Author Archives: Menzie Chinn

SVB, SIFIs, Dodd-Frank, EGRRCPA, HQLA and the LCR

One major question posed by recent events is whether the issues SVB faced would’ve been caught had EGRRCPA not been passed (which raised the threshold for what qualifies as a SIFI). Bill Nelson at the Bank Policy Institute has an illuminating post arguing that the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), which would have applied to SVB had it been classified an SIFI, would not have been triggered. People like former Senator Toomey (a cosponsor of the 2018 act) have asserted that the LCR wouldn’t have caught SVB. Here’s the logic I think he, and others, is relying on.

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“So China is now paying us billions of dollars in tariffs”

That’s economist Trump in 2018, as cited in Coy (2018). Now, from USITC “Economic Impact of Section 232 and 301 Tariffs on U.S. Industries” (page 22), a conflicting assessment.

The Commission’s econometric model estimates that tariffs under  sections 232 and 301 resulted in a nearly one-to-one increase in prices  of U.S. imports following the tariffs. This implies that a 10 percent ad  valorem tariff raised the price of U.S. imports from China by about 10  percent. This nearly complete pass-through (meaning that prices  received by exporters were largely unaffected and prices paid by U.S. importers increased by the same amount as the tariffs) is unusual but has been similarly found by other recent studies, which conclude that U.S. importers have borne almost the full burden of section 301 tariffs.

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