All posts tagged Great Depression

Please listen to Nicholas Craft!

Professor Nicholas Craft as written a report for the British think tank Centre Forum on “Delivering growth while reducing deficits: lessons from the 1930s”. The report is an excellent overview of the British experience during the 1930s, where monetary easing through exchange rate depreciation combined with fiscal tightening delivered results that certainly should be of interest to today’s policy makers.

If you are the lazy type then you can just read the conclusion:

“The 1930s offers important lessons for today’s policymakers. At that time, the UK was attempting fiscal consolidation with interest rates at the lower bound but devised a policy package that took the economy out of a double-dip recession and into a strong recovery. The way this was achieved was through monetary rather than fiscal stimulus.

The key to recovery both in the UK and the United States in the 1930s was the adoption of credible policies to raise the price level and in so doing to reduce real interest rates. This provided monetary stimulus even though, as today, nominal interest rates could not be cut further. In the UK, the ‘cheap money’ policy put in place in 1932 provided an important offset to the deflationary impact of fiscal consolidation that had pushed the economy into a double-dip recession in that year.

If economic recovery falters in 2012, it may be necessary to go beyond further quantitative easing as practised hitherto. It is important to recognize that at that point there would be an alternative to fiscal stimulus which might be preferable given the weak state of public finances. The key requirement would be to reduce real interest rates by raising inflationary expectations.

At that point, inflation targeting as currently practised in the UK would no longer be appropriate. A possible reform would be to adopt a price level target which commits the MPC to increase the price level by a significant amount, say 15 per cent, over four years. In the 1930s, the Treasury succeeded in developing a clear and credible policy to raise prices. It maybe necessary to adopt a similar strategy in the near future.

It would be attractive if this kind of monetary stimulus worked, as in the 1930s, through encouraging housebuilding. This suggests that an important complementary policy reform would be to liberalize the planning restrictions which make it most unlikely that we will ever see the private sector again build 293000 houses in a year as happened in 1934/5.”

If I have any reservations against Craft’s views then it is the focus on real interest rates in the monetary transmission mechanism. I think that is a far to narrow description of the transmission mechanism in which I think interest rates plays a rather minor role. See my previous comment on the transmission mechanism.

That minor issue aside Craft provides some very insightful comments on the 1930s and the present crisis and  I hope some European policy makers would read Craft’s report…

—

I got this reference from David Glasner who also has written a comment on Craft’s report.

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6 Comments
by Lars Christensen on November 16, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in David Glasner, Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, Exchange rate policy, Liquidity trap, Monetary policy, Price Level Targeting, The Great Depression, The Great Recession, Transmission mechanism
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Posted by Lars Christensen on November 16, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/11/16/please-listen-to-nicholas-craft/

The Tragic year: 1931

Benjamin Anderson termed 1931 the “the tragic year” – these are some of the events in that tragic year: 

  1. One of Europe’s largest banks with large exposure to Central and Eastern Europe gets into serious trouble (It is of course Austria’s largest bank Österiechishe Kredit Anstalt – and it of course collapsed)
  2. Europe’s Sovereign debt crisis is threatening financial stability and currency collapse (It’s the Germans that are to blame – they can’t pay their war debts)
  3. Major international banks push for a big country to save the sinners (The US banks ask US president Hoover to help ease the pain on Germany)
  4. Debt restructuring (The Hoover moratorium gives Germany a bit of relief – the US banks are happy to begin with)
  5. Monetary policy keeps deflationary pressures on (The French central bank keeps hoarding gold)
  6. An insane commitment to a failed monetary system (the gold standard mentality keeps the commitment to the gold standard despite the fact that it is killing Europe)
  7. Some countries have had enough and give up the monetary standard (The UK leaves the gold standard – the Scandinavian countries follows suit – and recover fast from the Great Depression)
  8. Technocracy is popular and it suggested that indebted nations should be run by technocrats (The so-called Technocracy Movement became increasingly popular in German)

And here we are 80 years on…do you see any similarities? I wonder what 2012 will bring – in 1932 10 countries (or so…) defaulted…

8 Comments
by Lars Christensen on November 15, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Banking crisis, Central and Eastern Europe, Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, Gold Standard, Greece, MM Research agenda, Monetary institutions, The euro, The Great Depression
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Posted by Lars Christensen on November 15, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/11/15/the-tragic-year-1931/

Germany 1931, Argentina 2001 – Greece 2011?

The events that we are seeing in Greece these days are undoubtedly events that economic historians will study for many years to come. But the similarities to historical crises are striking. I have already in previous posts reminded my readers of the stark similarities with the European – especially the German – debt crisis in 1931. However, one can undoubtedly also learn a lot from studying the Argentine crisis of 2001-2002 and the eventual Argentine default in 2002.

