Four Hard Truths from a Very Bumpy 2011

Olivier Blanchard IMF December 21, 2011

By Olivier Blanchard

What a difference a year makes "¦

We started 2011 in recovery mode, admittedly weak and unbalanced, but nevertheless there was hope. The issues appeared more tractable: how to deal with excessive housing debt in the United States, how to deal with adjustment in countries at the periphery of the Euro area, how to handle volatile capital inflows to emerging economies, and how to improve financial sector regulation.

It was a long agenda, but one that appeared within reach.

Yet, as the year draws to a close, the recovery in many advanced economies is at a standstill, with some investors even exploring the implications of a potential breakup of the euro zone, and the real possibility that conditions may be worse than we saw in 2008.

I draw four main lessons from what has happened.

"¢ First, post the 2008-09 crisis, the world economy is pregnant with multiple equilibria"”self-fulfilling outcomes of pessimism or optimism, with major macroeconomic implications.

Multiple equilibria are not new. We have known for a long time about self-fulfilling bank runs; this is why deposit insurance was created. Self-fulfilling attacks against pegged exchange rates are the stuff of textbooks. And we learned early on in the crisis that wholesale funding could have the same effects, and that runs could affect banks and non-banks alike. This is what led central banks to provide liquidity to a much larger set of financial institutions.

What has become clearer this year is that liquidity problems, and associated runs, can also affect governments. Like banks, government liabilities are much more liquid than their assets"”largely future tax receipts. If investors believe they are solvent, they can borrow at a riskless rate; if investors start having doubts, and require a higher rate, the high rate may well lead to default. The higher the level of debt, the smaller the distance between solvency and default, and the smaller the distance between the interest rate associated with solvency and the interest rate associated with default. Italy is the current poster child, but we should be under no illusion: in the post-crisis environment of high government debt and worried investors, many governments are exposed. Without adequate liquidity provision to ensure that interest rates remain reasonable, the danger is there.

"¢ Second, incomplete or partial policy measures can make things worse.

We saw how perceptions often got worse after high-level meetings promised a solution, but delivered only half of one. Or when plans announced with fanfare turned out to be insufficient or hit practical obstacles.

The reason, I believe, is that these meetings and plans revealed the limits of policy, typically because of disagreements across countries. Before the fact, investors could not be certain, but put some probability on the ability of players to deliver. The high-profile attempts made it clear that delivery simply could not be fully achieved, at least not then. Clearly, the proverb, "Better to have tried and failed, than not to have tried at all," does not always apply.

"¢ Third, financial investors are schizophrenic about fiscal consolidation and growth. They react positively to news of fiscal consolidation, but then react negatively later, when consolidation leads to lower growth"”which it often does. Some preliminary estimates that the IMF is working on suggest that it does not take large multipliers for the joint effects of fiscal consolidation and the implied lower growth to lead in the end to an increase, not a decrease, in risk spreads on government bonds. To the extent that governments feel they have to respond to markets, they may be induced to consolidate too fast, even from the narrow point of view of debt sustainability.

I should be clear here. Substantial fiscal consolidation is needed, and debt levels must decrease. But it should be, in the words of Angela Merkel, a marathon rather than a sprint. It will take more than two decades to return to prudent levels of debt. There is a proverb that actually applies here too: "slow and steady wins the race."

"¢ Fourth, perception molds reality.

Right or wrong, conceptual frames change with events. And once they have changed, there is no going back. For example, nothing much happened in Italy over the summer. But, once Italy was perceived as at risk, this perception did not go away. And perceptions matter: once the "real money'' investors have left a market, they do not come back overnight.

A further example: not much happened to change the economic situation in the Euro zone in the second half of the year. But once markets and commentators started to mention the possible breakup of Euro, the perception remained and it also will not easily go away. Many financial investors are busy constructing strategies in case it happens.

Put these four factors together, and you can explain why the year ends much worse than it started.

Is all hope lost? No, but putting the recovery back on track will be harder than it was a year ago. It will take credible but realistic fiscal consolidation plans. It will take liquidity provision to avoid multiple equilibria. It will take plans that are not only announced, but implemented. And it will take much more effective collaboration among all involved.

I am hopeful it will happen. The alternative is just too unattractive.

Published on iMFdirect blog.

Olivier Blanchard is Economic Counsellor and Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Filed under: Advanced Economies, Economic Crisis, Economic outlook, Economic research, Emerging Markets, Employment, Europe, Financial Crisis, Fiscal policy, Fiscal Stimulus, G-20, growth, International Monetary Fund, Multilateral Cooperation, Public debt, recession Tagged: | consolidation, debt, euro area, financial sector regulation, investors, Italy, liquidity, multiple equilibria, Olivier Blanchard, perception, recovery, United States. capital flows, year in review

yes, yes, but you have not addressed the big #1: poor monetary policy. inflation expectations are running sub-par in the U.S. and the Euro area(even in Germany) due to weak monetary policy and a peevish obsession with inflation. The big hyperinflation from half-hearted quantitative easing turned out to be hyperbole, and now the ECB and the Fed are waaaaaay behind the curve. I hear a lot of people saying monetary policy is not effective at the zero lower bound…. to which I say it has not been fully tried!

[...] has been on the front lines of the crisis in Europe during a particularly tumultuous year. In a post on the IMF’s blog, he points to four main lessons from 2011 that he says explain why the year is ending much worse [...]

You forgot the two other even harder truths "why the year ends much worse than it started."

First: Bank regulators insist on the banks making up for the capital they should have had, in case the ex-ante perceptions of risk had turned out wrong ex-post, had not the regulators allowed them otherwise. Remember when we used to worry about our bankers "lending the umbrella while the sun shines and taking it away when it rains"? Well the bank regulators made it much worse since they are also taking away the umbrella they so willingly lend when they thought and think the infallible exists"¦ and forget that perceived risk have already been priced in interest rates, amounts borrowed and other terms.

Second: The stacking of equity return on banks in favor of what is ex-ante perceived as not-risky is still well and alive, going strong in Basel III, as the regulators have yet to understand that all they achieved with their loony capital requirements for banks was to make the dangerous overcrowding of safe-havens the more possible, and to make the explorations of those risky but needed bays like the small businesses and entrepreneurs, the much more difficult and expensive.

"Putting the recovery back on track", requires understanding and acknowledging the mistakes.

Four Hard Truths from a Very Bumpy 2011

Related Articles