'We're rapidly Approaching the 10-year Anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis. Exactly one decade ago to the day (September 7, 2008), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into government receivership. And for at least a decade, there has been nothing more than talk of reforming the government-sponsored-enterprises.
It's worth noting that total GSE (MBS and debt) Securities ended Q3 2008 at $8.070 TN, having about doubled from year 2000. The government agencies were integral to the mortgage finance Bubble - fundamental to liquidity excess, pricing distortions (finance and housing), general financial market misperceptions and the misallocation of resources. GSE Securities did contract post-crisis, reaching a low of $7.544 TN during Q1 2012. Since then, with crisis memories fading and new priorities appearing, GSE Securities expanded $1.341 TN to a record $8.874 TN. Of that growth, $970 billion has come during the past three years, as financial markets boomed and the economy gathered momentum. A lesson not learned.
Scores of lessons from the crisis went unheeded..
..
I've never viewed the 2008 fiasco as a "failure of the free markets." It was instead an abject failure of policymaking - of government policy and central bank doctrine and methods. At its roots, the crisis was the inevitable consequence of unsound money and Credit - finance that over time became increasingly unstable specifically because of government intervention and manipulation. "Activist" central banks were manipulating the price of finance and the quantity and allocation of Credit, along with increasingly heavy-handed interventions to backstop dysfunctional markets.
The crisis was a predictable failure in inflationism. Sure, it's reasonable to blame the reckless behavior of Wall Street. But risk-taking, leveraging, speculation and chicanery were all incentivized by policy measures employed to inflate both asset prices and the general price level.
Instead of crisis focusing attention on the root causes of perilous financial and economic fragilities, it was a panicked backdrop conducive to only more egregious government and central bank intervention. Rather than exhaustive discussions of the roles played by "The Maestro's" "asymmetric" market-friendly policy approach, Bernanke's pledge of "helicopter money," and central bank "puts" in inflating the Bubble, Dr. Bernanke was the superhero figure with the smarts, determination and academic creed to reflate the securities markets for the good of humanity. It was a grand illusion: Enlightened inflationism was viewed as the solution - and not the core problem that it was. And inflationists - including the FT's Martin Wolf - cheered on zero rates, Trillions of QE and the resulting inflation of the greatest Bubble in human history.
..
..Yet post-crisis inflationism has only widened the gap between real economic investment and the easy returns available from asset inflation, securities trading and financial engineering.
It's very much a minority view. But I believe we'd be in a much better place today had we not reflated the previous Bubble. It was a mistake to aggressively promote securities market inflation, once again incentivizing financial speculation; once again favoring the Financial Sphere over the Real Economy Sphere. Such favoritism specifically favors segments of the economy and population over others. The ongoing financial incentive structure foments financial and economic instability (ensuring a more outlandish and protracted cycle of central bank inflationism).
..
..the current backdrop sure seems late cycle - "permanent plateau" - manic wishful thinking to me. This whole buy and hold and ignore risk delirium - the product of decades of "activist" central banks jamming too many "coins in the fuse box" - espoused by the great market oracle Warren Buffett - is a trap. It's been awhile since investors have experienced a protracted bear market. Central bankers have too quickly come to the markets' defense. The next crisis could prove much more difficult to manage. Long-term investors, convinced to hold tight, may find it's a long time before they see these securities prices again.
The way I see it, a lot of faith has been placed in enhanced bank supervision, larger bank capital buffers and the almighty power of "whatever it takes" central banking. But despite the propaganda, irresponsible bank lending was not the root cause of 2008 fragilities. It was dysfunctional financial markets, replete with mispricing, misperceptions, rank speculation, leverage and resource misallocation. It was a massive and unwieldy derivatives marketplace. It was the view that the securities and derivatives markets were too big to fail - that central banks could ensure uninterrupted liquid and robust markets.
And this is where critical lessons went unlearned and, as a consequence, where danger lurks today. From my vantage point, all the previous key forces fomenting latent fragilities are greater today than a decade ago. From a global perspective, unsound "money" and Credit back in 2008 appears pristine in comparison. And if you think populism, nationalism, socialism and mayhem are on the rise, just wait until this global Bubble bursts.'
- Doug Noland,
Approaching the 10-year Anniversary, September 8, 2018
Context'..the Bubble .. it is decidedly global .. So long as confidence holds at the "core" and speculation runs unabated..''..valuations like 1929, 2000, and today .. Very deep market losses are likely, even in the absence of a recession.'(Banking Reform - English/Dutch) '..a truly stable financial and monetary system for the twenty-first century..'