2005年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-business report

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NPR为美国国家公共电台简称(National Public Radio)，是一家以美国本土民众为广播对象的综合电台，这无疑使它成为基础较好的英语学习者提高听力水平的良好素材,事实上，它的不少材料入选我国英语本科专业必修课《Listen to This》之中。在这里，你可以听到活生生的美语发音和表达方式，了解到地道的美国历史文化和最新的时事动态，从而真正使你的听力水平再上一个台阶。
NPR 成立于1970年，每个星期有两千两百万美国人、也就是美国人口的大约10%，收听NPR广播，其听众中不乏知识份子、政界和商界人士。美国前总统克林顿就曾说，他是该台的忠实听众。NPR的早间综合新闻节目“Morning Edition”是全国电台早间节目里最受欢迎、也是听众最多的。在美国全国最受欢迎的前三个节目里，还有另一个节目，就是该台的“All Things Considered”(时事纵观)。这个节目最早在1971年播出，每天为听众深入分析一天来国内外发生的大事。内容既包括硬性新闻，也含有专题报导和评论。整个节目由与话题有关的、动听的音乐连接起来，在美国各地深受欢迎。


Back now with Day to Day, I'm Madeleine Brand. It's President's Day, so let's talk about presidents and the economy and the old axiom that presidents don't have much control over the economy is not always true. Marketplace's Matthew Algeo joins us now.
Matthew, first of all, when did presidents really began to pay attention to the economy? Did George Washington, for example, have a team of economic advisers?

Eh, no, he did not; in fact, George Washington hardly had any advisers at all. He pretty much ran the government all by himself compared to today's presidents. Presidential historian Richard Shenkman told me that it really wasn't until the civil war that presidents began to pay much attention to the economy.

All of a sudden, Abraham Lincoln was faced with the challenge of how he was going to raise money to fund the civil war and that required issuing of a greenbacks and inflating the money supply and going into the bond market and that they involved the president very much in economic policy.
But interestingly enough, after the civil war, there was a long period when presidents were less inclined to get involved in the nation's economy,their approaches more or less hands-off, laissez-faire (法文：放任，自由主义）, pardon my French.

What changed that?

The great depression of the 1930s changed that policy. When the depression hit, it became apparent that the government and the president would have to become more involved in the nation's economy. Of course Franklin Roosevelt was the president at that time and he pretty much set the standard for presidents becoming involved in the economy. He set up bureaucracies to control big businesses, the Securities and Exchange Commission is one example. And of course FDR also set up the one program that still has a direct economic impact on practically every American, that is social security.

Indeed, we are debating that now, and when it comes to a larger economy, things like interest rates, how much power do presidents really have?

It depends. A lot of things are out of the presidents' control. Presidents don't have direct control over interest rates, for example. But they certainly do have the power to influence the economy in many ways. Richard Shenkman told me that stocks can fall when a president so much as catches a cold.

Presidential behavior can clearly have an impact on the economy. If a president wants to talk down the dollar, they can send out their Treasury Secretary or they can themselves get out there and do it and that can have an instant impact.

And that is why it's not really fair to say the president doesn't have much control over the economy that we probably doesn't have as much control as he would like.

And Madeleine in the Marketplace newsroom today, we are taking a look at New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. Matthew Algeo of Public Radio's daily business show, Marketplace. And Marketplace joins us regularly at this time for our discussions about money and business. It's produced by American Public Media and thanks Matthew.

You are welcome.