Public Net Worth: Accounting - Government - Democracy
暫譯: 公共淨資產：會計 - 政府 - 民主

作為個人，我們依賴政府提供的服務。作為一個集體，我們期望政府解決重大問題——從長期的氣候和人口變化到短期的危機，如疫情或戰爭。資助這些活動並可持續地管理所需的財務是困難的——而且這種困難正在加劇。

但政府並不提供或使用每個企業都必須維持的基本財務資訊。他們忽視公共資產和大多數負債的價值。這導致了低效率和不良決策，並為未來堆積了問題。

政府需要創建能夠正確反映資產和負債的資產負債表，並理解他們的未來義務和收入前景。淨值——無論是今天還是未來——應該是財務實力和成功的衡量標準。

只有當這些資訊成為政府財務決策的核心時，全球公共財政面臨的當前挑戰才能有效解決，並以對未來世代公平的方式進行。

好消息是，有方法可以解決這些問題，使政府財務更加韌性，並對未來世代更加公平。

事實和解決方案是超越黨派的，這本書也是如此。任何政治立場的負責任領導者都需要理解這些問題以及能夠使他們在這些限制內實施政策的工具。

Ian Ball

Ian is an Adjunct Professor at the Wellington School of Business and Government at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He served as the Director of Financial Management Policy and Central Financial Controller at the New Zealand Treasury. He is credited with being the principal architect of the New Zealand Government's financial management reform process, leading to the passage of the Public Finance Act 1989. This made New Zealand the first government to introduce modern accrual accounting and integrate that with the budget and appropriation processes. He also initiated and lead the development of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) while Chair of the International Federation of Accountant's Public Sector Committee.

Willem Buiter

Currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the Global Chief Economist at Citigroup, Chief Economist at the EBRD and an original member ofthe Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. He was the Juan T. Trippe Professor of International Economics at Yale University. He held academic appointments at the London School of Economics, Cambridge University, the University of Bristol, and Princeton University. He is the author of 78 refereed articles in professional journals and seven books.

John Crompton

John began his career as a civil servant in HM Treasury in the mid-1980s before joining Morgan Stanley, where he worked as an investment banker in London, New York, and Hong Kong. In 2005 - 07 he was seconded back to HMT as its Senior Corporate Finance Advisor, and from 2008 - 2010 was Head of Market Investments at UKFI, responsible for the government's investments in Lloyds Banking Group and RBS (now NatWest). More recently, he worked for HSBC for several years and is now a non-executive director, adviser and fintech investor.

Dag Detter

Dag advises private and public sector clients across the world on the unlocking of value from public assets. He led the comprehensive restructuring of Sweden's USD70bn national portfolio of commercial assets, the first attempt by a European government to systematically address the ownership and management of government enterprises and real estate. This led to a value increase of the portfolio twice that of the local stock market and helped boost economic growth and fiscal space. He is the author of 'The Public Wealth of Nations' - The Economist and Financial Times' best book of the year and 'The Public Wealth of Cities'.

Jacob Soll

Jacob Soll is a University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, History, and Accounting at the University of Southern California and has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, and Cambridge Universities. The winner of many prestigious prizes, including a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, Soll's work examines the mechanics of politics, statecraft, and economics by dissecting how modern states and political systems succeed and fail. He is the author of several books, including his best-selling The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (2014), which presents a sweeping history of accounting and politics, drawing on a wealth of examples from over a millennium of human history to reveal how accounting can used to both build kingdoms, empires and entire civilisations, but also to undermine them. It explains the origins of our financial crisis as deeply rooted in a long disconnect between human beings and their attempts to manage financial numbers.

伊恩·巴爾
伊恩是新西蘭維多利亞大學威靈頓商學院及政府的兼任教授。他曾擔任新西蘭財政部的財務管理政策主任及中央財務控制官。他被認為是新西蘭政府財務管理改革過程的主要架構師，該過程導致了1989年《公共財政法》的通過，使新西蘭成為第一個引入現代應計會計並將其與預算及撥款流程整合的政府。他還在擔任國際會計師聯合會公共部門委員會主席期間，啟動並主導了國際公共部門會計準則（IPSAS）的發展。

威廉·布伊特
目前擔任外交關係委員會的兼任高級研究員。他曾是花旗集團的全球首席經濟學家，歐洲復興開發銀行的首席經濟學家，以及英格蘭銀行貨幣政策委員會的原始成員。他曾是耶魯大學國際經濟學的胡安·T·特里佩教授，並在倫敦政治經濟學院、劍橋大學、布里斯托大學和普林斯頓大學擔任學術職位。他在專業期刊上發表了78篇經過審核的文章和七本書籍。

約翰·克朗普頓
約翰在1980年代中期作為英國財政部的公務員開始了他的職業生涯，隨後加入摩根士丹利，並在倫敦、紐約和香港擔任投資銀行家。在2005年至2007年間，他被借調回英國財政部擔任高級企業融資顧問，並在2008年至2010年間擔任英國金融投資公司的市場投資部門負責人，負責政府在萊斯銀行集團和蘇格蘭皇家銀行（現為NatWest）的投資。最近，他在匯豐銀行工作了幾年，現在是一名非執行董事、顧問和金融科技投資者。

達格·德特
達格為全球的私營和公共部門客戶提供有關釋放公共資產價值的建議。他主導了瑞典700億美元國家商業資產組合的全面重組，這是歐洲政府首次系統性地解決政府企業和不動產的所有權及管理問題。這導致該組合的價值增長是當地股市的兩倍，並幫助促進經濟增長和財政空間。他是《國家的公共財富》的作者，該書被《經濟學人》和《金融時報》評選為年度最佳書籍，以及《城市的公共財富》。

雅各布·索爾
雅各布·索爾是南加州大學的大學教授及哲學、歷史和會計學教授，曾在普林斯頓大學、羅格斯大學和劍橋大學任教。他獲得了許多著名獎項，包括麥克阿瑟「天才」獎，索爾的研究探討政治、國家治理和經濟的機制，通過剖析現代國家和政治體系的成功與失敗。他是幾本書的作者，包括他的暢銷書《清算：財務問責與國家的興衰》（2014），該書呈現了會計與政治的廣泛歷史，借鑒了超過千年人類歷史中的豐富例子，揭示了會計如何用來建立王國、帝國和整個文明，但也能破壞它們。它解釋了我們金融危機的根源深植於人類與其管理財務數字的嘗試之間的長期脫節。