Recession of 2009: Difference between revisions

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==The policy response==
==The policy response==
Massive financial support to their banks in the closing months of 2008 by the governments of the industrialised  countries averted a threatened  collapse of the international financial system, but failed to restore the supply  of credit to businesses and householders, and further action was taken to tackle the growing recession. In a departure from accepted practice, the governments of the G20 group of major economies agreed to use [[fiscal policy]] in order to stimulate demand by tax cuts and increases of public expenditure. Supportive action was also taken by the major central banks by  making massive reductions in their  ''discount rates'',  followed - in a further departure from accepted practice -  by  injections of liquidity into their economies, mainly  by the purchase of securities from their private sectors (''quantitative easing'' or ''credit easing''<ref>[http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20090113a.htm) Ben Bernanke: ''The Crisis and the Policy Response'', Speech at the London School of Economics, January 13, 2009]</ref>).
Massive financial support to their banks in the closing months of 2008 by the governments of the industrialised  countries averted a threatened  collapse of the international financial system, but failed to restore the supply  of credit to businesses and householders, and further action was taken to tackle the growing recession. In a departure from accepted practice, the governments of the G20 group of major economies agreed to use [[fiscal policy]] in order to stimulate demand by tax cuts and increases of public expenditure. Supportive action was also taken by the major central banks by  making massive reductions in their  ''discount rates'',  followed - in a further departure from accepted practice -  by  injections of liquidity into their economies, mainly  by the purchase of securities from their private sectors (''quantitative easing'' or ''credit easing''<ref>[http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20090113a.htm Ben Bernanke: ''The Crisis and the Policy Response'', Speech at the London School of Economics, January 13, 2009]</ref>).


==The economic recovery==
==The economic recovery==

Revision as of 08:32, 15 October 2009

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(The title of this article reflects the fact that the full intensity of the recession did not develop until 2009 and the fact that recovery was incomplete at the end of that year

Downturns in economic growth rates were apparent early in 2008, and the subsequent intensification of the financial crash of 2008 led to a general expectation of worse to come. The resulting loss of confidence by investors and consumers contributed further to the severity of the reduction in world economic growth, and it was apparent by the end of 2008 that the economies of the United States and several European countries had for some time been in recession. An impending collapse of the international financial system was averted by policy actions introduced in the winter of 2008, but credit availability had been only partly restored by the spring of 2009.

Sources

Sources of statements in this article are provided on its subpages. Economic statistics not otherwise referenced appear on the Tutorials subpage. Events in particular regions are summarised - with links to sources - on the Addendum subpage and a sequential list of principal events - with links to further information - appears on the Timelines subpage.

Definitions of terms shown in italics, are provided in the glossary on the Related Articles subpage

The downturn

Throughout the period from mid-2007 to mid-2008, the growth of the world economy was hampered by increases in oil and food prices, and by a crisis in the financial markets. Oil prices rose from $75 to $146 a barrel and food prices rose sharply, forcing householders to cut their spending on other products. On the financial markets, the subprime mortgage crisis developed into the crash of 2008, as a result of which the availability of credit to households and businesses was curtailed, leading to further reductions in household spending and business investment. In the nine months to the middle of 2008, the advanced economies had grown at an annual rate of only one per cent (compared with two and a half per cent in the previous nine months) and the growth rate of the developing economies had eased from eight per cent to seven and a half per cent. According to the OECD [1] the US economy was by then already facing substantial difficulties. Households had borrowed at an unprecedented rate during the previous 15 years, and their saving rates had fallen nearly to zero as they increasingly relied on housing wealth to finance consumption. With the housing market suffering the severest correction for 50 years, household wealth was declining, and with credit conditions getting tighter, households had been forced to reduce their reliance on borrowing, and job losses and mortgage foreclosures were rising.

The prospects of a recession in the United States and of substantial reductions in economic growth elsewhere were becoming apparent when the world economy was hit by another shock. The failure of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in September raised doubts about the creditworthiness of major global financial institutions, and the ensuing banking panic threatened a collapse of world’s financial system. Attempts by banks to restore their capital adequacy, resulted in capital hoarding, and the resulting liquidity shortage (or credit crunch) undermined consumer and business confidence, and triggered a further contraction in demand. Falls in demand, together with credit shortages led to a massive reduction in world trade.

Many industrialised and developing countries suffered reductions of economic activity. Economies with relatively large financial sectors - such as those of Britain and Iceland - suffered directly from the banking crisis. Economies with relatively large export sectors - such as those of Japan and Germany and many developing countries - suffered indirectly from the reduction in world trade. There were widespread increases in unemployment. Budget deficits grew during the downturn, mainly as a result of the operation of automatic stabilisers and, to a lesser extent, as a result of discretionary fiscal policy, and the levels of debt owed by the governments of the industrial governments were forecast to rise to an average of 120 percent of gdp by 2014.