What this crises have in common is the combination of rigid monetary regimes (the gold standard, a currency board and the euro), serious fiscal austerity measures that ultimately leads to the downfall of the government and an international society that is desperately trying to solve the problem, but ultimately see domestic political events makes a rescue impossible – whether it was the Hoover administration and BIS in 1931, the IMF in 2001 or the EU (Germany/France) in 2011. The historical similarities are truly scary.

I have no clue how things will play out in Greece, but Germany 1931 and Argentina 2001 does not give much hope for optimism, but we can at least prepare ourselves for how things might play out by studying history.

I can recommend having a look at this timeline for how the Argentine crisis played out. You can start on page 3 – the Autumn of 2001. This is more or less where we are in Greece today.

6 Comments
by Lars Christensen on November 2, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Banking crisis, Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, Exchange rate policy, Gold Standard, MM Research agenda, Monetary institutions, The euro, The Great Depression
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Posted by Lars Christensen on November 2, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/11/02/germany-1931-argentina-2001-greece-2011/

80 years ago – history keeps repeating itself

Scott Sumner has a excellent post on events 80 years ago and the comparison with the situation today.

I share Scott’s view of the dismal situation 80 years ago and today.

See my posts on the issue from last week here and here.

Leave a comment
by Lars Christensen on November 2, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Banking crisis, Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, Gold Standard, MM Research agenda, Reading recommendations, Scott Sumner, The Great Depression, The Great Recession
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Posted by Lars Christensen on November 2, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/11/02/80-years-ago-history-keeps-repeating-itself/

The Hoover (Merkel/Sarkozy) Moratorium

The global stock markets are strongly up today on the latest news from the EU on the deal on Greek debt (and little bit less…). There is no reason to spend a lot of time describing the deal here, but I nonetheless feel it might be a good day to tell a bit about something else – the so-called Hoover Moratorium of 1931.

80 years ago it was not Greece, which was at the centre of attention, but rather Germany. Germany was struggling to pay back war debt and reparations for World War I and Germany was effectively on the brink of default and the Germany economy was in serious trouble – not much unlike today’s Greek situation.

On June 20 1931 US President Hoover issued a statement in which he suggested a moratorium on payments of World War I debts, postponing the initial payments, as well as interest. Hoover’s hope was the moratorium would ease the strains on especially the German economy and thereby in general help the global economy, which of course at that time was deep in depression.

Hoover’s idea was certainly not popular with many US citizens (like today’s German taxpayers who are not to happy to see their taxes being spending in “saving” Greece). However, the plan got most opposition from the French government, which insisted that the German government had to pay it’s debts on time as scheduled.

Despite the negative reception of Hoover’s proposal it went on to gain support from fifteen nations including France by July 6 1931.

An interesting side story on the Hoover Moratorium is why Hoover came up with the idea in the first place. Barry Eichengreen askes this question in his great book on the gold standard and the Great Depression, “Golden Fetters”: “It is unclear whether Hoover was motivated by the need for action to stabilize the international economy or by a desire to protect U.S. banks that had invested heavily in Germany”. Try replace “Hoover” with “Merkel/Sarkozy”, “U.S. banks” with “German/French banks” and “Germany” with “Greece”.

So how did the Hoover Moratorium play out? The initial market reaction July 1931 was very favourable. German stock jumped 25% on the Monday announce the initial announcement of the Hoover Moratorium. Here is how the New York Times described the global market reaction “the swiftest advance during any corresponding period in a generation” (quoted from Clark Johnson’s “Gold, France and the Great Depression”).

However, the party did not last and soon the international market turned down and the Depression continued. Many countries didn’t emerge from the Depression before the end of World War II. Lets hope we are more lucky this time around.

7 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 27, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Banking crisis, Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, The euro, The Great Depression, The Great Recession
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Posted by Lars Christensen on October 27, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/27/the-hoover-merkelsarkozy-moratorium/

Hawtrey, Cassel and Glasner

Recently I have been giving quite a bit attention to the writings Gustav Cassel (and I plan more…), but I have failed to give any attention to the great British monetary economist Raplh G. Hawtrey. That is not really fair – Hawtrey and Cassel lived more or less at the same time and both played important roles in the debate and formulation of monetary policy and monetary thinking around the world in 1920s and 1930s.

Long ago David Glasner – one of my big heros and the blogger on uneasymoney.com – and Ronald W. Batchelder long ago wrote a paper on the monetary economics of both Cassel and Hawtrey – “Pre-Keynesian monetary theories of the Great Depression”. You should all read it.

