[2010.1.14] White heat redux 白炽回归

White heat redux 白炽回归"/>

[2010.1.14] White heat redux 白炽回归

Labour's new industrial policy
劳工部的新产业政策
White heat redux
白炽回归
Jan 14th 2010
From The Economist print edition
The new strategy makes more sense but is the wrong priority
新的策略看似更加合理，但是错误的自信。

ALMOST half a century ago, Harold Wilson pledged that Britain would be reforged in the “white heat” of the scientific revolution. That promise by a Labour leader campaigning to win power after more than a decade in the wilderness turned to dust in office as the economy remained unregenerate while other countries enjoyed their post-war miracles. The idea of using industrial policy to direct technological change and select commercial winners became discredited. It was abandoned by the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher and left on the scrapheap by “new” Labour under Tony Blair.

在差不多半个世纪之前，哈尔罗威尔逊（Harold Wilson）预测英国将会再造科学革命的“狂热”。一个劳工部领导人创造了这个预言并用此来赢得自己的竞选，直到十年之后，英国的经济一直得不到恢复而别的国家正在享受着战后的繁荣富强生活，这种自信变成办公室里的尘土。利用工业政策引导科技的进步和选择商业领袖变得不再可信。这种想法早已被保守党撒切尔夫人（Margaret Thatcher）放弃，而且继续被托尼布莱尔（Tony Blair）任命的新劳工部负责人丢弃。

But now, after over a decade in power, Labour is resurrecting the idea of an activist industrial policy. The progenitor is Peter Mandelson, the business secretary (to name just one of his titles). Since returning in late 2008 from the European Commission to shore up Gordon Brown’s subsiding government, he has developed the case for such activism, most recently in “Going for Growth”, a policy document published on January 7th.


现在，经过了十年执政后，劳工部重新建立了激活工业政策的想法。这个想法的提出者是商务部长彼得曼德尔森（Peter Mandelson）。他在2008后半年从欧委会调回来，以支撑住戈登•布朗（Gordon Brown）正在下沉的政府。他的想法的说明大部分在一月七日发布政策文件“不断成长”中。

That event was overshadowed by the fallout from the botched putsch against Mr Brown, but the new policy merits scrutiny. Its starting-point is a recognition that in the past decade the economy and public finances became too reliant on the City and financial services for long-term growth. “We need other industrial strengths and sources of revenue to grow faster,” said Lord Mandelson in a speech the day before the launch.

这个想法被最近反对布朗的政治事件蒙上了阴影，但是这个新的政策的优点显现出来了。他（想法）的出发点在于认识到，在过去几十年中，国家的经济和金融过分依赖于城市和金融机构的长期增长。“我们需要来自工业的优势和资源来促进经济增长” 偌德罗曼德尔森在宣布前一天的演讲中说到。

Where Wilson invoked “white heat”, the business secretary talks no less ardently of “innovation at the knowledge frontier”. He enthuses about the opportunities for British firms arising from the shift to low-carbon production and transport. He waxes lyrical about the potential for businesses from advances in the life sciences.

商务部长多次热情地谈到了科学领域里的创新，次数完全不亚于威尔逊宣扬的“狂热”。他激动地谈论着低碳产业和运输给英国企业带来的机遇。他抒情地描绘着生命科学发展中隐含的商业潜力。

As keeper of the Blairite flame, the business secretary insists upon the central role of private enterprise. But whereas Mr Blair sought to run a broadly business-friendly administration allowing the private sector to generate the growth that paid for higher spending on public services, Lord Mandelson thinks that is no longer enough. Exploiting the new technologies, he contends, will not happen with “government simply standing on the sidelines”. Instead, it must foster and harness that growth.

作为布莱尔主义的跟随者，商业部长坚持私人企业的核心地位。尽管布莱尔先生试图运行一个广泛的友好的商业管理机制—甚至允许以政府高花费而代价的私人部门的增长，但是彼得曼德尔森（Peter Mandelson）认为还不足够。在开发新的科学技术这件事情上，他说到，“政府站在球场边”的事情是不可能发生的。而且，政府必须促进和监控增长。


The business secretary sets out a number of specific ways in which the government can help. One goal is to turn more of the new ideas spawned in universities into commercially viable products and processes. Lord Mandelson wants the regional-development agencies to set out how universities in their areas can do more to spur growth. He is exploring whether Britain could emulate the network of Fraunhofer institutes in Germany, which provide industry with applied research.

商务部长列举了一些政府帮助有些的具体例子。一个目标是使更多的产生在大学中的新创意变成商业领域切实可行的产品和进程。罗曼德尔森（Lord Mandelson）希望区域发展机构制定出切实可行的方案使得所在区域的大学可以更有效的促进经济增长。他正在研究是否英国可以效仿德国的弗劳恩霍夫研究所（Fraunhofer institutes）建立网络，该网络为企业提供有可行的研究。

The business secretary also believes that the state should intervene to plug the financing gap that can hinder smaller firms from growing fast. A venture-capital fund of £325m has already been raised to back budding technology-based firms, helped on its way by a seed-corn public investment of £150m. Lord Mandelson wants to set up another capital fund which would serve more established small and medium-sized enterprises that want to expand.

商务部长同时认为国家应该调控填补资金的缺口，这样子可以防止小企业发展过于快速。政府给予了1亿5英镑公众投资作为谷种，一个基于科技的企业在他的萌芽阶段风险基金达到了3亿2.5英镑。罗曼德尔森（Lord Mandelson）希望建立其他资本基金以服务于更多的想要发展的中小型企业。

Labour’s new industrial policy is more realistic about what the government can accomplish than the version that prevailed in the 1960s and 1970s. For that reason, it should avoid its predecessor’s fate, which led to the government supporting lame ducks rather than winners. But it still suffers from the illusion that ministers can behave like impresarios, conducting economic development from their podium in Whitehall. And it is the wrong priority.

劳工部的新产业政策比起二十世纪六七十年代的版本来说在可行性方面更为的接近现实。也正是样子，应该避免重返之前的使得政府去支持那些跛脚鸭而不是胜利者的失误。但是有一种错觉存在，使得部长们对自己的政策感觉良好，经济的运行正如他们在白宫的领奖台一般的顺利。但是这是一种错误的自信。

What business wants the state to concentrate on is providing essential public services such as decent education at an affordable cost. It wants less meddling through burdensome regulations. Above all it is crying out for a credible plan to sort out the battered public finances, so that firms do not buckle under the burden of higher taxation and a surge in interest rates caused by excessive public borrowing. That might not amount to a new industrial policy but it would work a lot better.

商业需要政府关注于提供必要的公共服务，比如在可支付的范围内提供公正的教育。商业希望在完善的法律法规下（自我运行）而政府不干预。最重要的是提出一个可信的方案去处理公共金融资源的战争，这样子，公司就不会被不断增长的繁重的税负和公众过分的借债导致利率飙升压垮。这些也许不足以形成一个新的产业政策，但是他们将会有更好的效果。