Public Policy Brief: It Isn'T Working

The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Public Policy Brief

No. 105, 2009
IT ISNTWORKING
Time for More Radical Policies
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ISSN 1063-5297
ISBN 978-1-931493-99-4
3 Preface
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou
4 It Isnt Working
ric Tymoigne and L. Randall Wray
21 About the Authors
Contents
The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College 3
Preface
The Obama administration has implemented several policies to
jump-start the U.S. economy. Two core premises are that mon-
etary measures are required to strengthen the financial system
before the rest of the economy can recover, and that most major
banks have a temporary liquidity problem induced by malfunc-
tioning financial markets. The administrations efforts have largely
focused on preserving the financial interests of major banks.
Research Associate ric Tymoigne and Senior Scholar L.
Randall Wray believe that maintaining the status quo is not the
solution, since it overlooks the debt problems of households and
nonfinancial businessesre-creating the financial conditions
that led to disaster will set the stage for a recurrence of the Great
Depression or a Japanese-style lost decade. They recommend a
more radical policy agenda, such as federal spending programs
that directly provide jobs and sustain employment, thereby help-
ing to restore the creditworthiness of borrowers, the profitabil-
ity of firms, and the fiscal position of state and federal budgets.
The authors describe the leveraging of income and equity by
households, firms, andfinancial institutions as the underlying cause
of the crisis. As the level of risky assets on the banks balance sheets
rose, the rate of profit in the finance, insurance, and real estate sec-
tors accelerated. According to HymanP. Minsky, banks with higher
leverage and profit rates must grow faster in order to maintain a
certain level of profitability. History shows that lending against
expected increases inasset values is almost always a recipe for trou-
ble. Since leverage is highly procyclical, an unconstrained financial
system will tend toward explosive growth during a boom. The
notion that legislated capital requirements (such as those inherent
in the Basel agreements) can constrain growth and risk is, there-
fore, flawed. And the argument that the U.S. government had to
inject capital andget the badassets off the books inorder toencour-
age banks to lend again is nonsensical. More lending, say the
authors, is not a solution to excessive leverage and debt.
There has been a long-term trend toward nonbank finan-
cial institutions (the shadow banking sector) and the origi-
nate to distribute model. The public scolding of banks for not
providing credit is misplaced, since the shadow sector is
shrinking balance sheets and cutting off credit. The market wants
more deleveraging because of solvency risks, not liquidity prob-
lems, so there will be no sustainable recovery until these debts
are reduced and incomes begin growing again.
While Washingtons focus is on the staggering government
debt and unsustainable fiscal deficits, the real concern should be
the debt level of the private domestic sector. It is important to
recognize that government debt is low relative to the size of the
U.S. economy, and deleveraging in the private sector cannot hap-
pen without an expansion of the government deficit. Otherwise,
there is risk of a full-blown debt-deflation process. The current
approach of the financial institutions that created the mess is to
discourage loan renegotiations and modifications because pre-
venting resolution is more profitable, based on the money to be
made by squeezing debtors with fees and penalties. This explains
why current policies have failed to keep people in their homes.
And the promise to create three million new jobs when there are
already 9.5 million fewer jobs than at the start of the downturn
indicates that current efforts are grossly insufficient. The finan-
cial bailout has crowded out more sensible spending policies.
The authors maintain that the governments programs will
not work unless they deal with the core issue: many financial insti-
tutions are probably insolvent and should not be saved because
they forma barrier to sustainable recovery. Policy should downsize
the trade- and fee-driven financial sector, reduce monopoly power,
increase supervision and regulation (and restore proper under-
writing), and favor small, independent financial institutions. Policy
should also support countercyclical government employment
programs such as those created under the NewDeal, help house-
holds to restructure their finances and remain in their homes,
and reallocate commitments that favor the financial sector.
As always, I welcome your comments.
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, President
October 2009
Public Policy Brief, No. 105 4
It Isnt Working
Introduction
With employment numbers dropping rapidly, the finances of
state governments, households, and businesses worsening, and
highly leveraged financial institutions overwhelmed by a moun-
tain of legacy assets, the Obama administration has had a lot
to deal with in its first few months in office. Unfortunately, like
the Bush administration before it, the Obama teamappears to be
trying to re-create the bubbly financial conditions that led to dis-
aster. This tack is not likely to succeed, and it is displacing poli-
cies that might actually prevent a recurrence of the Great
Depression. Even if the $23.7 trillion the federal government has
so far allocated in the form of spending, lending, and guarantees
does preserve the status quo, we believe it will merely set the stage
for anotherbiggerfinancial crisis a few years down the road.
This is why we recommend an abrupt change of course and the
pursuit of a more radical policy agenda.
Instead of trying to revive the productive economy, most of
the recovery effort so far has consisted of CPR for Wall Street.
Fearing what it might find if it actually examined the books of
financial institutions in detail, the administration put a chosen
handful through a wimpy stress test after announcing that
none would fail. Rather than closing massively insolvent institu-
tions, Washington continues to allow them to conduct business
as usual, and to show questionable profits so that they can pay
out big bonuses to the geniuses who created the toxic waste that
brought on the crisis.
In short, current policy serves to preserve the interests of
big financial companies rather than to implement government
programs that would directly sustain employment and restore
state finances. To make matters worse, the Obama administra-
tion is already preoccupied with paying for additional spend-
ing through tax hikes, or through spending cuts elsewhere. It
does not appear to be willing to let the fiscal position of the fed-
eral budget grow as needed to meet current challenges. We sus-
pect the balanced-budget craziness will get worse during the next
election seasonmuch as President Roosevelts 1936 campaign
tied him to fiscal tightening that threw the economy back into
depression in 1937.
The U.S. economy is crushed by massive indebtedness in the
financial and household sectors, so maintaining the status quo is
not a solution. Proposals to relieve debt burdens by encouraging
lenders to renegotiate mortgages have failed miserably, and per-
sonal income is falling at a terrifying rate. Already, 6.5 million
people have lost their jobs, including 500,000 in June 2009 alone.
The administrations promise that the stimulus package will cre-
ate 3.5 million jobs over the next two years is unsatisfying in the
face of these challenges.
We need federal government spending programs to provide
jobs and incomes that will restore the creditworthiness of bor-
rowers and the profitability of firms. We need a swift and detailed
investigation of financial institutions balance sheets, and reso-
lution of those firms found to be insolvent. We need to downsize
financial institutions that are too big to fail while putting in
place new regulations and supervisory practices to lessen the
possibility of system fragility as the economy recovers. We need
a package of policies to relieve households of intolerable debt
burdens. And, given that the current crisis was fueled in part by
a housing boom, we need to find a way to deal with the over-
supply of homes and high vacancy rates that are driving down
real estate values and increasing the social costs for communi-
ties. And weve got to rein in the money managers that seemto be
dictating policy.
How Did We Get Here?
In a word: leverage. There are different kinds of leverage, and we
used them all. Income was leveraged by households and by firms
in order to take on more debt. For the past dozen years, scholars
at the Levy Institute have been warning about the consequences
of a practically unbroken deficit spending spree, as evidenced by
exceptionally high debt-to-income ratios (see the following sec-
tion). Many financial institutions leveraged equity using highly
complex proprietary models to assess risk and expand balance
sheets to the maximum extent under the capital requirements of
Basel II. They also leveraged safe, liquid assets (e.g., reserves and
Treasuries) and increased the level of risky assets as a proportion
of their balance sheets. Banks moved assets off balance sheet and
into special purpose vehicles in order to avoid capital require-
ments. Overall, there was an increase in financial sector layer-
ing, as the nominal value of financial assets and liabilities grew
much faster than GDP. Indeed, the debt of financial institutions
grew much faster than other private sector debt.
We could say that the FIRE (finance, insurance, and real
estate) sector leveraged the rest of the economy, as its employ-
ment and profits not only expanded but also accelerated (the sec-
tor received 40 percent of the nations profits before the bust).