6 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 26, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Economic and monetary history, Monetary policy, New Casselian economics, The Great Depression
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Posted by Lars Christensen on October 26, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/26/hawtrey-cassel-and-glasner/

Calomiris on “Contagious Events”

As we minute by minute are inching closer to the announcement of some form of restructuring/write-down of Greek Sovereign debt nervous investors focus on the risk of contagion from the Greek crisis to other European economies and contagion in the European banking sector.

In a paper from 2007 Charles Calomiris has a good and interesting discussion of what he calls “Contagious events”.

Here is the abstract:

“Bank failures during banking crises, in theory, can result either from unwarranted depositor withdrawals during events characterized by contagion or panic, or as the result of fundamental bank insolvency. Various views of contagion are described and compared to historical evidence from banking crises, with special emphasis on the U.S. experience during and prior to the Great Depression. Panics or “contagion” played a small role in bank failure, during or before the Great Depression-era distress. Ironically, the government safety net, which was designed to forestall the (overestimated) risks of contagion, seems to have become the primary source of systemic instability in banking in the current era.”

WARNING: If you are looking for a justification for bailouts you will probably not find it in this paper, but you will find some interesting “advise” on banking regulation.

3 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 25, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Banking crisis, Economic and monetary history, General economic theory, The Great Depression
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Posted by Lars Christensen on October 25, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/25/calomiris-on-contagious-events/

Brüning (1931) and Papandreou (2011)

Here is Germany Prime Minister Brüning in 1931.

Here is Greek Prime Minister Papandreou in 2011.

Brüning fled Germany in 1934 after the Nazi takeover in 1933.

5 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 24, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in euro crisis, The Great Depression, The Great Recession
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by Lars Christensen on October 24, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/24/bruning-1931-and-papandreou-2001/

80 years on – here we go again…

The year is 1931. US president Hoover on June 20 announces the so-called Hoover Moratorium. Hoover’s proposition was to put a one-year moratorium on payments of World War I and other war debt, postponing the initial payments, as well as interest. This obvious is especially a relief to Germany and Austria. The proposal outrages a lot of people and especially the France government is highly upset by the proposal.

July 23, 1931. After finally gaining French support, President Hoover announced that all of the important creditor governments had accepted the intergovernmental debt moratorium. While the U.S. government rejected the notion that inter-Allied war debts and reparations were connected, the European governments adopted the stand that Allied debts and reparations would stand or fall together. The delay in action on the debt moratorium contributed to the closing of all German banks by mid-July. (From youtube)

Here are the historical pictures from the Paris conference in 1931.

80 years on – now we are again talking about European debts. This time things a different now it is now Germany who are in need of a debt moratorium, but Greece. And guess who is upset this time around??

6 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 24, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, The Great Depression, The Great Recession
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Posted by Lars Christensen on October 24, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/24/80-years-on-here-we-go-again/

“Our Monetary ills Laid to Puritanism”

Douglas Irwin has been so nice to send me an article from the New York Times from November 1 1931. It is a rather interesting article about the Swedish monetary guru Gustav Cassel’s view of monetary policy and especially how he saw puritanism among monetary policy makers as the great ill. I had not read the article when I wrote my comment on Calvinist economics, but I guess my thinking is rather Casselian.

The New York Times article is based on an article from the Swedish conservative Daily Svenska Dagbladet (the newspaper still exists).

Professor Cassel claims that overly tight US monetary policy in the early 1930s is due to two “main ills”: “deflation mania” and “liquidation fever”.

NYT quote Cassel: “The deeper psychological explanation of this whole movement..can without doubt be found in American Puritanism. This force assembled all its significant resources in what was considered a great moral attack on the diabolism of speculation. Each warning against deflation has stranded on fear on the part of Puritanism that a more liberal monetary policy might infuse new vigor in the spirit speculation.”

It isn’t it scary how much this reminds you about how today’s policy makers are scared of bubbles and inflation? I wonder what Gustav Cassel would tell the ECB to do today?

Maybe here would just say: “That the deflation has meant the ruin of one business after another and forced many banks to suspend payments is a matter that little concerns the stern Puritan”…”on the contrary, it is highly approves proper punishment of speculation and thorough cleaning out of questionable business projects. It totals disregards the fact that deflation in itself by degrees adversely affects the finances of any enterprise and forces even sound business to ruin”. 

Wouldn’t it be a blessing if Cassel was around today to advise central bankers? And that they actually would listen…but of course if you are a puritan or what I termed a believer on Calvinist economics then you don’t have to listen because all you want it just doom and pain to punish all the evil speculators.

 

 

 

17 Comments
by Lars Christensen on October 21, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Economic and monetary history, euro crisis, Monetary policy, New Casselian economics, The Great Depression
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Posted by Lars Christensen on October 21, 2011

https://marketmonetarist.com/2011/10/21/our-monetary-ills-laid-to-puritanism/

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