Talking to leaders these days in any walk of life, I have a sense that people are frozen. They see that inflation is back in a serious way for the first time in decades, forcing central banks to raise interest rates at the fastest pace since the early 1980s. They understand that this sudden change in the price of money — the most important driver of economic and financial behaviour — marks a fundamental break with the past. But they are not acting. After living with easy money for so long, they find it difficult even to contemplate a different world. There is a term for this state of mind: zeteophobia, or paralysis in the face of life-altering choices.
最近不管和哪個行業的領軍人物聊天，我都有一種感覺：人們“凝滯不動了”。他們看到通脹數十年來首次大規模回歸，迫使各央行以上世紀80年代初以來最快的速度加息。他們明白，作為影響經濟和金融行為的最重要因素，資金的價格發生這種突如其來的變化，標志著現在和以往是截然不同了。但他們并沒有采取行動。長久以來習慣了“寬松貨幣”，當世界變得不一樣，他們發現即使只是想一想那樣的世界都很難做到。有一個詞語是形容這種心理狀態的：生涯規劃恐懼癥(zeteophobia)，也就是在需要做出改變人生道路的抉擇時，卻什么都不敢做。