Recent revisions to the U.S. national accounts show that
Americans spend more on financial services and insurance (8.2
percent of personal consumption, or $832 billion annually) than
on food and beverages consumed at home (7.9 percent). In 1995,
that pattern was reversed (7.2 versus 9 percent). While we prefer
not to get into a sterile argument about productive versus
unproductive labor, it appears in retrospect that the FIRE sec-
tor has played an outsized role in recent years (like the tail wag-
ging the economys dog). All efforts are aimed at keeping leverage
high, while the Federal Reserve (Fed) and Treasury try to get
banks to lend againas if another debt bubble were the cure for
an ailing economy.
As Hyman P. Minsky argued, banking is an unusual profit-
seeking business because it is based on very high leverage ratios.
Further, banks serve an important public purpose, so they have
access to the lender of last resort (the Fed) and government guar-
antees. Those guarantees provide cheap and virtually unlimited
credit in the form of insured (bank) deposits. Because creditors
(depositors) will not lose if the banks fail, they feel little need to
supervise bank activities (i.e., there is no market discipline).
The banks, in turn, can increase profits on equity by raising the
return on assets under a given capital ratio and by reducing the
ratio of capital to assets (increasing leverage). These actions
increase the risk but can dramatically raise profitability without
upping the amount of capital at risk, since the government
insurer will absorb any equity losses on bad assets.
Minsky (2008) provided a simple example. Consider a bank
with $25 billion in assets, $1.25 billion in capital, $187.5 million
in profits after taxes, and an allowance for loan losses. Its asset-
to-capital (or leverage) ratio is 20, its return on assets is 0.75 per-
cent, and its profit on equity is 15 percent (20*0.75). Assume that
the banks rival also has $25 billion in assets and earns $187.5
million in profits but its equity is $2.085 billion, for a leverage
ratio of 12. While the rival earns the same return on assets, it
earns 9 percent on equity. It can increase profits either by earn-
ing more on assets (by taking on riskier assets, all else equal) or
by increasing its leverage ratio (by acquiring more assets against
its larger capital base). Note that the disparity in profitability due
to the difference in leverage ratios is dramatic: if the rival
increases its leverage to 20, it expands its assets to $41.7 billion
and its profits to $312.75 million, which is equivalent to the
profit rate of 15 percent enjoyed by the other bank. Using the
same amount of capital, the rival bank increases its loans and
deposits by $16.7 billion, while its owners total exposure to losses
remains at $2.085 billion. However, the government insurers
exposure increases by $16.7 billion.
As Minsky also noted, simple arithmetic shows that banks
with higher leverage and profit rates must grow faster to main-
tain a certain level of profitability, especially when shareholders
impose a specific return-on-equity target. Assuming a dividend
payout ratio of one third, banks earning a 15 percent profit rate
will accumulate capital at a 10 percent annual growth rate. To
maintain a leverage ratio of 20, asset and deposit liabilities must
increase by 20 times the increase of capital each year. Moreover,
assets will have to grow at an even faster rate if the return on
assets increases under a given leverage ratio, or if the bank increases
its leverage ratio. Both of these events are likely in a boom, and
this explains why an otherwise unconstrained financial system
will tend toward explosive growth. Indeed, a recent paper by
economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of NewYork shows that
leverage in the financial system is highly procyclical, since assets
relative to equity expand during a boom and decline during a
bust (Adrian and Shin 2009). The notion that legislated capital
requirements such as those promulgated by Basel II can tightly
constrain growth and risk is flawed.
What if a bank discovers that, after increasing its leverage
ratio, a lot of its new loans are going bad? Assume that one out
of eight loans turns out to be toxic waste, so that the banks
equity disappears (and leverage has approached infinity!). One
strategy is to patiently rebuild capital through retained earnings
(assuming the banks other assets remain profitable). A more
aggressive strategy would be tobet the bank by making riskier
loans in the hope of recouping losses. The option chosen by
management will depend on the firms incentive structures as
well as regulatory and supervisory practices, and overall expec-
tations. If managements performance is closely scrutinized and
pay structures are tied to short-term performance, management
will likely choose to hide losses and pursue a higher risk/return
path. Strict capital requirements combined with lax oversight
makes this response even more probable, as management tries
to rebuild capital before the regulatory agencies discover the
losses and close the institution. The savings and thrift industry
reacted to insolvency in this way in the 1980s, and indeed, the
regulators in the Reagan administration encouraged them to do
just that (Black 2005).
tained by lowering either credit or underwriting standards. If
income grows at a 4 percent pace, the ability to service debt can-
not grow at orders of magnitude above that pace. Yet, high and
rising leverage means that financial institutions must growfaster,
and that is partly the reason that a greater share of GDP and
profits was captured by the FIRE sector (Tymoigne 2009c).
But the situation is much worse than indicated by these
examples. In the early 1980s, thenFed Chairman Paul Volckers
high interest rate policy killed the thrifts, and we transitioned to
a market-based financial system. To be sure, there already was
a long-term trend away from commercial banking and toward
nonbank financial institutionswhat is now known as the
shadowbanking sector.One illustration of this transition is the
originate to distribute model, where institutions originate
loans that serve as collateral for securities sold in markets (Wray
2007, Minsky 2008). Jimmy Stewarts thrift (as portrayed in the
1946 film Its a Wonderful Life) was replaced by a high stakes
casino where everyone in the home finance food chain tacked
on fees for services: mortgage brokers, banks and thrifts that
originate loans, as well as property appraisers, accountants, title
insurers, rating agencies, lawyers, mortgage and security insurers
(including credit default sellers), and security brokers and deal-
ers. Whatever was left of the homeowners principal and interest
payments was parceled out to various tranched securities held
by money managers for their clients.
This is why former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsons argu-
ment that government had to inject capital and get the bad assets
off the books in order to encourage banks to lend again was non-
sensical. Loan losses and lack of capital are not a barrier to lend-
ing; rather, they can encourage rapid growth of risky loans. More
lending is not a solution to excessive leverage and debt!
In any event, there is always an incentive to increase leverage
ratios and improve the return on equity. Assuming that the cap-
ital ratio is 5 percent and that banks can finance their earnings
position by issuing government-guaranteed liabilities, then $95
out of every $100 gambled is effectively the governments money
(in the form of insured deposits). In the worst case, the banks
will lose $5 of their own money, but if the gamble pays off, they
keep all of the profits. Imagine walking into a casino and the gov-
ernment giving you $95 to gamble for every $5 you spendand
you get to keep all of the winnings. What would you do? You
would play for high stakes of course! So, if subjected only to mar-
ket forces, profit-seeking behavior under such incentives would
be subject to many, and frequently spectacular, bank failures. The
odds are even more in the favor of speculators if the government
adopts atoo big to failstrategyalthough exactly howthe gov-
ernment chooses to rescue which institutions will determine the
value of that put to the banks owners. This is why guarantees
without close supervision are bound to create problems.
While the Basel agreements were supposed to increase cap-
ital requirements, the ratios were never high enough to make a
real difference, and the institutions were allowed to assess the
riskiness of their own assets for the purposes of calculating risk-
adjusted capital ratios. If anything, Basel I and II contributed to
financial fragility and the collapse of the global financial system.
In lieu of closely regulated and supervised financial institutions,
effective capital requirements need to be very highmaybe 100
percentto discourage excessively risky behavior, and risk
assessments must be performed at arms length by neutral par-
ties. We used to have a policy of double indemnity, whereby
owners were personally liable for twice the amount of a banks
losses. That provision, plus prison terms for managers convicted
of any unlawful activities, would perhaps provide the proper
constraints. Failing that, the only solution is to constrain bank
practices, such as the types of assets and liabilities that are
allowed on the banks books.
Supervisors should always be wary of rapid growth, which
has proven to be a predictor of insolvency. Since there is always
a limited supply of creditworthy borrowers, rapid growth is sus-
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Bank Credit
Loans and Leases in Bank Credit
Securities in Bank Credit
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Figure 1 Bank Credit at All U.S. Commercial Banks,
200009 (in billions of dollars)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Source: Federal Reserve (Series H.8)
Asimilar transformation occurred throughout the financial
system, so leverage had to be very high (30, or even 300) to meet
return-on-equity goals. Since competition reduced returns,
leveraged money sought progressively riskier assets; hence, low
docs, no docs, and NINJAloans. A2003 flier sent to brokers from
a mortgage company tells it all: Did You Know NovaStar Offers
to Completely Ignore Consumer Credit! (Morgenson 2007b).
