The Next Financial Crisis: Like A Patient At High Risk Of Heart Attack, The World Economy

[eric pebble]

The next financial crisis

Like a patient at high risk of heart attack, the world economy is likely to crash and burn again if it keeps gorging on debt

"How can policymakers be so certain that financial catastrophe won't soon recur when they seemed to have no idea that such a crisis would happen in the first place?

The answer is not very reassuring. Essentially, there is still a risk that the financial crisis is simply hibernating as it slowly morphs into a government debt crisis."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...ial-crisis-debt

Edited September 14, 2009 by eric pebble

[interestrateripoff]

Our models show that even an economy that is massively overleveraged can, in theory, plod along for years, even many decades, before crashing and burning. It all boils down to confidence and co-ordination of expectations, which depend, in turn, on the vagaries of human nature. Thus, we can tell which countries are most vulnerable, but specifying exactly where and when crises will erupt is next to impossible.

A good analogy is the prediction of heart attacks. A person who is obese, with high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterol, is statistically far more likely to have a serious heart attack or stroke than a person who exhibits none of these vulnerabilities. Yet high-risk individuals can often go decades without having a problem. At the same time, individuals who appear to be "low-risk" are also vulnerable to heart attacks.

............

We are constantly reassured that governments will not default on their debts. In fact, governments all over the world default with startling regularity, either outright or through inflation. Even the US, for example, significantly inflated down its debt in the 1970s, and in the 1930s debased the gold value of the dollar from $20 per ounce to $34.

For now, the good news is that the crisis will be contained as long as government credit holds up. The bad news is that the rate at which government debt is piling up could easily lead to a second wave of financial crises within a few years.

Pure guessonomics at it's best.

We are building up even more problems for the future just so long as the sh1t doesn't hit the fan now.

[Blue Peter]

Simon Johnson is good on this as well:

Economic Donkeys

G20 Prospects

What should we expect from the Pittsburgh summit on September 24-25? “Nothing much†seems the most likely outcome. The leadership of industrial countries does not want to take on the big banks, and the technocrats have contented themselves with very minor adjustments to key regulations (“dinky†is the term being used in some well-informed circles.) The G7/G8/G20 is back to being irrelevant or, worse, mere cheerleaders for the financial sector.

Overall, the global economy begins to recover, but the crisis created huge lasting costs for many poorer people in the US and around the world. Recovery without financial sector reform and reregulation sows the seeds for the next crisis. The precise timing of crises is always uncertain but the broad contours are clear – just like many emerging markets over past decades, the US, Europe, and the world economy look set to repeat the boom-bailout cycle. This will go on until at least until one or more major countries goes completely bankrupt, or until a real financial reform movement takes hold either among technocrats or more broadly politically – and the consensus then shifts back towards the kind of much tighter financial regulation that was established after the last major global fiasco in the 1930s.

Peter.

[Injin]

Simon Johnson is good on this as well:

Economic Donkeys

G20 Prospects

Peter.

That merits a new thread, imo.

Would you kindly do the honours?