Bailing out the U.S.
“The Quiet Coup“, an article published in The Atlantic, is written by a former chief economist of the IMF that compares the troubles of developing countries it has had to bail out in the past to the troubles the US is currently facing. The systemic problems underlying the two different types of countries are more similar than you would instinctively think:
In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). In each of those cases, global investors, afraid that the country or its financial sector wouldn’t be able to pay off mountainous debt, suddenly stopped lending. And in each case, that fear became self-fulfilling, as banks that couldn’t roll over their debt did, in fact, become unable to pay. This is precisely what drove Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy on September 15, causing all sources of funding to the U.S. financial sector to dry up overnight. Just as in emerging-market crises, the weakness in the banking system has quickly rippled out into the rest of the economy, causing a severe economic contraction and hardship for millions of people.
But there’s a deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interestsfinanciers, in the case of the U.S.played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against them.
Top investment bankers and government officials like to lay the blame for the current crisis on the lowering of U.S. interest rates after the dotcom bust or, even betterin a “buck stops somewhere else” sort of wayon the flow of savings out of China. Some on the right like to complain about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or even about longer-standing efforts to promote broader homeownership. And, of course, it is axiomatic to everyone that the regulators responsible for “safety and soundness” were fast asleep at the wheel.
In its conclusion, the article points out that the difference between the US and developing economies is that the US’ privileged position in the world makes the necessary reforms that much harder. There’s something to be said about getting the dead wood out of the financial system. And there’s a disconcerting feeling that frittering away more funds and shovelling more IOUs on the growing mountain of debt in a rejuvenatory move whose effectiveness is questionable is the wrong path to take.
The conventional wisdom among the elite is still that the current slump “cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.” This view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depressionbecause the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big. We face a synchronized downturn in almost all countries, a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems for government finances. If our leadership wakes up to the potential consequences, we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of the old elite. Let us hope it is not then too late.
The article is almost 7000 words long, but it’s worth a read.
10:56am (GMT -8.00) 