We now know the outcome, and its not pretty.
Leverage is a beautiful thing on the way up, and a disastrous
thing on the way down. In our earlier example, reducing leverage
from 20 to 12 would require the rival bank to unwind $16.7 bil-
lion in loans (40 percent of its balance sheet). In the crisis that
began in August 2007, most deleveraging took place off of the
banks books, for two reasons. First, it is difficult to delever bank
deposits and loans because loans are idiosyncratic and therefore
hard to sell. Presumably, loans that appear on a banks books
today are there precisely because they are more difficult to secu-
ritize, and they cannot be recalled because debtors do not have
cash on hand for repayment. Thus, positions can only be unwound
slowly, as loans are repaid or as credit losses materialize.
Second, as highly leveraged institutions subject to some
oversight, banks cannot afford to recognize these losses or to sell
their marketable assets into declining markets. As shown in
Figure 1, bank credit has not declined substantially since the
recession began in late 2007. Rather, it shows an upward trend,
as funding comes from the purchase of private securities rather
than loans, which are also trending upward despite the transi-
tion to a market-based system. However, the shadow banking
sector has greatly reduced its leverage by writing off bad debts
and recognizing losses. Of course, that is just the other side of
the coin in the loss of financial wealth globally. Thus, much of the
public scolding of banks for not providing credit is misplaced.
As shown in Figure 2, it is the shadow sector that is shrinking
balance sheets and cutting off creditfor all previously financed
activities, not just mortgages.
One of the supposed advantages of the market-based model is
that it made illiquid assets (e.g., home mortgages, credit card debt,
andstudent loans) marketable andmore liquid. Unfortunately, that
was only during the boom. When the bubble burst, these assets
became hot potatoes that could be sold only into declining mar-
kets.
1
And, since the assets were held mainly by institutions that
Total Assets
B
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2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
-600
-400
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200
400
600
800
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Figure 2 Change in the Assets of Asset-backed Securities Issuers, 2002-09 (in billions of dollars)
Mortgage Assets
Source: Federal Reserve (Series Z.1)
Other
lowing illustration of commercial real estate losses using com-
mercial mortgage-backed securities based on real-world values
before and after the financial crisis. Suppose an office building in
2006 is expected to generate $600,000 per year and markets are
capitalizing that income flow at a 6 percent rate. The building is
then estimated to be worth $10 million. Further assume that
lenders will accept a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 80 percent, so a
purchaser must put up $2 million to borrow$8 million. The term
of the loan is five years, so the asset position will have to be refi-
nanced. After the crisis, the markets raise the capitalization rate
to 8 percent and lower the LTV ratio to 60 percent. Assuming the
rental income is not affected, the building is nowworth only $7.5
million and the owner can borrow no more than $4.5 million in
order to refinance. Since the owner must pay off the original $8
million loan, he needs to come up with an additional $3.5 mil-
lion. If he cannot find the cash (or if he decides to sell the prop-
erty), then the price of the building falls to between $4.5 million
(the borrowing limit) and $7.5 million (the value determined by
the expected rental income). Thus, moving from a 6 percent
cap, 80 percent LTVto an8 percent cap, 60 percent LTVmeans
that the same rental income results in an asset price depreciation
of 25 to 65 percent. Furthermore, this result could be a lot worse,
because rental incomes will be depressed during a crisis, along
with expectations of further real estate price depreciation.
This exemplifies the downside of a market-based systemand
was one of the primary reasons for the intervention undertaken
by Washington, when the Fed and Treasury confronted the liq-
uidity crisis by extending deposit insurance; guaranteeing, lend-
ing against, and even buying commercial paper, asset-backed
commercial paper, and mortgage-backed securities; opening the
discount window to some shadow banks; and handing bank
charters to investment banks so that they would have access to
insured deposits. The government guarantee meant that there
would be no haircut, so it acted effectively as a circuit breaker to
stop the normal market process of deleveraging through asset
sales (i.e., by allowing the shadow banks to finance their asset
positions using depositors as creditors).
If the problem had been one of excessive leverage exclusive
to the financial sector, the crisis could have been resolved by get-
ting the financial institutions to accept one anothers liabilities
and refinance their positions in one anothers assets. But the
problem was one of excessive leverage throughout the global
economy, where there was too much lending against prospective
income flows and expected asset appreciation. Although the
mark to market, falling prices triggered more sales to avoid
greater losses, pushing prices even lower, in what Irving Fisher
and Minsky described as a debt-deflation process: the higher
the leverage ratio, the greater the impact when exiting a toxic
asset class.
The panic during this process was made much worse
because financial institutions typically financed their asset posi-
tions by issuing liabilities held by other financial institutions
(rather than to insured depositors). These institutions offered
collateral against the credit extended to them by others, while
creditors allowed a maximum leverage in collateralized borrow-
ing by demanding a haircut. As Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song
Shin (2009) explain, if the haircut is 2 percent, the borrower can
borrow $98 for each $100 of assets pledged as collateral. The
haircut must come out of equity (the borrower can finance only
$98 of its asset position by issuing debt, so $2 must be covered by
capital). That means a maximum leverage ratio of 50 when the
haircut is $2, of 25 when the haircut is $4, and so on. The hair-
cut varies by the riskiness of the asset and over time.
For instance, U.S. Treasuries had a haircut of a quarter of 1
percent before the crisis (a borrower could obtain a loan equal to
99.75 percent of the value of the securities pledged). The haircut
increased to 24 percent for prime mortgage-backed securities
and to 1825 percent for mezzanine level loans. If the average
haircut across a banks assets is 8 percent, then the maximum
leverage ratio is 12.5. By August 2008 (during the severe liquid-
ity crisis), the haircut was raised to 3 percent for U.S. Treasuries,
to 1020 percent for prime mortgage-backed securities, and to
more than 35 percent for mezzanine loans. It rose to as high as
40 percent for high-yield (junk) bonds and 60 percent for asset-
backed securities. Since banks and shadow banks had leveraged
their safe assets during the boom, they were now stuffed with
assets exposed to large haircuts, making it expensive to raise the
credit to finance asset positions. Ultimately, they were forced to
sell their positions, which depressed asset prices further and rein-
forced their leverage problem (IMF 2008). When the entire
shadow banking sector tried to delever, institutions refused to
extend credit to one another except at huge haircuts, and they
tried to sell assets to other institutions that could not finance
positions in the assets they already held. Asset prices subse-
quently collapsed in a self-reinforcing spiral.
A similar process is under way in the commercial real estate
sector. One way to calculate the value of commercial real estate
is the income approach. Malay Bansal (2009) provides the fol-
market wants more deleveraging because of solvency risks
(rather than liquidity problems), Washington wants to prevent it
in spite of excessive debts and collapsing incomes. Although some
scavengers are buying toxic waste at deep discounts, debtors will
not be able to service the debts, and there will not be a sustainable
recovery until these debts are reduced and incomes are growing.
The Debt Problem: Where Is the Problem and How
Big Is It?
As shown in Figure 3, the level of indebtedness of the U.S. econ-
omy is at an all-time high, and well above the debt-to-GDP ratio
on the eve of the Great Depression. In the early 1930s, the nomi-
nal level of debt was three times higher than the value of nominal
GDP; in 2008, it was five times higher.
Even though politicians and commentators have been clam-
oring over the staggering government debt and supposedly unsus-
tainable fiscal deficits, it is the debt level of the private domestic
sector that should be of great concern. The ratio of private domes-
tic debt relative to GDP in 2008 was 3.6, compared to 0.73 for
the government sector (0.53 for the federal government) and
0.58 for government-sponsored enterprises. While the debt prob-
lem is very serious, the concern about the federal deficit and its
effect on the public debt is misplaced. Not only is the govern-
ment debt low relative to the size of the economy, but as a mat-
ter of national accounting, deleveraging in the private sector
cannot happen without an increase in the government deficit.
