One of the debates regarding the current financial crisis is whether in fact there is a crisis, or whether in fact the financial system is operating normally. I’ve been skeptical myself of the “times are normal view”, but here is some evidence that the credit crunch is real. The findings also reinforces my view that un-nuanced reliance on highly aggregated volume statistics (e.g., Chari et al. 2008) is likely to result in misleading inferences (See the rejoinder from the Boston Fed’s economists). From the conclusion to Tong and Wei (2008) ungated version of Tong and Wei:
The other shoe begins to drop
Chrysler LLC, awaiting a federal rescue as its cash dwindles, will shut all 30 of its plants for at least a month starting Dec. 19 as unsold cars and trucks pile up at showrooms.
Ford Motor Co. said it will idle most of its North American assembly plants for the first week of January, while General Motors Corp. said a new factory making engines for the Chevrolet Volt electric car is being delayed to conserve cash.
The cutbacks showed how far automakers are going to save money and prune output in a year in which industrywide U.S. sales are poised to fall to their lowest levels since 1991. GM and Chrysler say they may run out of operating funds in just weeks without emergency U.S. aid.
Quantitative easing
Today’s announcement from the Federal Reserve marks the end of the road for Plan A (fighting the recession by lowering interest rates), and the beginning of … what?
High Frequency Estimates and Forecasts of GDP
High frequency estimates are falling, while consensus forecasts are for a turnaround in 2009H2. First, consider two estimates of GDP released today.
Finding the exit
How you think we might get out of our current economic problems has something to do with how you think we got into them in the first place.
The Global Economic Crisis
Here’s the video from a panel convened by the University of Wisconsin’s Center on World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) on November 20, 2008. Presenting were
Alison Alter, Associate Director of WAGE; Mark J. Ready, Professor of Finance, Investment and Banking; Darian M. Ibrahim, J.D., Assistant Professor of Law; Menzie D. Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics; and Mark S. Copelovitch, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs, and Edward Friedman, Professor of Political Science.
My powerpoint presentation was posted here if one just wants the slides.
John Taylor on the Federal Reserve
Stanford economics professor John Taylor has a new paper in which he takes aim at recent economic policy, and fires with both barrels, concluding that “government actions and interventions caused, prolonged, and worsened the financial crisis.”
Incipient Chinese Yuan Depreciation in Context
Plenty of breathless commentary on how Chinese yuan depreciation against the dollar might trigger conflict. From Barrons:
Reality Check for China
By LESLIE P. NORTON
The currency’s decline could dampen foreign speculators’ enthusiasm
Last week, China’s currency, the renminbi, juddered to its biggest one-day decline against the greenback since Beijing began a managed float in 2005.
Says Win Thin, a currency economist at Brown Brothers Harriman: “The prospect of appreciation is off the table for now.” Morgan Stanley now expects China to depreciate its currency by 5% to 10% in the coming year. The current rate is 6.88 to the dollar.
Predicting the trough and a jobless recovery
Michael Dueker is a senior portfolio strategist at Russell Investments and formerly was an assistant vice president in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Michael is also a member of the Blue Chip forecasting panel.
In early February 2008, Michael submitted a piece to Econbrowser that correctly predicted the onset of the current recession, using a model-based forecast.
We are pleased that that he is now presenting forecasts from the same Qual VAR model concerning the recession’s trough date and the magnitude of a jobless recovery to follow, subject to the disclaimer that the content is the responsibility of the author and does not represent official positions of Russell Investments
and does not constitute investment advice.
Comparing recessions
Last week was a tough one for the optimists.