Lex專欄：政府還是比企業強大
當代一個較為愚蠢的觀點就是認為企業比民族國家更強大、更 重要。支持這一流行觀點的人引用的論據是，企業有著較高的利潤率和總現金儲備（僅就美國企業而言，總現金儲備在今年第一季度就創下了1.8萬億美元的紀 錄）、而政府卻債台高築，還有就是谷歌(Google)和Facebook這類企業在全球有著很大的影響力。不過還是問問任何一家銀行、航空公司、礦業公 司或制藥公司真正掌權的高管的看法吧。
證明政治人士對全球大企業擁有絕對影響力的最新例子，本周出現在許多美國媒體的頭版上。這些媒體報道的內容顯示，美國國家安全局(NSA)曾要求 Verizon Communications向它提供每一名美國人三個月以來的電話通話記錄。該局據稱還曾要求其他電信企業、互聯網服務供應商和信用卡供應商向它提供信
息。據信，包括微軟(Microsoft)、蘋果(Apple)、美國在線(AOL)、雅虎(Yahoo!)、Facebook、谷歌在內的科技企業均涉
及此事，但它們全都予以否認。公民自由主義者發出了怒吼（然後更新了自己Facebook頁面上的個人信息），奧巴馬(Obama)政府的批評者也在大聲 控訴。投資者應該如何看待這件事呢？目前來看，涉事企業的股東似乎並不在意。實際上，自這件事在本周周中曝光以來，Verizon的股價已累計上漲2%，其他涉事企業的股價也有所上漲。
這並不意味著投資者應當立刻把這則消息拋在腦後。他們的投資回報可能會以三種方式受到影響。如果消費者對這起已演變為公關災難的事件反應消極，涉事 企業的利潤可能會在整體上受到沖擊。投資者可能還想知道，如此一來涉事企業管理層到底要花多少時間來專門應付政府。更具體而言，Verizon這類企業收 那麽高的使用費靠得就是自己的品牌（合約用戶月費約為60美元，而預付費供應商收取的費用大概只有這個數字的一半）。
如果它們的品牌受損，高端用戶可能就會質疑它們有何道理收取這麽高的費用。不過，如果選擇作一名聽話的“企業公民”，那麽下次若有並購案需監管機構審批或面臨外國競爭對手威脅時，它們或許會得到照顧。現實就是，政府可以為所欲為。
Lex專欄是由FT評論家聯合撰寫的短評，對全球經濟與商業進行精闢分析
譯者/王慧玲
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