2
In
addition, if the government deficit does not grow fast enough to
meet the saving needs of the private domestic sector, national
Sources: Carter et al. 2006; National Income and Product Accounts
(NIPA); Federal Reserve Flow of Funds Accounts (from 1945)
Private
Government-sponsored Enterprises
Government
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
Figure 3 Total Financial Liabilities Relative to GDP,
19162008*
R
a
t
i
o
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Figure 4 Total Financial Liabilities Relative to GDP by
Sector, 19162008*
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
R
a
t
i
o
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Sources: Carter et al. 2006; U.S. Census Bureau 1975; NIPA; Federal Reserve
Flow of Funds Accounts (from 1945)
Government
Government-sponsored Enterprises
Private Finance
Nonfinancial Nonfarm Corporate
Noncorporate and Farm
Households and Nonprofit
*Note: Prior to 1945, net public and net private debts are used (as defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census). From 1945 onward, Census data is replicated by using
data about total financial liabilities provided by the NIPA and Flow of Funds Accounts. Data for net public debt is approximated by taking total financial liabilities
for each level of government, and by removing any monetary, life insurance, or pension liabilities (the government sector excludes monetary authorities). Private debt
is computed by starting fromtotal finance total financial liabilities anddomestic nonfinancial sectors total financial liabilities, and by removing some items in order
to get as close as possible to the definition used by the Census Bureau (which excludes monetary instruments and other liabilities of financial institutions). Flow of
Funds Table D.3, Debt Outstanding by Sector, is not used because it underestimates significantly the Census data about outstanding debt available until 1976. The
use of total financial liabilities (once adjusted for the elements that the Census Bureau removed) for each sector does a much better job of tracking Census data and
so allowed a comparison of pre-1945 data with data available from 1945.
years, often trading up to a more expensive house; divorce rates
rose, increasing the burden of mortgage payments (possibly on
two houses); and second mortgages financed college education.
Nevertheless, home prices tended to rise fast enough to accom-
modate these additional burdens.
After the early 1970s, median real wages stagnated, unem-
ployment ratcheted upward, job tenure became less secure, inter-
est rates were increasingly unstable and generally higher, and
adjustable-rate mortgages became commonplace. Household
debt included more auto leases and loans, student loans, medical
debts, cash-out equity loans, and so on. Thus, the growth of debt
and the greater reliance on short-termdebt with adjustable inter-
est ratesand high fees and penaltiesoccurred precisely as the
ability to service debt out of income declined.
This response was frequently justified because of rising asset
values, especially housing, as lenders were blinded by the surging
value of collateral rather than income. History shows that lend-
ing against expected rising asset values is almost always a recipe
for troublewhat Minsky called a Ponzi scheme. If asset values
stop climbing, income falls, or finance costs rise, the debt cannot
be serviced. Yet, there is a natural affinity for market-based
finance to move toward asset-based lending measures. An assets
value includes prospective income flows plus appreciation plus
(in the case of business assets) goodwill. The purchaser and
lender will build in a margin of safety that is largely a function
of asset price volatility.
The belief that we had entered the era of the Great
Moderationmeant that volatility had fallen, so margins could be
reduced. This is a common feature of speculative boomsmass
delusion that we have entered a new economy in which the only
direction is up (recall James Glassman and Kevin Hassetts Dow
36,000 in the late 1990s, or Fishers statement on the eve of the
1929 stock market crash that stock prices have reached a per-
manently high plateau
3
). Further, appreciation and goodwill
grow faster than projected income in an asset price bubble, so a
larger portion of an assets valuation will depend on these
ephemeral sources. Finally, unlike current income that can be
documented, future asset prices depend on expectations that are
subject to whirlwinds of optimism.
Here is the reason why the shift to markets and away from
banks matters. When a commercial bank makes a loan, the loan
officer wonders, Howwill I get repaid?Because the loan is illiq-
uid and will be held to maturity, the ability to repay matters, since
it is prudent to rely on income flows rather than the possible
income will decline and a full-blown debt-deflation process will
emerge, given the size of the private sectors overall debt.
Two specific subsectors in the private sector are a major con-
cern: private finance and households. As shown in Figures 4 and
5, their debt has increased dramatically since the early 1980s (pri-
vate finance) and early 2000s (households). By 2008, the debt-to-
GDP ratios for these subsectors were 1.0 and 1.3, respectively,
accounting for 64 percent of the debt-to-GDP ratio of the private
sector. Nonfinancial corporate debt has grown at a more mod-
erate pace, but it has been augmented recently by a wave of lever-
aged buyouts (IMF 2008).
To be sure, it is not easy to say how much debt is too much
(quality matters as much, if not more, than the quantity of debt).
Debt ratios have been rising since 1960, and the debt-to-GDP
ratio exceeded that reached on the eve of the Great Depression
by the mid 1980s. Howmuch debt can be serviced safely depends
on a number of factors, one of which is the relation between debt
service requirements and the normal source of cash flowfor bor-
rowers. The old postwar home-finance model was based on 30-
year fixed-rate, self-amortizing loans. Interest rates were relatively
low, households did not have much other debt, and incomes were
doubling every generation. Locking in a 30-year fixed payment
meant that the debt service from growing income would fall by
half over the duration of the loan. Of course, it was more com-
plex than this: typically, families kept a mortgage for only seven
0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
Debt-to-Wage Ratio of Households (right-hand scale)
Debt-to-Profit Ratio of Financial Institutions
R
a
t
i
o
R
a
t
i
o
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1
9
3
5
1
9
4
1
1
9
2
9
1
9
4
7
1
9
5
3
1
9
5
9
1
9
6
5
1
9
7
1
1
9
7
7
1
9
8
3
1
9
8
9
1
9
9
5
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
7
Figure 5 Household and Financial Sector Debt Relative to
Their Respective Income, 19292008
Sources: Bureau of Economic Analysis; Carter et al. 2006; NIPA; Federal
Reserve Flow of Funds Accounts (from 1945)
seizure and forced sale of an asset in the distant future, under
unknown market conditions. When an investment bank makes
a loan, the loan officer wonders, How will I sell this asset? The
future matters only to the degree that it enters the assets value
today, since the asset will be sold immediately. Even the buyer
need not worry about the future: when confidence is high and
euphoria reigns, it is easy to sell an asset whose value is dispro-
portionately determined by expected appreciation (and good-
will). The skys the limit: its possible to justify any debt ratio
because it will fall automatically as the asset appreciates.
As late as spring 2007, Fed economists were presenting
papers (e.g., at the Levy Institutes annual Minsky conference)
that denied real estate was overvalued or that there was a credit
bubble because real estate values would continue to rise and val-
idate the debt (the vast majority of economists were in a similar
state of denial). As former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan ration-
alized during the dot-com boom, how can one argue with the
wisdomof tens of millions of market players?
4
John K. Galbraith
(1997) nicely captures the circularity of such group-think: It is
difficult not to marvel at the imagination which was implicit in
this gargantuan insanity. If there must be madness something
may be said for having it on a heroic scale.
Indeed, this was a fundamental reason for the separation of
commercial and investment banking in the aftermath of the
1930s collapse. Under the new rules, commercial banks would
make and hold loans, issuing insured deposits to finance posi-
tions. As loans would be held to maturity, there was no need to
mark to (fleeting) market values. During a bubble, banks were
unable to count asset price appreciation as a source of profits
and equity; nor was it necessary to recognize losses if asset prices
fell. Since the value of most of their liabilities (deposits) did not
fluctuate, the practice of ignoring asset price changes would keep
balance sheets stable. By contrast, investment banks and other
financial institutions were subject to market fluctuationsrec-
ognizing capital gains and rewarding traders with bonuses in
good times, and taking losses and downsizing portfolios in a
bust. The market-based institutions were highly procyclical,
while commercial banks could be much less so.
5
Unfortunately, as we freed commercial banks to become
brokers and dealers in marketed assets, we moved strongly in the
opposite direction, allowing themto leverage government money
(insured deposits) with little supervision. We also allowed them
to use their own complex and proprietary models to value assets
and assess risk. When the financial crisis arrived, we handed bank
charters to the remaining investment banks so that they could
also use government money to speculate in asset markets. This
response represents an ironic completion of the circle, since the
main justification for deregulating commercial banks was to
allow them to compete with the (much more efficient) shadow
banking sector. But when these shadow banks collapsed, we gave
them access to insured deposits so that they could compete with
the banks. We also promoted the consolidation of institutions
that were too big to fail (or rather, too big to supervise), so
that management and owners had nothing to fear: only govern-
ment money was at risk, and government had neither the will
nor the competency to oversee the gambling undertaken by these
institutions.
