链潮4将置多大号 高级商务英语阅读 But the stock market doesn't know that.The Internet has made a huge impression just as the invention of the railroad did in the 19th century,when people stood at the station and saw the powerful trains rumbling in.The impression helped create a big 19th century boom in rail stock.In the '20s you probably got your first radio,telephone,your first car and your first electric refrigerator, and that created quite a sense of how amazing technology was.We saw another spectacular stock-market boom. Fast-forward to the 1990s.The Internet is a wonderful innovation but the public...got overexcited about it.The Internet can retard profitability.There's lots of duplication of investment because everyone is competing. And there's a tendency for the public to blur productivity and profit.Both words start with the letters "pro,"and apparently it is easy for people to think they are the same thing.Historically they are not. You can have nice productivity growth but falling profits.With higher productivity,workers will be paid more,and that will eat into company profits.We don't know if productivity gains will mean higher company profits. 3)JOSEPH STIGLITZ,Economics Professor at Stanford University,former Chief Economist, World Bank The increases in productivity in the United States over the last few years are real.And there is every reason to believe that the Internet and computers have played an important role.The Internet is not only an effective way for people to communicate,but it has also made people think about the way business is conducted.That process of rethinking how business is conducted itself has a productivity-enhancing effect. Some people argue that it is nothing more than the normal process of investment.That we have invested a lot and this is the fruit of the investment,that it is not true increases in productivity or increases in so-called total factor productivity.But in some ways that debate is irrelevant.The investment has been made in part because of the high returns these technologies produced.If you didn't have the new innovations it would not have been attractive to make the investments 第7页共14页高级商务英语阅读 But the stock market doesn't know that. The Internet has made a huge impression just as the invention of the railroad did in the 19th century, when people stood at the station and saw the powerful trains rumbling in. The impression helped create a big 19th century boom in rail stock. In the '20s you probably got your first radio, telephone, your first car and your first electric refrigerator, and that created quite a sense of how amazing technology was. We saw another spectacular stock-market boom. Fast-forward to the 1990s. The Internet is a wonderful innovation but the public ... got overexcited about it. The Internet can retard profitability. There's lots of duplication of investment because everyone is competing. And there's a tendency for the public to blur productivity and profit. Both words start with the letters "pro," and apparently it is easy for people to think they are the same thing. Historically they are not. You can have nice productivity growth but falling profits. With higher productivity, workers will be paid more, and that will eat into company profits. We don't know if productivity gains will mean higher company profits. 3) JOSEPH STIGLITZ, Economics Professor at Stanford University, former Chief Economist, World Bank The increases in productivity in the United States over the last few years are real. And there is every reason to believe that the Internet and computers have played an important role. The Internet is not only an effective way for people to communicate, but it has also made people think about the way business is conducted. That process of rethinking how business is conducted itself has a productivity-enhancing effect. Some people argue that it is nothing more than the normal process of investment. That we have invested a lot and this is the fruit of the investment, that it is not true increases in productivity or increases in so-called total factor productivity. But in some ways that debate is irrelevant. The investment has been made in part because of the high returns these technologies produced. If you didn't have the new innovations it would not have been attractive to make the investments. 第 7 页 共 14 页