The policy response

Massive financial support to their banks in the closing months of 2008 by the governments of the industrialised countries averted a threatened collapse of the international financial system, but failed to restore the supply of credit to businesses and householders, and further action was taken to tackle the growing recession. In a departure from accepted practice, the governments of the G20 group of major economies agreed to use fiscal policy in order to stimulate demand by tax cuts and increases of public expenditure. Supportive action was also taken by the major central banks by making massive reductions in their discount rates, followed - in a further departure from accepted practice - by injections of liquidity into their economies, mainly by the purchase of securities from their private sectors (quantitative easing or credit easing[2]).

The economic recovery

Although in purely technical terms the recession ended in several countries in the summer of 2009, levels of activity remained substantially below normal levels and there was considerable uncertainty about future prospects. In view of a continuing credit shortage, there were few expectations of an early return to pre-recession growth rates, and there were some fears of a long period of near-stagnation such as that suffered by Japan during the period 1990 to 2005. The American economist Paul Krugman argued that what happened in Japan may have been due to a reluctance to spend on the part of householders impoverished by collapses of housing and stock market bubbles[3], and the Japanese economist, Richard Koo applied the term "balance sheet recession" to a situation in which companies as well as householders reduce spending in order to repay debts and rebuild reserves[4]. Reports of increases in household saving ratios in the United States[5] and Britain[6] tended to add to those fears, but it has been argued that Japan's experience is unlikely to be repeated by the United States or the other indebted economies because their bubbles were proportionately smaller, their banks tend to be more profitable, and prompter action has been taken to recapitalise their banks[7].

Fiscal recovery

There was general a recognition in the industrialised countries that levels of national debt had reached unsustainable levels and medium-term plans to reduce them were being formulated in the course of 2009.

The policy debate

Overview

A conflict about fiscal policydeveloped towards the end of 2008 between those who feared that the proposed expansion would be insufficient to counter growing output gaps - and those who considered fiscal expansion to be unnecessary or ineffective. Among the first group were the Nobel prize-winners Paul Krugman [8], and Joseph Stiglitz [9]. Among the others were the Chicago School's Eugene Fama, and a group of eminent British economists who argued that "occasional slowdowns are natural and necessary features of a market economy" and that "insofar as they are to be managed at all, the best tools are monetary and not fiscal ones"[10]. Further controversy developed in the course of 2009 between those who favoured reductions in national debt in the course of 2010 in order to avert fears of sovereign default, and those who advocated the continuation of fiscal expansion until the recovery was firmly established.

Fiscal policy

The consensus view

By October 2008, policy-makers in most industrialised countries had accepted that in order to avoid the development of persistent and unmanageable deflation such as occurred in the Great Depression, early corrective action would have to be taken, going beyond the necessary restoration of activity in the financial system. Most countries had long abandoned the use of reductions of taxation and increases in public expenditure to ward off economic downturns in favour of the use of interest rate reductions [11], but there were doubts whether monetary policy would be sufficiently powerful, or sufficiently quick-acting in view if the severity and imminence of the current deflationary threat. In the United States, in particular, the federal interest rate had already been reduced to 1 per cent - leaving little scope for further reductions, and banks there and elsewhere had become reluctant to pass on central bank reductions of interest rates.

The consensus view among economists, as expressed by the Chief Economist of the OECD was that :

Against the backdrop of a deep economic downturn, additional macroeconomic stimulus is needed. In normal times, monetary rather than fiscal policy would be the instrument of choice for macroeconomic stabilisation. But these are not normal times. Current conditions of extreme financial stress have weakened the monetary transmission mechanism... In this unusual situation, fiscal policy stimulus over and above the support provided through automatic stabilisers has an important role to play[12].

The International Monetary Fund noted that fiscal policy can quickly boost spending power, whereas monetary policy acts with long and uncertain lags [13], and a 2009 IMF Staff Position Note demonstrated that an internationally coordinated programme of fiscal expansion, combined with accommodative monetary policies, could have significant multiplier effects on the world economy [14]. However, the IMF also advised that fiscal expansion could do more harm than good in heavily indebted countries such as Japan and Italy stimulus, and suggested that further expansion should be confined to countries with more modest levels of national debt, such as the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, and the United States [15]. After some early misgivings, the case for fiscal expansion gained near-universal political acceptance, and by early 2009, nearly all the G20 countries had introduced fiscal stimulus programmes [16].

In 2009, as signs of impending recovery began to emerge, the debate about the future of fiscal policy was resumed and, although there was general recognition of the eventual need for an offsetting fiscal contraction, views differed about the timing of such action. In October 2009 the IMF cautioned against haste:

"Notwithstanding already large deficits and rising public debt in many countries, fiscal stimulus needs to be sustained until the recovery is on a firmer footing and may even need to be amplified or extended beyond current plans if downside risks to growth materialize"[3].

