"James P. Hogan - Leapfrog" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

at him unblinkingly.
HalloranтАЩs grin faded as he saw that the Russian was being quite
serious. тАЬWhat the hell are you talking about?тАЭ he demanded. тАЬHow?тАЭ
Vusilov snorted. тАЬWhile for years your experts in universities
are busy preaching our system and idolizing Marx, we are studying
yours. In Wall Street you have the yo-yo economy that goes up, then it
comes down again like a flat face in what you call the depressions.
Well, what is it that makes the depressions, do you think?тАЭ
Halloran shrugged. тАЬTheyтАЩre part of the boom-bust cycle. ItтАЩs an
inevitable part of the price you pay with a market economy.тАЭ
Vusilov shook his head, and his humor returned as he chuckled in
the way of someone who had been suppressing a long-kept secret. тАЬThatтАЩs
what most Americans say. But the joke is that most Americans donтАЩt
understand how market economies work. A depression, you see, is what
happens when malinvestments liquidate. A malinvestment is when capital
and resources are poured into adventures for which there is no real
demand. When the bubble goes bust, all the capital and labor and
factory machinery and know-how that went in, nothing has any use for
anymore, and so we have the depression.тАЩ,
Halloran nodded stonily. тАЬOkay. So?тАЭ
тАЬWhat you have been seeing ever since the one giant step for
mankind is the depression in the American space program. It comes from
the same reasons of which I have been telling you.тАЭ
тАЬIтАЩm not sure I follow.тАЭ
тАЬIt is nothing to do with any boom-bust bicycle that comes with
capitalism. That was a fiction that we invented, and your тАШexpertsтАЩ
believed. In a truly free market, some decision makers might guess the
wrong way, but they go out of business. It only takes a few who are
smart to get it right, and the others will soon follow. If it is not
interfered with, the natural mechanism of prices to telegraph
information adjusts supplies and demands to give the best bodyguards
against malinvestments that you can get. The depression happens when
all the businesspeoples make the same mistakes at the same time, which
can only be because they all get the same wrong information. And there
is only one way that can happen to the whole economy at once.тАЭ Vusilov
paused and looked at Halloran expectantly. Halloran shook his head.
тАЬGovernment!тАЭ Vusilov exclaimed. тАЬTheyтАЩre the only ones who have the
power. Only government interference can distort the whole picture to
make the same mistakes happen everywhere.тАЭ
Halloran didnтАЩt look convinced. тАЬWhat about the big crash of
1929? WasnтАЩt that a classic case of the free market going belly-up?тАЭ
тАЬYou see, I told you that Americans donтАЩt understand their own
economics. No, it was nothing of the kind. The boom busted directly
because of the inflation of the money supply through the late twenties
by the Federal Reserve because they thought that easy credit would
stimulate business, but what it really does is encourage reckless
investments. Also, they made huge, soundless loans to Europe, to make
Germany into a roadblock for Russia.тАЭ
Halloran didnтАЩt want to get into all that. тАЬSo what does that
have to do with our space program fifty years later?тАЭ he asked.