Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The paper’s message is that the promise of government bailouts isn’t merely one aspect of the problem. It is the core problem.

From the WSJ:

"
Secondary Sources: Greenspan’s Defense, Depression, Looting

A roundup of economic news from around the Web.

  • Greenspan Defense: On the Journal’s opinion pages, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the central bank wasn’t responsible for the housing bubble. “There are at least two broad and competing explanations of the origins of this crisis. The first is that the “easy money” policies of the Federal Reserve produced the U.S. housing bubble that is at the core of today’s financial mess. The second, and far more credible, explanation agrees that it was indeed lower interest rates that spawned the speculative euphoria. However, the interest rate that mattered was not the federal-funds rate, but the rate on long-term, fixed-rate mortgages. Between 2002 and 2005, home mortgage rates led U.S. home price change by 11 months. This correlation between home prices and mortgage rates was highly significant, and a far better indicator of rising home prices than the fed-funds rate.”
  • What Is Depression?: Calculated Risk looks at what would need to happen for this recession to become a depression. “Some people argue the duration of the economic slump defines a depression - and the current recession is already 15 months old. That is longer than the recessions of ‘90/’91 and ‘01. The ‘73-’75 recession lasted 16 months peak to trough, and the early ’80s recession (a double dip) was classified as a 6 month recession followed by a 16 month recession (22 months total). Those earlier periods weren’t “depressions”, so if duration is the key measure, the current recession still has a ways to go… Even though the current recession is already one of the worst since 1947, it is only about 1/3 of the way to a depression (assuming a terrible Q1). To reach a depression, the economy would have to decline at about a 6.6% annual rate each quarter for the next year… I still think a depression is very unlikely. More likely the economy will bottom later this year or at least the rate of economic decline will slow sharply. I also still believe that the eventual recovery will be very sluggish, and it will take some time to return to normal growth.”
  • Looting: David Leonhardt of the New York Times looks at a 1993 paper titled “Looting” by George Akerlof and Paul Romer, and he sees parallels to the current crisis. ““Looting” provides a really useful framework. The paper’s message is that the promise of government bailouts isn’t merely one aspect of the problem. It is the core problem. Promised bailouts mean that anyone lending money to Wall Street — ranging from small-time savers like you and me to the Chinese government — doesn’t have to worry about losing that money. The United States Treasury (which, in the end, is also you and me) will cover the losses. In fact, it has to cover the losses, to prevent a cascade of worldwide losses and panic that would make today’s crisis look tame. But the knowledge among lenders that their money will ultimately be returned, no matter what, clearly brings a terrible downside. It keeps the lenders from asking tough questions about how their money is being used. Looters — savings and loans and Texas developers in the 1980s; the American International Group, Citigroup, Fannie Mae and the rest in this decade — can then act as if their future losses are indeed somebody else’s problem. Do you remember the mea culpa that Alan Greenspan, Mr. Bernanke’s predecessor, delivered on Capitol Hill last fall? He said that he was “in a state of shocked disbelief” that “the self-interest” of Wall Street bankers hadn’t prevented this mess. He shouldn’t have been. The looting theory explains why his laissez-faire theory didn’t hold up. The bankers were acting in their self-interest, after all.”

Compiled by Phil Izzo"

Me:
11:26 am March 11, 2009
    • “The paper’s message is that the promise of government bailouts isn’t merely one aspect of the problem. It is the core problem.”

      You’ve got it. This is the main cause of the crisis, even though it’s practically impossible to get people to see this. Maybe this post will help.

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