The outcome of that debate in most industrialised countries was a decision to postpone further fiscal expansion unless and until the need became apparent, and to develop medium-term plans for fiscal contraction in 2011 and beyond [17].

Objections

Professor Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago argues that consumers do not respond to tax cuts because of awareness that they will eventually be paid for by tax increases (the argument known to economists as Ricardian Equivalence). He also argues that all forms of fiscal stimulus are ineffective because they merely move resources from private investment to government investment or from investment to consumption, with no effect on total current resources in the system or on total employment [18] (the argument known as crowding-out). Others have argued that the danger of incurring unsustainable debt [19], makes fiscal stimulus a risky option, especially for countries with high levels of national debt. There is also a danger that even relatively modest levels of debt can become unsustainable if investors perceive a risk of default on its repayment, because they would then add to the problem by adding a risk premium to the interest rates needed to finance the debt. Another objection arises from the fear that expansionary fiscal and monetary policies would not be reversed in time to avoid inflation (that objection was expressed by the economist Allan Meltzer [20] in the same issue of the New York Times in which the economist Paul Krugman was advocating a further stimulus in order to avert the danger of deflation [21]).

Monetary policy

Ben Bernanke has explained the increases in the money supply resulting from quantitative easing may be expected to lead investors to rebalance their portfolios, reducing yields on long-term assets and thus stimulating economic activity[22]

[23].

[24]

[25][26] [27]

The ECB's security purchases amount to 0.6 percent of the Eurozone's Gross Domestic Product, compared with 9 percent in Britain and 12 percent in the United States.

Prospects

References

  1. Economic Survey of the United States, OECD December 2008
  2. Ben Bernanke: The Crisis and the Policy Response, Speech at the London School of Economics, January 13, 2009
  3. Paul Krugman's fear for lost decade, Interview with Will Hutton, The Observer, Sunday 14 June 2009
  4. Richard Koo: The Age of Balance Sheet Recessions, What post-2008 USA, Europe and China can learn from Japan 1990-2005, Nomura Research Institute, March 2009
  5. U.S. Household Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter 2009-16; May 15, 2009
  6. Quarterly National Accounts briefing note, 2009 Quarter Two, National Statistics Office
  7. A special report on the world economy, The Economist, Oct 1st 2009
  8. Paul Krugman The Obama Gap, New York Times blog 8 January 2009
  9. Joseph Stiglitz "How to Fail to Recover", Project Syndicate, 2009.
  10. Keynesian Over-spending Won't Rescue the Economy", Letter by IEA economists in the Sunday Telegraph, 26 October 2008
  11. For an account of the reasons for use of interest rates for economic stabilisation, see the paragraph on monetary policy in the article on macroeconomics, and for a description of the techniques that are employed, see paragraph 3 of the article on banking., and in other
  12. Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel: A Long Recession" ,Editorial to OECD Observer No 270, December 2008
  13. Fiscal Policy as a Countercyclical Tool, IMF World Economic Outlook, Chapter 5 , October 2008
  14. Charles Freedman, Michael Kumhof, Douglas Laxton, and Jaewoo Lee: The Case for Global Fiscal Stimulus, IMF Staff Position Note SPN/09/03, International Monetary Fund, March 6 2009
  15. Mark Horton and Anna Ivanova: "The Size of the Fiscal Expansion: An Analysis for the Largest Countries", IMF Fiscal Department Note, February 2009
  16. Eswar Prasad: Assessing the G-20 Stimulus Plans: A Deeper Look, Brookings Institution May 2009
  17. "The State of Public Finances: Outlook and Medium-Term Policies After the 2008 Crisis" IMF March 6 2009
  18. Eugene Fama: Bailouts and Stimulus Plans January 2009
  19. The conditions for fiscal sustainability are set out in paragraph 4.1 of the article on national debt [1]
  20. Allan Meltzer: Inflation Nation, New York Times op-ed, 3rd May 2009
  21. Paul Krugman: Falling Wage Syndrome, New York Times op-ed, 3rd May 2009
  22. Ben Bernanke: Conducting Monetary Policy at Very Low Short-Term Interest Rates, Paper presented to the American Economic Association at San Diego, California, January 3, 2004
  23. Charles Bean: Quantitative Easing: An Interim Report, Speech to the London Society of Chartered Accountants London, 13 October 2009
  24. Ben Bernanke: The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet: An Update, Federal Reserve Board Conference on Key Developments in Monetary Policy, Washington, D.C. October 8, 2009
  25. Bertrand Benoit Ralph Atkins: Berlin breaks the unwritten rule, Financial Times, June 2 2009
  26. Tony Barber: Merkel derides the Bank of England’s “little line”, Financial Times Brussels Blog, June 5, 2009[2]
  27. Claus Vistesen: Quantitative Easing à l´ECB, Global Economy Matters, May 2009