艾伦·格林斯潘以100岁高龄逝世，自1987年被任命为联邦储备委员会主席以来，留下了复杂的遗产。在1990年代，他帮助迎来了冷战后的繁荣时期，其中包括自1920年代以来的首次持续联邦财政盈余。然而，他也面临着政治摩擦，在1988年总统竞选期间，尽管遭到副总统乔治·H·W·布什的反对，他依然提高了利率。随后在1991年，在海湾战争临近结束、布什的支持率达到顶峰时，格林斯潘抵制了总统要求立即降息的要求，仅在1992年大选年逐步降息。这种对美联储独立性的捍卫促成了比尔·克林顿政府于1995年确立的一项规则，即禁止总统公开批评美联储。
尽管格林斯潘致力于货币政策的独立性，但他的遗产也有阴暗的一面，其特征是他介入了其职责范围之外的党派财政辩论。在2001年，他支持了乔治·W·布什的大规模减税政策，这最终使国家债务增加了数万亿美元，并摧毁了双边在财政克制方面的承诺。此外，他利用自己的地位支持社会保障的私有化，这是他此前作为改革委员会负责人曾深入研究过的课题。尽管他关于社会保障体系偿付能力轨迹不可持续的政策直觉是准确的，但将美联储的声誉出借给这些党派议程损害了央行的声誉，并损害了其中立性。
如今，美联储由凯文·沃什领导，他面临着应对政治压力的持续挑战，尤其是唐纳德·特朗普的激烈攻势。尽管沃什表示希望将政治与货币政策分开，但中央银行与政治体系之间仍然存在着固有的联系。作者彼得·孔蒂-布朗指出，美联储主席必须实行一种特定的政治：保护该机构免受短期党派影响。沃什必须摆脱他的党派直觉，避免对党派项目发表评论，并完全专注于捍卫美联储的独立性，因为这项努力最终将定义他的遗产。
Alan Greenspan, who died at the age of 100, left a complex legacy as Chairman of the Federal Reserve after his appointment in 1987. During the 1990s, he helped usher in a post-cold-war period of prosperity, which included the first sustained federal budget surplus since the 1920s. However, he also faced political friction, raising interest rates during the 1988 presidential campaign despite opposition from Vice-President George H.W. Bush. Later, in 1991, at the peak of Bush's popularity near the end of the Gulf War, Greenspan resisted the president's demands for immediate rate cuts, reducing them only gradually into the 1992 election year. This defense of Fed independence led to a rule established in 1995 under Bill Clinton's administration prohibiting public presidential criticism of the Fed.
Despite his commitment to monetary independence, Greenspan's legacy has a dark side characterized by his insertion into partisan fiscal debates outside his domain. In 2001, he endorsed George W. Bush’s massive tax cuts, which ultimately added trillions of dollars to the national debt and dismantled bipartisan fiscal restraint. Furthermore, he used his position to support the privatization of Social Security, a topic he had previously studied as head of the reform commission. Although his policy instincts regarding the unsustainability of the system's solvency trajectory were accurate, lending the Fed's prestige to these partisan agendas damaged the central bank's standing and compromised its neutrality.
Today, the Fed is led by Kevin Warsh, who faces the ongoing challenge of navigating political pressures, particularly the intense campaigns of Donald Trump. While Warsh has stated his desire to keep politics and monetary policy separate, central banking remains inherently connected to the political system. The author, Peter Conti-Brown, suggests that the Fed chair must practice a specific kind of politics: protecting the institution from short-term partisan influence. Warsh must shed his partisan intuitions, avoid commenting on partisan programs, and focus entirely on defending the Fed's independence, as this effort will ultimately define his legacy.
Source: The Fed’s chief must practise politics
Subtitle: But not quite in the way Alan Greenspan did, writes Peter Conti-Brow
Dateline: 6月 25, 2026 03:29 上午