Lehman, PSI and the consequences of credit policy: The third lever of macroeconomics

May 2nd 2013, 19:20  by G.I. | WASHINGTON, D.C.

ECONOMICS undergrads learn early on about two levers to manage the macroeconomy: fiscal policy and monetary policy. Events of the last five years make clear that there is a third lever that while poorly understood and difficult to model, it is at times critical: credit policy.

By credit policy (or banking policy or financial policy) I mean anything that affects how the financial system influences aggregate demand. Of course, we’ve always known aggregate demand depends on both the central bank’s policy rate and the spread over that rate paid by households and firms. But before the cirisis the relationship between the policy rate and what borrowers paid was assumed to be either constant, or endogenous to monetary policy or the business cycle.

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The ECB’s new bond purchase programme: Not too little, possibly too late

Sep 6th 2012, 15:23 by G.I. | WASHINGTON

[Greg Ip]

SINCE the euro crisis erupted, the European Central Bank has been torn between its legal and philosophical aversion to financing governments and its duty as lender of last resort. Today, it appears to have reconciled the two, erring on the side of the latter.

At the end of its governing council meeting today, the ECB announced the much-anticipated details of how it would resume intervening in the region’s government bond markets. Using its newly christened Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT), it will buy sovereign bonds of one- to three-year maturity, provided the issuing country has agreed to a fiscal adjustment programme with either the European Financial Stability Facility, or its successor, the European Stability Mechanism.

Greece and the euro: What Argentina tells us about Greece

Feb 16th 2012, 19:16 by G.I. | WASHINGTON D.C.

[Greg Ip]The Free Exchange column in this week’s print edition is a guest article by Mario Blejer and Guillermo Ortiz, former central-bank governors of Argentina and Mexico respectively. They note that some advocates of Greek exit from the euro cite Argentina’s abandonment of its currency board in 2002. The peso devaluation that followed the collapse of the currency board led to a boom in Argentine exports and growth. Mr Blejer and Ortiz say these advocates understate the chaos that occurred in Argentina, and how much worse it would be in Greece:

Austerity and the markets: The perils of prudence

More evidence that austerity can backfire

Jan 28th 2012 | WASHINGTON, DC | from the print edition

[Greg Ip] THE fiscal hawks should be pleased. For all the hand-wringing about public profligacy, budget deficits across the rich world fell by about 1% of GDP last year. Moreover, that was almost all the result of policy actions (spending cuts and tax rises) rather than cyclical effects.Germany, France, Spain and Italy all managed to reduce their structural budget deficits, the latter three thanks to austerity. All are expected to reduce those deficits further this year, the International Monetary Fund said on January 24th. But this may not be good news. Austerity can unnerve markets, not calm them.