THERE IS A moment in Perry Mehrling’s opening lecture on money and banking, a course he taught for years at Barnard College in New York, when the professor recalls the origins of his intellectual passion. (Thanks to the magic of the internet, the recording is available for anyone to watch.) His eyes light up. His enthusiasm is laid bare(展露无遗，暴露). He went to the library, he remembers, saw a shelf full of treatises(论著，论文) on money, and said to himself, “If I could have a life reading all of those books, just from left to right, that would be the best life ever.(如果我能一生从左到右读完所有这些书，那将是最美好的人生。)”
在佩里·梅林于纽约巴纳德学院教授多年的“货币与银行学”开篇讲座中，有一个时刻，教授回忆起自己学术热情的起源。（多亏了互联网的魔力，这段录音可供任何人观看。）他的眼睛亮了起来。他的热情展露无遗。他回忆道，自己走进图书馆，看到一整架关于货币的论著，便对自己说：“如果我能一生从左到右读完所有这些书，那将是最美好的人生。”
His best life set him apart from(使他与……截然不同) most mainstream economists. They read articles, not books. And their intellectual framework(框架，体系) leaves surprisingly little room for(给……留下的空间少得惊人) money. They care about the production and exchange of stuff, not the pieces of paper that change hands along the way. A famous couplet(对句，对联) sums up their creed(信条，教义): “promises of payment/Are neither food nor raiment(衣服，衣裳)”.
他理想中的人生让他与大多数主流经济学家截然不同。他们读的是文章，不是书。而且他们的理论框架给货币留下的空间少得惊人。他们关心的是物品的生产与交换，而不是在交换过程中转手的那几张纸。一副著名的对句概括了他们的信条：“支付承诺/既非食物亦非衣裳。”
But if you have made a promise of payment, you will need money, not food or raiment, to fulfil it. That “settlement constraint(结算约束)” is a starting point of Mr Mehrling’s own school of thought(学派，思想流派), which he called “the money view”. It is a little school, he admitted. But he did not feel alone. He drew on a shelfful of intellectual ancestors, such as Hyman Minsky(海曼·明斯基，美国经济学家), a maverick(特立独行者，持异见者) American economist, and Walter Bagehot(沃尔特·白芝浩，《经济学人》第三任主编), the third editor of this newspaper. (“They’re pretty great guys, actually,” he assures his lecture audience.) He also inspired other adherents(追随者，拥护者), such as Daniel Neilson, a data scientist, and Iñaki Aldasoro of the Bank for International Settlements(国际清算银行，央行间的国际组织), whose own interpretation, dedicated to Mr Mehrling’s memory, was published this month, shortly after the professor’s untimely(过早的，不合时宜的) death at the age of 67.
但如果你做出了支付承诺，你需要的是货币，而不是食物或衣裳，来履行它。这种“结算约束”是梅林自己学派——他称之为“货币视角”——的起点。他承认，这是一个小学派。但他并不感到孤单。他汲取了一整架思想先辈的养分，比如美国特立独行的经济学家海曼·明斯基，以及本刊第三任主编沃尔特·白芝浩。（“他们其实都是很了不起的人，”他向讲座听众保证。）他还启发了其他追随者，比如数据科学家丹尼尔·尼尔森和国际清算银行的伊尼亚基·阿尔达索罗。后者为纪念梅林而撰写的解读文章于本月发表，就在这位教授以67岁之龄不幸去世后不久。