Such government policies have failed to jump-start Wall
Street, let alone the economy. Debt loads remain excessive, while
income and employment continue to fall, and delinquencies and
foreclosures continue to rise. Even at current, depressed prices,
assets are overvalued and many financial institutions are insol-
vent, holding mountains of toxic waste that will never be worth
anything.
The Response of the Obama Administration
The Obama administration has implemented several policies with
two premises at their core. First, the administration has stated that
the crisis is simply monetary and thus requires monetary meas-
ures to strengthen the financial system before the rest of the
economy can recover (echoing arguments made by Fisher in the
early 1930s). As observed by James K. Galbraith (2009a, 2009b),
the problemis deemed to be no more serious than some clogged
plumbinga bit of Drano in the form of government handouts
andguarantees shouldget credit flowing again. Second, most major
banks are not insolvent but rather have a temporary liquidity prob-
leminduced by malfunctioning financial markets. Market mech-
anisms will restore the true, higher value of legacy assets over
time, and the economy will recover when the banks are healthy.
These two premises have been used to focus most of the
administrations efforts on preserving the financial interests of
major banks. The government has committed at least $23.7 trillion
dollars to support the economythrough the Troubled Asset
Relief Program (TARP), Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and U.S. Treasuryand $2.3
trillion has been spent through June 30, 2009 (SIGTARP 2009a).
Most of this money has been allocated to the financial sector, and
only minimal effort has been made to solve the debt problems of
households and nonfinancial businesses.
At the outset, and under a cloud of secrecy, the Obama
administration allowed Bush-Paulsons TARP to continue help-
ing the financial sector, and the Treasury to continue picking the
winners for government funding (Morgenson and Van Natta
2009). Following an outcry about the slow progress in improv-
ing oversight, the TARP Special Inspector General (SIGTARP)
and the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) were installed in
December 2008. These bodies have been very worried about
fraud, particularly with the extension of TARP programs toward
legacy assets, and have complained about TARPs lack of trans-
parency. They have noted that the Treasuryhas repeatedly failed
to adopt recommendations made by SIGTARP in terms of fund
use and the valuation and performance of TARP assets and Term
Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) borrowers (SIG-
TARP 2009a, 7). SIGTARP has already announced two investi-
gations and is in the process of improving TARP transparency
on its own, without the support of the Treasury.
6
The Capital Purchase Program(CPP) of TARP was followed
by 11 subprograms, of which seven have been directed toward
restoring the profitability and solvency of financial institutions,
and which, along with CPP, account for 77 percent of the $441
billion already used as seed money (SIGTARP 2009a, 37ff.). This
came on top of massive efforts by the Fed, the FDIC, and others
to stabilize financial institutions. Three core plans within TARP
are the Capital Assistance Program (CAP), the Public-Private
Investment Program(PPIP), and TALF. These plans aimto show
the public that banks are solvent and need only temporary assis-
tance because of (temporarily) malfunctioning financial mar-
kets. For example, PPIP was promoted to create a market for
legacyassets. For potential buyers, the programwas highly gen-
erous, since the Treasury and FDICtook most of the risk and lit-
tle of the gains (so much for a market approach). Nevertheless,
the programhas failed, largely because of banks unwillingness to
sell at huge discounts (sometimes as low as 10 cents on the dol-
lar) and thus reveal their deep insolvency. Above all, banks do
not want legacy assets to be valued properly.
PIMCO flirted with the idea of creating a fund that would
allow investors to take positions in toxic waste, before realizing
that this approach could create a public relations nightmare if
the company was seen to be making a profit at taxpayers
expense. Furthermore, if the public bought into the fund and it
then collapsed (because the troubled assets never recovered), the
company would be blamed for bilking investors. More recently,
however, BlackRock, one of the worlds largest publicly traded
investment management firms, rushed into the void by
announcing it would create a cash-for-trash fund capitalized by
the federal government. BlackRock would earn fee income, while
investors as well as taxpayers would earn returns if their bets paid
off. This approach would let the general public share in recovery.
Of course, if the assets continued to depreciate, both the investors
and Uncle Sam would assume the losses.
Previously, BlackRock proposed to do essentially the same
thing under the Master-Liquidity Enhancement Conduit (M-
LEC) superfund scheme. The main difference was that banks
were supposed to assume most of the risk. This superfund never
took off because there were not enough banks willing to back it.
Financial insiders knew that the M-LEC was too small (only $75
billion, when trillions were needed), and no more than a means
of temporarily parking trash in order to avoid massive unload-
ing of toxic assets by the special-purpose vehicles. The continu-
ing failure to find other financial professionals willing to hold
these toxic assets has meant that financial institutions are turn-
ing to Uncle Sam for more cash to burn.
None of these programs has dealt with the core issues at
stake: many financial institutions are probably insolvent and
need to be closed; assets must be analyzed carefully to figure out
potential profits and the true state of financial institutions; and
an investigation must determine the responsibilities of top man-
agers. Although financial markets have stabilized, they remain
heavily supported by the government, and we have not dealt with
the solvency problem. Banks have been posting profits but their
gains come largely fromexceptional cash inflows (such as the sale
of Smith Barney by Citibank), and they still need government help
to make those profits. Goldman Sachs, for example, repaid $10 bil-
lion of CPP money to avoid the executive pay limit but received
$12.9 billionas part of the AIGbailout (Scheer 2009)despite sus-
picions of accounting manipulation(if not fraud) surrounding the
valuationof assets. The April and May USCOPreports clearly illus-
trate the flaw in the Obama administrations approach:
The recently announced Public-Private Investment Fund
focuses directly on the problem of impaired assets; that ini-
tiative reflects the working premise that it is possible through
government-subsidized, highly leveraged asset purchase vehi-
cles to obtain valuations for non-performing or otherwise
troubled assets, sell those assets at those values to willing
buyers, and perhaps avoid the need for the reorganization or
even the break-up of systemically significant financial insti-
tutions. Treasury has not explained its assumption that the
proper values for these assets are their book valuesin the
case, for example, of land or whole mortgagesand more
than their mark-to-market value in the case of ABSs,
CDOs, and like securities; if values fall below those floors,
the banks involved may be insolvent in any event. Treasury
has also failed to explain its assumptions about the economic
events that would cause investors to default or how long it
believes assets will have to be held to produce a reasonable
return for private investors. (USCOP 2009a, 75)
TALF cannot address the creditworthiness issue. It can pro-
vide more funds to the lenders for lending, but asset-backed
securities have never been the source of significant funding
for small businesses. This report raises the question of
whether TALF will have a meaningful impact on small busi-
ness credit. (USCOP 2009b, 4)
In short, the entire array of programs will work only if the
problem is one of temporary illiquidity, not one of excessive
leverage and debt or a legacy of vastly overvalued assets based
on economic scenarios that will never be realized. Given this
inappropriate premise in dealing with financial institution lever-
age, the problems that do exist will remain if the administration
does not change course. Otherwise, the capacity of the U.S. econ-
omy to recover will be constrained and could lead to a Japanese-
style lost decade.
In addition to eight TARP programs and other policies ori-
ented toward bolstering the financial system, several programs
have addressed debt in the nonfinancial sector. However, the total
committed support for the sector is only $887.4 billion, includ-
ing $700 billion in potential guarantees by the FDICand $75 bil-
lion and $8.4 billion, respectively, allocated to servicers and credit
unions for mortgage modification. Of the amount committed,
only $130.4 billion has been spent, through a TARP fund made
available to car producers that includes a $19 billion tax credit
provided by the Housing and Economy Recovery Act of 2008,
and other means (SIGTARP 2009a, 137). Total committed sup-
port for the nonfinancial sector represents just 3.7 percent of the
$23.7 trillion pledged to support the overall economy, and only
5.7 percent of the $2.3 trillion already spent. The rest is allocated
to financial institutions.
The Making Home Affordable (MHA) program, which
expanded the HOPE for Homeowners programput in place dur-
ing the George W. Bush administration, was allocated $50 bil-
lion through TARP, for a total funding allocation of $75 billion.
