的奖励措施。这在表面上有可能误入偏袒；即裙带关系资本主义的基础。那么，裙带资本主义到底是什么？
Well, the term is generally defined as businesses which benefit from favoritism by government officials. There are varying forms of the practice, and can be most easily understood in terms of "economic rent". This term refers to the difference in what an industry or business would normally be able to earn in a free market, and what they are able to earn as a result of government influence.
这个词一般被定义为受益于政府官员偏袒的企业。操作的形式多种多样，而用术语“经济租金”来解释是最容易被理解的。这一术语指的是，一个行业或企业在正常情况下在自由市场上能够赚取多少利润，与它们在政府影响下能够赚取多少利润之间的差异。
An easy to understand example is the system of Taxis versus car-sharing services like Lyft or Uber. In certain areas, car-sharing is cheaper because effectively anybody can drive, whereas to drive a taxi you need an expensive license, called a medallion, which are limited in number. The medallion system is an artificial method of increasing the "economic rent", or price, of the service, so that drivers don't have to compete, and the barrier to entry is very high. Car sharing represents the free market, while Taxi medallions exist as a form of crony capitalism.
一个容易理解的例子是出租车与来福车或优步等汽车共享服务这一系统的竞争。在某些地区，汽车共享更便宜，因为实际上任何人都可以驾驶，而要想驾驶出租车的话，你需要一个被称为“大奖章”的昂贵牌照，而牌照数量还是有限的。奖章制度是一种人为提高服务“经济租金”或价格的方法，这样司机就不必竞争，而且进入门槛很高。汽车共享代表自由市场，而出租车大奖章则作为裙带资本主义的一种形式。
In many countries, certain industries are considered to be "economically rent-heavy", including casinos, oil and gas, real estate, telecommunications and others. These industries can get tax breaks or special legal treatment as a result of lobbying, unionizing, and sometimes even outright corruption.
在许多国家，某些行业被认为是“经济租金高昂”，包括赌场、石油和天然气、房地产、电信业和其他行业。这些行业可以通过游说、组织工会，有时甚至是彻头彻尾的腐败，来获得减税或特殊法律待遇。
In 2016, the Economist released a list of the countries suffering from crony capitalism the most. By calculating the wealth of billionaires within those industries, as compared to the overall GDP, the disproportion of "economic rent" becomes clear. Topping the list is Russia, which sees roughly 18% of the country's GDP in the hands of billionaires in crony industries. This figure is considerably higher than any other country on the list, and stems from the unique combination of Russia being a major world power, with a history of government favoritism.
2016年，《经济学人》发布了一份遭受裙带资本主义影响最为严重的国家名单。通过计算这些行业内亿万富翁的财富，与总体国内生产总值相比，“经济租金”的比例明显失调。位列名单首位的是俄罗斯，该国约18%的GDP掌握在裙带行业的亿万富翁手中。这一数字远远高于名单上的任何其他国家，这是因为俄罗斯是世界大国的独特组合，它一直有着政府偏袒倾向的历史。
