华尔街日报在北京时间 2023 年 2 月 2 日早晨（美东时间 2023 年 2 月 1 日 18:16）发表了查理·芒格的评论文章《Why America Should Ban Crypto[1]》，文章不长，翻译如下：
它不是货币。它是一个庄家胜率接近 100% 的赌博契约。
近年来，在美国，私营公司新发行了数以千计、大大小小的加密货币品种。在没有任何政府预先批准披露的情况下，这些加密货币在发行后随即成为了公开交易的对象。在某些案例中，加密货币的推广者以近乎免费的价格买到了该品种的大量份额。之后，公众在未充分了解推广者已经（通过提前稀释份额）获得好处的情况下，以高得多的价格买入该品种。这种野蛮和充满欺骗的资本主义行径，正如评论里说的那样（这句话常常被认为是马克·吐温说的）：只要地上有个洞，洞口站着一个骗子，这个洞就可以是金矿。（译者注：这句话或许不是马克·吐温说的，具体的探讨可以在这里[2]找到。）由于监管方面存在空白，这种恶劣的不义行为一直在进行。加密货币不是货币，不是商品，也不是证券。事实上，它是一个庄家胜率接近 100% 的赌博契约，并在美国这个赌博契约传统上只由州政府监管，而且管得很松的国家被签订。显然，美国现在应该制定一项新的联邦法律，阻止这种情况继续发生。两个有趣的先例可以指导我们采取合理的行动。第一个先例是，中国政府最近下达了加密货币禁令，因为他们非常明智地意识到加密货币是弊大于利的。第二个先例是，在 18 世纪初叶，英格兰政府采取手段应对了一场可怕的因泡沫破裂导致的大萧条。泡沫产生于一个推广计划，当时英国部分商人通过速度缓慢的帆船，与世界各地非常贫穷的人进行贸易，以获得巨大的利润。（译者注：这里说的是「南海泡沫」，牛顿当时也在泡沫中损失惨重。更多资料可以在这里[3]看到。）当这个疯狂的推广计划宣告失败的时候，英国议会在痛苦中采取了简单粗暴的做法，直接禁止了所有新发行股票的公开交易，并将禁令维持了大约 100 年（译者注：即泡沫法案，The Bubble Act 1720）。在这 100 年里，英国对人类文明进步做出了迄今为止最大的国家层面的贡献：英国在启蒙运动和工业革命中发挥了强有力的领导作用，并催生了一个叫做美利坚合众国的有前途的小国家。美国在禁止加密货币后还应该做什么？嗯，还应该做一件事：感谢中国共产党领导人在非凡判断力上所展示的绝佳典范。In the U.S. in recent years, privately owned companies have issued thousands of new cryptocurrencies, large and small. These have later become publicly traded without any governmental pre-approval of disclosures.In some cases, a big block of cryptocurrency has been sold to a promoter for almost nothing, after which the public buys in at much higher prices without fully understanding the pre-dilution in favor of the promoter.All this wild and wooly capitalism is much like that described in a remark often attributed to Mark Twain, who was thought to have said that “a mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top.”Such wretched excess has gone on because there is a gap in regulation. A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security. Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity. Obviously the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening.Two interesting precedents may guide us into sound action. In the first precedent, the communist government of China recently banned cryptocurrencies because it wisely concluded that they would provide more harm than benefit. And, in the second precedent, from the early 1700s, England reacted to a horrible depression that followed the blow up of a promotional plan to get vast profits by using slow-moving sailing ships to trade with very poor people halfway around the world.What the English Parliament did in its anguish when this crazy promotion blew up, was direct and simple: It banned all public trading in new common stocks and kept this ban in place for about 100 years. And, in that 100 years, England made by far the biggest national contribution to the march of civilization as it led strongly in both the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution and, to boot, spawned off a promising little country called the United States.What should the U.S. do after a ban of cryptocurrencies is in place? Well, one more action might make sense: Thank the Chinese communist leader for his splendid example of uncommon sense.
[1]WSJ:https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-america-should-ban-crypto-regulation-economy-finance-china-england-trading-currency-securities-commodity-gamble-11675287477
[2]马克·吐温:https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/07/19/gold-mine/
[3]南海泡沫:https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/South-Sea-Bubble/