MHA aims to provide financial assistance to servicers to modify
private-label mortgages and refinance conforming mortgages. In
May 2009, this program was expanded upon by the Helping
Families Save Their Homes Act.
There is a great need for these initiatives. Delinquency rates
are climbing sharply, the result of rising unemployment and,
more significantly, poor underwriting procedures that include
loans to prime borrowers. Figure 6 clearly illustrates that prime
borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) have serious
delinquency rates equivalent to those of subprime borrowers.
Preliminary results for government programs show that
they do not go far enough in dealing with the household debt
problem, with only 235,247 mortgages modified as of July
(USDT 2009). HOPE NOW, a private initiative supported by the
Treasury, the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
and Freddie Mac, was more successful in 2008, when it helped 2.3
million homeowners avoid foreclosure. None of these programs,
however, has been able to keep pace with the rapidly growing
number of foreclosures (Figure 7). There is also mounting frus-
tration among households, who are frequently unable to contact
their servicers. Moreover, interest-rate resets are expected to rise
through 2011 and contribute to sharply rising defaults if nothing
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Subprime Adjustable-rate Mortgages (ARMs)
Subprime Fixed-rate Mortgages (FRMs)
Prime ARMs
Prime FRMs
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
Figure 6 Serious Delinquency among Mortgagors,
19982009 (in percent)
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
substantive is done (IMF 2007, 8). A Deutsche Bank report pre-
dicts that the number of mortgagors who will be underwater will
rise from 27 to 48 percent by 2011, representing approximately
25 million U.S. households that have predominantly
conforming mortgages (most exotic mortgages are already
underwater) (Weaver and Shen 2009).
There are additional concerns about how households are
being helped, since current approaches discourage servicers and
holders of structured securities from renegotiating loans. First,
the rate for redefaults within six months of a loan modification
is expected to reach 30 to 45 percent (Adelino, Gerardi, and
Willen 2009). A 2009 report by the Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
shows that, among two thirds of first-lien mortgages, serious
delinquency (90 days or more past due) reached 36.1 percent
after nine months for loans modified during the first quarter of
2008, and 41.8 percent for loans modified during the second
quarter (OCC and OTS 2009, 29). Loans modified during the
third and fourth quarters were on track to show even worse
delinquency rates. Thus, marginal and temporary loan modifi-
cations will not suffice. We need a significant and permanent
reduction of debt payments, particularly in light of the redefault
rates of second-lien mortgages.
Second, loan modifications may entail large fees and penal-
ties that households cannot afford, and, depending on circum-
stances and state laws, modifying a mortgage might lead to a
change froma nonrecourse to a recourse loanwith even graver
consequences in the case of redefault. Third, these loan modifi-
cations usually occur after the borrower has been delinquent for
a long time. Past policy initiatives such as Project Lifeline pro-
vided a strong incentive to remain delinquent for 90 days by not
considering a loan modification before that time. This response
contributed to higher redefault rates, since the more serious the
delinquency, the less likely the borrower will remain current after
modification (OCC and OTS 2009, 31).
Fourth, financial scams are on the rise. Subprime lenders
are becoming loan modifiers and luring households to pay large
upfront fees with no beneficial result (e.g., a fresh start that is
simply rolling delinquent payments into future debt services) or
for modifications that worsen the households financial situation
(Goodman 2009a). IndyMac proposed a 5-year hybrid, 30-year
term, 8-year graduated payment, 176 percent combined loan-to-
value, mega-balloon, super bendover ARM(Mr. Mortgage 2008).
This loan modification would combine two mortgages for a total
lien of $840,000 on a house worth $470,000, starting with a 3
percent interest rate (for five years) that would rise gradually to
6.25 percent by year nine. The balloon payment would be about
$250,000 at the end of year 30, thereby crushing a debtor with a
heavy financial burden. There is a high probability that the bor-
rower would have to sell the house at the end of the mortgage.
Fifth, securitization prevents loan modifications because
the financial interest in outstanding mortgages is spread among
many different parties. This is especially true for nonconforming
mortgages packaged into private-label MBSs. These limits to
efficient modification are compounded by servicers who have
a fiduciary duty toward the holders of structured securities:
Changing the terms of the mortgages, they contend, can hurt
investors by reducing interest payments. Lawsuits could follow
(Morgenson 2009). As a consequence, the redefault rate is much
higher on securitized mortgages:
Loans held on the books of servicing banks and thrifts had
the lowest re-default rates at 35.06 percent after three
months, and 50.86 percent after six months, compared with
loans serviced on behalf of third parties. The lower re-default
rate for loans held by servicers may suggest that there is greater
flexibility to modify loans in more sustainable ways when
loans are held on a servicers own books than when loans have
been sold to third parties (OCC and OTS 2008, 21).
Nobody seems to know the location of the mortgage deed or
even who holds the deed, often leaving judges with little means
to bring financial troubles to a close (Morgenson 2007a). The
Figure 7 Number of Foreclosures, 19792009 (in thousands)
T
h
o
u
s
a
n
d
s
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
practice of foreclosing without the deed became common dur-
ing the boom, even though it is illegal (Porter 2007).
Sixth, as noted above, servicers have contributed to this
problem by providing marginal modifications, charging dubi-
ous fees, prematurely foreclosing on properties, and engaging in
illegal actions, such as destroying mortgage checks, that have
gone unpunished (Porter 2007, Morgenson 2007c). Katherine
Porter found unsubstantiated fees and missing documentation
for half of the loans she examined, and an Associated Press
(2009) report shows that these problems are extensive among
servicers helped by MHA. Servicers have an incentive to hold out
for a foreclosure rather than renegotiate. Perhaps the real prob-
lemis that the financial institutions that created the mess are pre-
venting resolution because it is more profitable, based on the
money to be made by squeezing debtors with fees and penalties,
to ride out the collapse (Goodman 2009b, UBS 2007).
Mortgage servicers earn revenue in three major ways. First,
they receive a fixed fee for each loan. Typical arrangements pay
servicers between .25% and 1.375% of the note principal for
each loan. Second, servicers earnfloatincome fromaccrued
interest between when consumers pay and when those funds
are remitted to investors. Third, servicers usually are permit-
ted to retainall, or part, of any default fees, such as late charges,
that consumers pay. Inthis way, a borrowers default canboost
a servicers profits. Asignificant fraction of servicers total rev-
enue comes from retained fee income. Because of this struc-
ture, servicers incentives upon default may not align with
investors incentives. Servicers have incentives to make it dif-
ficult for consumers to cure defaults.Mortgage servicers can
exploit consumers difficulty in recognizing errors or over-
charges by failing to provide comprehensible or complete
information. In fact, poor service to consumers can actually
maximize servicers profits. (Porter 2007, 56)
As discussed above, when the thrifts were destroyed in the
1980s, we transitioned to a new market-based home finance
model involving independent mortgage brokers, property apprais-
ers, risk raters, title companies, mortgage insurers, credit default
swap sellers, mortgage servicers, securitizers, accounting firms,
commercial banks, investment banks, and pension funds and
other managed money that ultimately held the securities. In this
originate-to-distribute model, almost everyone who services the
securities lives on fee income rather than on the interest and
principal payments related to mortgages. Of course, this is part
of the reason why no one bothered to check whether homeown-
ers could afford to make their mortgage payments.
It is also the reason that almost no one in the home finance
food chain cares about resolving the mortgage crisisit is far
more profitable if the homeowner cannot or does not make any
payment. When payments cease, the mortgage company that
services the loan makes the payments, which are then distrib-
uted among holders of the securities. In return, the mortgage
company collects its normal servicing fee plus late fees amount-
ing to 6 percent of the monthly payment. Late fees alone can
amount to 12 percent of the total revenue received by loan ser-
vicers. Thus, it is in the interest of mortgage companies to max-
imize the number of delinquencies, as well as the amount of time
that households are delinquent.
