Ever since humanity emerged, we've all had debts to one another.

自人类出现以来 我们就互相欠债

We are a collaborative species.

我们是合作性物种

We survived the evolutionary struggle in the jungle and in the steppes, in the desert only through collaboration.

我们之所以能够在雨林 草原 沙漠的进化中幸存下来 就是因为互相合作

Collaboration requires reciprocity.

合作需要互惠

I do something for you today, you do something for me tomorrow.

今天我为你做点事 明天你为我做点事

That is a debt. It’s a form of debt but it’s a nonfinancial, noneconomic debt.

这样就会产生债务 它是债务的一种形式 只不过与财产经济无关

It’s an ethical debt. It’s the good side of debt.

这是一种道德债务 是债务的积极面

As society became commodified and all activity started getting channeled through the anonymous market

随着社会的商品化 所有活动都通过隐形的市场连接在一起

most of this reciprocity took the form of financial debt.

多数互惠都是金融债务的形式

What turbocharged the economy once the economy got separated from society through this process of commodification was banking.

经济通过商品化过程从社会中分离出来后 给经济增压的就是银行业

Because, let’s face it.

因为 坦然面对吧

Bankers have a fantastic power over the rest of society by definition, by way of existence, to create money.

在创造金钱方面 银行家对社会其他人有着神奇的控制力 无论从定义还是他们的存在方式来看都是这样

When you get a loan from a bank it is a crazy idea that you are getting it from “somebody else”.

当你从银行获得贷款 如果你觉得你是从“别人那里”获得这笔钱 那就太荒唐了

You’re not getting it from somebody else. It is not true.

你并不是从别人那里得到的这笔钱 不是这样的

This is a major fallacy that occupies most people’s minds, infects most people’s minds,

这是多数人脑子里都有的重大谬论 它影响着人们的思维

that you are being given money that somebody has saved.

让你以为你得到的是别人存起来的钱

That is not true. What the bank does it creates money from thin air.

事实并非如此 银行所做的事是凭空变出钱来

It just types into your account, you know, $20,000 if you borrow $20,000.

它只需要把数字输入你的账户 如果你借两万的话 就是20000美元

It comes literally out of thin air.

它基本就是凭空产生的

And the hope of the banker is you will be able to repay it, because what happens is you take that $20,000,

银行家希望你能还得起这笔钱 因为你会用这两万块钱

you buy equipment for your studio, you buy a new bicycle, a new car, whatever.

为你的工作室添置设备 买一辆新自行车 一辆新轿车等等

So the money goes from your bank account to the bank account of the company or the person that sold you something.

所以钱会从你的账户转到公司的银行账户或者卖给你东西的人的账户

And the idea is that through this circular flow of income and through this economic activity a new income is going to begin, new value will be created.

通过这种收入的循环流动 通过这种经济活动 就会开始新的收入 产生新的价值

You will be able to repay the bank.

你就能偿还银行的债务了

The bank will have obtained the interest and therefore the bank is going to profit.

银行可以获得利息 从而盈利

So the more they lend to you the more profits they make.

所以他们借给你的越多 他们的收益就越多

So it is a little bit—and that’s why I’m trying to explain to my daughter in the book—

这就好像——这就是为什么我在书中试图跟我的女儿解释——

It’s a little bit like the bank is having a capacity to push their arm through the timeline into the future and grab value that has not been created yet,

这就好像银行有本事把手伸到未来 去抓取还未产生的价值

bring it to the present, invest it into some productive activity, hopefully to create the value that we need to replay the future.

把它带到现在 投资进某些生产活动中 希望能够创造出我们需要的价值去偿还未来

But to the extent that this is successful—and it has always been successful—bankers suddenly get the idea that the more they reach into the future,

如果这一行为能够成功——多数情况都是很成功的——银行家会觉得他们从未来抓取的越多

the more value they snatch from the future to bring it into the present, the greater their own personal profit.

就能把更多未来的价值带到现在 从而让自己的收益也更大

But when they overdo it—and, of course, they always overdo it, they overreach—they take too much value from the future, bring it into the present.

但如果他们做的过火了——当然 他们经常做过火 把手伸得太远——他们从未来获得过多价值带到了现在

That value is not realized, and then you have a banking crisis.

但这种价值没能实现 于是就出现了银行危机

And because they play such a crucial and powerful role in society they have the political clout –

因为他们在社会中扮演着如此重要和强大的角色 他们的政治影响力——

political clout that you and I don’t have because they usually are the ones for finance our politicians to get elected to congress and so on—

你和我没有的政治影响力 因为通常是他们给政治家提供资金让他们当选国会议员等——

that can use the political system in order to have themselves bailed out—you know, socialism for the bankers, and austerity for everybody else.

他们可以利用政治系统让自己免于灾难——你懂的 银行家们歌舞升平 其他人却吃糠咽菜