作者：英国《金融时报》首席经济评论员 马丁•沃尔夫
THE GRASSHOPPERS AND THE ANTS – A CONTEMPORARY FABLE
西方人都知道蚱蜢和蚂蚁的寓言故事。蚱蜢很懒，在整个夏天唱歌玩乐，而蚂蚁则忙着储藏粮食，为冬天做准备。当寒冷的冬季来临时，蚱蜢向蚂蚁乞要食物，蚂蚁拒绝，最后蚱蜢饿死了。这则故事的寓意是什么？好吃懒做只能喝西北风。
然而生活比伊索寓言更复杂。如今，蚂蚁是德国人、中国人和日本人，而蚱蜢是美国人、英国人、希腊人、爱尔兰人和西班牙人。蚂蚁生产出蚱蜢想要购买的有吸引力的商品。当后者询问前者是否想要什么东西作为交换时，蚂蚁回答道：“不，你们没有任何我们想要的东西，或许除了海边的度假胜地。我们会借给你们钱，这样你们获得了商品，而我们增加了积累。”
蚂蚁和蚱蜢是快乐的。蚂蚁节俭而谨慎，它们把盈余收入存进据信安全的银行里，而这些银行再把钱借给蚱蜢。相应地，后者不再需要生产商品，因为蚂蚁供应了非常廉价的商品。但蚂蚁不向它们出售房屋、购物中心或办公室，因此蚱蜢专注于建造这些建筑物。它们甚至请蚂蚁前来从事这些建造工作。蚱蜢发现，随着资金不断流入，土地价格上涨。因此它们更多地借贷、更多地建造房屋，并更多地支出。
蚂蚁看着蚱蜢窝的繁荣景象，告诉自己的银行家：“更多地借钱给蚱蜢，因为我们蚂蚁不想借钱。”蚂蚁在制造实体产品方面的能力远甚于评估金融产品的能力，因此蚱蜢找到了巧妙的办法，将蚱蜢的贷款打包成面向蚂蚁银行的有吸引力的资产。
Everybody in the west knows the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. The grasshopper is lazy and sings away the summer, while the ant piles up stores for the winter. When the cold weather comes, the grasshopper begs the ant for food. The ant refuses and the grasshopper starves. The moral of this story? Idleness brings want.
Yet life is more complex than in Aesop’s fable. Today, the ants are Germans, Chinese and Japanese, while the grasshoppers are American, British, Greek, Irish and Spanish. Ants produce enticing goods grasshoppers want to buy. The latter ask whether the former want something in return. “No,” reply the ants. “You do not have anything we want, except, maybe, a spot by the sea. We will lend you the money. That way, you enjoy our goods and we accumulate stores.”
Ants and grasshoppers are happy. Being frugal and cautious, the ants deposit their surplus earnings in supposedly safe banks, which relend to grasshoppers. The latter, in turn, no longer need to make goods, since ants supply them so cheaply. But ants do not sell them houses, shopping malls or offices. So grasshoppers make these, instead. They even ask ants to come and do the work. Grasshoppers find that with all the money flowing in, the price of land rises. So they borrow more, build more and spend more.
The ants look at the prosperity of grasshopper colonies and tell their bankers: “Lend even more to grasshoppers, since we ants do not want to borrow.” Ants are far better at making real products than at assessing financial ones. So grasshoppers discover clever ways of packaging their grasshopper loans into enticing assets for ant banks.