When a mortgage is foreclosed, the mortgage servicer has
first claim to the revenue from the sale of the house. According
to a UBS study, foreclosure can take up to two years, and overall
costsincluding paying off the servicercan absorb 90 percent
of the revenue from the sale of the house. This is why total losses
(borne mostly by the securities holders) are so huge even if home
values fall by only 30 percent. Thus, mortgage companies
actively interfere to ensure that homeowners are unable to rene-
gotiate the terms of their mortgages. According to Peter
Goodman (2009b), they prefer purgatoryneither taking con-
trol of houses and selling them, nor modifying loans to give
homeowners a break. They and their subsidiaries accumulate
late fees and are paid for services such as title searches, insurance
policies, appraisals, and legal findings that are recouped upon sale
of the property. This explains why current government policies are
unable to keep people in their homes. In spite of government
offers to pay mortgage companies up to $4,000 to modify a loan,
the companies make more money by driving owners out.
Asimilar story applies to other sectors in the economy, where
financial market participants who helped to create the crisis are
subsequently hired as contractors to deal with the fallout. Thus,
there is more money to be made from a long and deep crisis.
Hence, most of the effort toward solving household debt problems
has focused on refinancing and loan modifications rather than
on sustaining or improving income and creditworthinessand
the effort has failed miserably.
In addition to its major role in helping the financial sector
and its minor role in helping homeowners, the Obama admin-
istration and Congress have provided a $787 billion stimulus
package under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA). Approximately $150 billion is allocated to state and
local governments (and unemployment benefits), while $250 bil-
lion is earmarked for households (tax cuts and some social
spending) and $200 billion is to be used for infrastructure. As of
May 2009, only 6 percent ($50 billion) of the stimulus package
had been implemented, and almost half of this amount went
toward Medicaid costs for state and local governments. The
remainder was paid out in Social Security benefits and unem-
ployment compensation for households.
A total of $80 billion per quarter is to be spent through the
end of 2010, an amount that represents approximately 2.25 per-
cent of GDP. However, first-quarter personal income in 2009 fell
at an 8 percent pace, while the number of hours worked fell by 7
percent in the second quarter. This indicates that the prelimi-
nary GDP numbers (falling at only a 1 percent pace) will be
revised downward. By the end of summer 2009, the United States
had lost about 7 million jobs, versus a gain of 2.5 million new
jobs during a normal expansion of the labor forcea total of 9.5
million fewer jobs than at the start of the downturn. President
Obamas promise to create three million newjobs (and estimates
that the stimulus package will save between 2.5 and 3.5 million
jobs) indicates that current efforts are grossly insufficient.
Much of the talk in Washington is about the unsustainable
budget deficits, so it is unlikely that another stimulus package
will be forthcoming. We believe that this response is due in large
part to the publics fury toward the governments rescue of Wall
Street. In this sense, the financial bailout has crowded out more
sensible spending policies.
Alternative Policy
Using arguments very similar to those made by John Maynard
Keynes in the 1930s, the approach taken by the administration
has been critiqued very thoroughly by many economists who
deny that our problems can be solved by rescuing Wall Street
(e.g., James K. Galbraith and William Kurt Black). In addition,
Wray 2009 provides a detailed set of policies both for the short
run (to deal with the crisis) and for the long run (to build a sus-
tainable economic and financial system). We will not repeat those
arguments here. Rather, we will focus in the broadest terms on
two issues: how can we stimulate recovery, and how can we put
finance into its proper role?
In our view, most administration proposals are fundamen-
tally misguided, since they are based on the twin presumptions
that Big Banks face only a liquidity problem and that, if this
problem is resolved, the economy will recover. We believe these
presumptions are entirely mistaken. The Big Bank problem is
insolvency, and these banks should not be saved because they
forma barrier to a sustainable recovery. Given a chance, they will
resurrect the bubble conditions that led to the current crisis.
The best approach resembles a bankingholiday, where the
largest (19) banking and shadow banking institutions are closed
for a brief period so that supervisors can assess the problems
including uncovering the claims that the Big Banks have against
one another. It is highly likely that such claims represent trillions
of dollars of bad assets (e.g., an examination of AIG uncovered
such linkages when the government bailout of the company
resulted in side payments to the Big Banks and shadow banks).
By consolidating the balance sheets of these types of banking
institutions and netting out such claims against one another prior
to shutting themdown, the collateral damage for the other banks
and shadow banks, as well as the level of government assistance,
will be relatively small. This approach will help to downsize the
financial sector and reduce monopoly power. Moving forward,
policy should favor small and independent financial institutions.
Greater supervision and regulation of the financial sector is
particularly important if were to stop the practices that brought
on the crisis. Based on the absence of regulations in the early
1930s and again in the 1980s, market mechanisms will push
management and owners of insolvent institutions to ramp up
losses, resulting in massive deflation, bankruptcies, and the
destruction of physical assets, in combination with enormously
high unemployment.
7
Social unrest will grow, threatening the
entire socioeconomic system until the debt structure is simplified.
A more effective way to place the economic process on solid
ground is to deal with the underlying cause of the problem: bor-
rowers cannot service their debts. This situation implies sus-
taining incomes and employment, and, if necessary, drastically
modifying the debt-service burden. The boom of the early 2000s
(and, more broadly, the growth process since the early 1980s)
was based on household borrowing and deficit spending.
There are two key ways to alter this approach to economic
growth and stimulate recovery. First, a households main source
of income is employment, which is linked to the state of the
economy. Policy can decouple this link through countercycli-
cal government employment programs such as those created in
the 1930s under the New Deal. In one case, the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) spent $11 billion in its first six years on
construction and conservation projects, and on community serv-
ice programs, employing eight million workers. Meanwhile, the
Civilian Conservation Corps employed 2.75 million workers at
a dollar a day to reclaim government land and forests through
irrigation, soil enrichment, pest control, tree planting, fire pre-
vention, and other conservation projects; and the National Youth
Administration enabled 1.5 million high school students and
600,000 college students to continue their education by providing
part-time jobs. By the endof 1934, more than20 millionAmericans
(one out of six!) were receiving assistance fromtheWelfare State.
8
About 26 million people currently lack a steady full-time
job, and this number is climbing rapidly (Figure 8). Meanwhile,
the desperately unemployed are swayed by employment scams that
promise helpfor a large upfront fee (Richmond2009). Government
employment programs would automatically resolve this kind of
unemployment in the absence of private sector hiring. And, in an
economic upswing, the private sector would subsequently hire
workers out of the government programs. This would strengthen
the automatic stabilizer effect of these programs, since spending
would be countercyclical.
These federal jobs programs should be permanent, since 10
to 15 million people are unemployed or underemployed during
the best of times. In addition, these programs could be struc-
tured to pay a living wage tied to productivity gains, which would
help to restore the purchasing power of households after 35 years
of stagnant real wages. The growth process would be sound
financially, as consumption would grow in tandem with real
wages (and with productivity to avoid inflation).
Employment guarantees, however, are not enough to deal
with the current crisis, since households have accumulated debt
well beyond their means and government employment programs
would pay, on average, lower wages than many households pre-
viously earned. As a result, the jobs programs provide only par-
tial relief of the debt problem, and a need for loan modifications
combined with simpler and less costly bankruptcy proceedings.
Based on past solutions, some economists have suggested a debt
jubileethe cancellation of household sector debtand credit
card companies have begun to use this approach (Streitfeld
2009). We believe that the government should provide incentives
to encourage more financial companies to follow suit.
If borrowers meet their payments, lenders will return to
profitability and some of the securitization processes will be
revived. It may be time to reform the financial system by reduc-
ing the trade-and-fee-driven financial sector, but such a reform
was not suggested by the 2009 Department of Treasury Report,
which is mostly a copy of the 2008 Paulson Report. What is
needed is a return toward term lending by regulated financial
institutions that hold loans and a restoration of incentives to
engage in proper underwriting.
9
(Tymoigne 2009b provides a
detailed critique of recent proposals for financial reform.)
One specific problemwith the current crisis is that it involves
highly desirable long-term physical assets: homes. Traditionally,
debt problems are dealt with by the liquidation or destruction
of borrower assets. Given the high desirability of homes, how-
ever, there should be an alternative method of dealing with excess
supply. Several economists, such as Warren Mosler (2009) and
Dean Baker (2009), have already provided a solution to this prob-
lem. The government would simplify the foreclosure process and
stand ready to buy the homes of distressed mortgagors at current
market value or the value of the mortgage, whichever is less. This
would allow the homeowner to lease the property at a fair rental
price, with an option to buy it back after two years at the pre-
vailing market price. This approach would not only deal with the
excess supply of homes (and put a floor under home prices) but
also help households to restructure their finances while remain-
ing in their homes (a small step in this direction was made
recently; see Merle 2009).
