2014年考研《经济学人》：一美分硬币终将退出市场

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　　根据历年真题研究发现考研的阅读理解的文章一般都是从国外的期刊上摘抄下来的，像The Economist 《经济学家》、Newsweek 《新闻周刊》、Times《时代周刊》、Now York Times 《纽约时报》等，下面太奇考研英语辅导老师整理了《经济学人》阅读周刊，希望能对同学们的阅读带来更大的视野。
        　　The case against small bits of metal
        　　小额硬币退市事件
        　　Mar 2nd 2013 | WASHINGTON, DC |From the print edition
        　　MOST people would not pay two cents for something worth one. But America’s government spent $116m last year doing just that. The money-losing purchase was money itself: the penny, which has cost more than a cent to produce since 2006, due mainly to the price of zinc, the coin’s primary ingredient.
        　　价值一美分的东西，多数人不会花两美分购买。去年，美国政府却耗费1.16亿美元反其道而行之。偏偏这冤枉钱又花在了钱本身：一美分硬币。06年起，由于主要原材料锌价格的上涨，一美分硬币的成本便已超过其面值。
        　　Steel is not much better, as Canada has learned. The government there recently ditched its steel-based penny. American politicians, while loth to take lessons from their northern neighbours, may have noticed. In an online forum on February 14th Barack Obama intimated that the penny was no longer change he believes in.
        　　钢材也好不了多少，这一点加拿大深有体会。该国政府刚刚废除其钢制的一分硬币。美国政客们，虽说不愿借鉴北部邻国的经验，也可能注意到这一点。2月14日，奥巴马于某在线论坛上表示，虽然他一直提倡“改变更换”，但是“更换”一美分零钱已不在他提倡的事物之列。
        　　Fifty years ago a handful of pennies would buy a hamburger at McDonald’s, but inflation means the coin won’t even get you one French fry today. Relegated to jars and lost behind cushions, the penny is failing to perform its primary function: to facilitate commerce. Vending machines and parking meters don’t accept it. Penny scourges note that fiddling with them adds some two seconds to each transaction, costing the economy many millions of dollars a year.
        　　50年前，几美分便可买到一个麦当劳汉堡，但由于通胀，如今却连买一根炸薯条都不够。一美分硬币要么被丢进存钱罐，要么滚到垫子后面消失不见，如今的它已无法发挥其主要功能 ：简化交易。就连自动售货机和停车计时器都不接受它。一美分硬币的批评者认为它还会使每份交易多花费2秒钟左右的时间，从而导致每年数百万美元的经济损失。
        　　Penny lovers and zinc-industry lobbyists counter that the coin’s demise would cost consumers, as merchants would round prices up to the nearest nickel. Some economists disagree, suggesting that shop keepers might in fact round down in order to avoid moving from a price of, say, $9.99 to $10. Americans anyway seem willing to accept a fee for penny removal, as evidenced by the self-imposed cost of leaving them idle and the success of coin-counting machines, which take a cut when turning them into bills.
        　　一美分硬币爱好者与锌产业游说者认为，一美分硬币一旦消失，顾客便会蒙受损失，因为商家会将价钱撩到面值最近的五美分。经济学家却不以为然，因为为避免价格从9.99美元上涨至10美元等情况的发生，商家反而可能抹零。但无论如何，美国民众似乎甘愿为废除一美分硬币缴费，他们宁愿多花钱也不愿用它，而硬币兑换机(在将硬币兑换为钞票时会收取一定费用)的广泛运用同样能够证明这一点。
                               

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        　　Other countries have eliminated low-value coins with less-than-dire results, and indeed, so has America. In 1857 it ditched the half-cent, then worth nearly as much in real terms as today’s dime. This has led some to suggest killing the nickel, which costs about ten cents to make, as well as the penny.
        　　美国和其他国家都曾尝试废除小面值硬币，且并未造成可怕的后果。1857年，美国废除了半美分硬币。按实值计算，当时的半美分相当于如今的十美分。于是有人呼吁废除五美分(造价为十美分)和一美分硬币。
        　　Congress has not authorised coin culling as yet, so the Mint is studying ways to make pennies more cheaply. Mr Obama, meanwhile, is finding value in the penny’s symbolism. “One of the things you see chronically in government is it’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work so that we can then invest in the things that do,” said the president. “The penny, I think, ends up being a good metaphor for some of the larger problems we got.”
        　　国会至今仍未批准废除一美分硬币，所以铸造厂正研究如何降低其成本。奥巴马也同时在寻找其象征意义中存在的价值。他说：“一直以来你们也看到了，政府很难取消那些没有实际用处的事物，并转投其它有益的事物。我想，这一美分硬币就形象地说明了我们曾面对的其它一些大问题。 ”