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
.59
.60
.61
.62
.63
.64
.65
Employment-Population Ratio (right-hand scale)
Unemployed, Dissatisfied Underemployed, Marginally Attached, and
Discouraged Workers
Figure 8 Number of Unemployed, Dissatisfied Under-
employed, Marginally Attached, and Discouraged Workers,
19942009 (in millions)
M
i
l
l
i
o
n
s
R
a
t
i
o
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
We need to modify significantly the principal and interest
owed, so that debt servicing becomes possible through the nor-
mal funding of homeowners (i.e., income) for the length of the
loan (meaning, for example, no balloon or teaser payments). The
amount owed should also be modified to account for large neg-
ative equities held by some homeowners. In addition, modifica-
tions should not assume that home sales would be the normal
means of servicing mortgages in the future.
Data showthat the redefault rate is considerably lower when
modification involves lowering monthly payments by 20 percent
or more (e.g., an over-60-days delinquency rate of 37.6 percent
after 12 months, compared to 58.8 percent without any change
in debt payment [OCC and OTS 2009, 32]). However, such pay-
ment modifications do not go far enough, since they may include
future balloon payments or other cost hikes. In addition, all mort-
gages (prime and nonprime) that have unsustainable terms must
be modified, even if borrowers are not currently delinquent.
A major increase in government spending is the only way to
smooth the deleveraging process. As opposed to newmoney, part
of the $20-plus trillion committed to help the financial sector
could be reallocated to finance the programs outlined above. In
any case, the size of the budget deficit is really a red herring, since
a sovereign government can always afford to buy what is for
salewhether unemployed labor, real estate, or toxic financial
assets. And it is not clear that the spending proposed here will
increase the budget deficit, which already exceeds $1 trillion
per year before the stimulus package has fully kicked in. (This is
because the budget deficit is determined endogenously for the
most part.)
There are two ways to obtain large budget deficits: the ugly
way and the virtuous way. We have used the first, destroying tax
revenue caused by a collapsing private sector (much as Japan did
during its lost decade). The virtuous pathis throughthe application
of more aggressive fiscal stimulus that turns the private sector
around and begins to produce more tax revenue, so that large
deficits are short-lived. If we continue down the ugly path and
robust recovery does not begin for many years, there will also be
large budget deficits for many years. While that outcome does not
worry us (in the sense that it cannot make our sovereign govern-
ment insolvent), the outcome in terms of job losses and real suf-
fering of the population does. Thus, it is better to spend on a much
bigger scale nowin order to create jobs and rekindle private sector
growth. If we do that, the budget deficit will shrink and GDP will
grow, while government debt- and deficit-to-GDP rates will fall.
Notes
1. Of course, one may argue that these assets always were
hot potatoes. Loans are illiquid even with securitization.
Asset-backed securities (which are securities issued by special-
purpose entities that are backed by illiquid claims) have
been somewhat more liquid, but many of these still entail
a buy-and-hold strategy because of very thin markets
(Tymoigne 2009c).
2. By identity, the government deficit equals the nongovern-
ment surplus. If the U.S. private sector rebuilds its balance
sheet by spending less than its income, the government has
to spend more than its tax revenue. The only other possi-
bility is that the rest of the world spends massivelyletting
the United States run a current account surplusbut that
situation is highly implausible.
3. See Galbraith (1997, 70). Bernard Baruch presaged
Greenspans cheerleading for the 1990s NewEconomy boom
when he said in June 1929, The economic condition of the
world seems on the verge of a great forward movement.
4. Greenspan might have been channeling the ghost of
Princeton professor Joseph Stagg Lawrence, who remarked
in the summer of 1929: The consensus of judgment of the
millions whose valuations function on that admirable mar-
ket, the Stock Exchange, is that stocks are not at present
over-valued. Where is that group of men with the all-
embracing wisdomwhich will entitle themto veto the judg-
ment of this intelligent multitude? (Galbraith 1997, 70).
The inability of economists to foresee crisis is well known,
but what is less recognized is their inability to face up to
crises even when they are under way. As Galbraith notes, in
November 1929, the Harvard Economic Society (compris-
ing the universitys more conservative economics faculty)
announced,Asevere depressionlike that of 192021 is outside
the range of possibility. We are not facing protracted liqui-
dation (Galbraith 1997, 71). He goes on to note that the
Society reiterated this view over the course of the Great
Depression, until it was itself liquidated.
5. They would of course still be somewhat procyclical, since the
demand for loans as well as creditworthiness moves with the
cycle. But they would not be forced to sell off their loans sim-
ply because asset prices were falling; so long as firms and
households would eventually recover sufficiently to service
debt, the loans could be retained and marked to original value.
6. SIGTARP recently released a report on the use of funds by
financial institutions that used TARP funds; see SIGTARP
2009b.
7. From 1929 to 1931, those deflationary market mechanisms
were reinforced by recessive fiscal and monetary policies
based on the principle that government should get out of
the way. In addition, fiscal and monetary policies were con-
strained by the need to maintain the exchange rate between
the dollar and gold.
8. During the Great Depression, the government hired about
60 per cent of the unemployed in public works and conser-
vation projects that planted a billion trees, saved the whoop-
ing crane, modernized rural America, and built such diverse
projects as the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh, the
Montana state capitol, much of the Chicago lakefront, New
Yorks Lincoln Tunnel and Triborough Bridge complex, the
Tennessee Valley Authority, and the aircraft carriers Enterprise
andYorktown(Auerback 2009, 4). It also built or renovated
2,500 hospitals, 45,000 schools, 13,000 parks and play-
grounds, 7,800 bridges, 700,000 miles of roads, and a thou-
sand airfields. And it employed 50,000 teachers, rebuilt the
countrys entire rural school system, and hired 3,000 writers,
musicians, sculptors, and painters, including Willem de
Kooning and Jackson Pollock. The late Hyman P. Minsky
worked in the WPAas a young economist, estimating Cobb-
Douglas production functions for the future Senator Paul
Douglas (Auerback 2009; NRPB 1942, 34243, notes 4, 5, 8).
9. Recent proposals to make the Federal Reserve the primary
regulator of financial stability are misplaced, since the task
would be given mainly to economists (most of whom
believe in the neutrality of money and have a weak under-
standing of finance and accounting issues), and since the
Fed has a poor track record in terms of handling financial
stability issues. Substantial modifications to the Fed struc-
ture and its analytical framework would have to be imple-
mented before it could become an effective financial stability
regulator (Tymoigne 2009a).
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About the Authors
Research Associate vvic 1sxoicxv is an assistant professor of economics at Lewis &Clark College
specializing in the fields of money and banking, monetary theory, and financial macroeconomics.
He formerly taught at California State University, Fresno. Tymoignes current research agenda
includes the nature, history, and theory of money; the detection of aggregate financial fragility and
its implications for central banking; and the theoretical analysis of monetary production economies.
He has published in numerous academic journals and is a contributor to several edited volumes. His
most recent book is Central Banking, Asset Prices, and Financial Fragility, issued by Routledge in
2009. Tymoigne holds a masters in economic theory and policy fromthe Universit Paris-Dauphine
and a Ph.D., with a specialization in monetary theory and financial macroeconomics, from the
University of MissouriKansas City.
Senior Scholar i. v\xn\ii wv\s is a professor of economics at the University of MissouriKansas
City and director of research at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability. He is currently
working in the areas of monetary policy, employment, and social security. Wray has published
widely in academic journals and is the author of Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies: The
Endogenous Money Approach (Edward Elgar, 1990) and Understanding Modern Money: The Key to
Full Employment and Price Stability (Edward Elgar, 1998). He is also the editor of Credit and State
Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes (Edward Elgar, 2004) and coeditor (with
M. Forstater) of Keynes for the 21st Century: The Continuing Relevance of The General Theory
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Wray holds a B.A. from the University of the Pacific and an M.A. and
a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.

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