A presentation held by Mr Huw Pill, Chief European Economist at Goldman Sachs, at the high level seminar "Towards a sustainable financial system" hosted by the Stockholm based think tank Global Challenge in cooperation with London School of Economics and The Swedish House of Finance on September 12th 2013.
Huw Pill - The risks with excessive money creation
1. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 1
Huw Pill
Chief European Economist
Huw.Pill@gs.com
+44 20 7774 8736
Goldman Sachs International
September 2013
Goldman Sachs Research
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
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The risks with excessive money creation
2. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 2
Central bank balance sheets have been
expanding rapidly during the financial crisis …
Source: Federal Reserve, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14
assets, % of GDP
FED
ECB
BoE
BoJ
3. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 3
… but while base money growth has been
significant, broad money expansion is modest
Source: Federal Reserve, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Euro area Japan UK US
% change since Aug-2007
Monetary base
Broad money*
* M3 in the Euro area, M4 in the UK, M2 in the US
4. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 4
Distinguishing central bank instruments
• Monetary policy:
– Interest-on-reserves policy (interest rate level);
– Liquidity management (stock of ‘reserves’).
• Credit policy (composition of central bank asset holdings)
risk of (quasi-) fiscal activities of central banks …
Goodfriend (2012): “the correct way to think of central bank credit policy is a
debt-financed fiscal policy”
5. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 5
Textbook definitions
Source: EcPol10
Monetary policy,
e.g. quantitative easing
Credit policy,
e.g. extending maturity of LTRO
6. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 6
Liquidity measures are benign.
Efficacy of non-standard measures
7. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 7
Efficacy of non-standard measures
‘Credit’ measures are effective because of their (quasi) fiscal nature.
But there are limits: when these are reached, there are consequences
in terms of outlook for price stability because fiscal dominance
takes hold.
8. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 8
Central Bank NPV of Seigniorage Fiscal Stance (end-2011)
α = 0.5 α = 1 Debt level Deficit
ECB EUR 1.4 tn EUR 2.5 tn EUR 6.3 tn EUR 305.5 bn
FED USD 1.5 tn USD 2.7 tn USD 11.0 tn USD 1,259.5 bn
BoJ JPY 142 tn JPY 259 tn JPY 612.6 tn JPY 41,489.1 bn
BoE GBP 67 bn GBP 122 bn GBP1.2 tn GBP 103.0 bn
With
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook, GS EWA 11/35
Numerical examples of quasi-fiscal capacity of
central banks …
9. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 9
Estimates of capitalised value of non-inflationary monetary income
are large …
… but this is not ‘manna from heaven’.
Credit measures imply a pre-emption /
diversion of monetary income …
10. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 10
The alchemy of the Outright Monetary
Transactions programme …
Default
risk
premium
High
sovereign
yield
Fiscal
position
unsustain-
able
Elevated
credit risk
No
default
risk
premium
Low
sovereign
yield
Stronger
fiscal
position
Eliminate
credit risk
‘Bad’
equilibrium
OMT
‘Good’
equilibrium
Central bank issues
put options on
sovereign debt
11. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 11
… involves solving a coordination failure in the
private sector
Central bank rhetoric alone can shift to a new (and Pareto-superior)
focal point.
ECB accepts credit risk in an ‘off-balance sheet’ form through
writing derivative contracts (put options on peripheral sovereign
debt) …
… but that risk ‘disappears’ in the new equilibrium.
12. Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research 12
Summing up …
• Central bank’s are banks.
• Focus should be credit quality of their asset portfolio.
• If that deteriorates (and they are not adequately compensated),
then their balance sheet may no longer ‘add up’ …
… implying ‘fiscal dominance’ and ultimately inflation.
• This is not inevitable …
… but the main danger is that central banks assume more
and more responsibility and ultimately tries to solve problems it
cannot.
• Focus on the quality of assets, not the quantity of money
creation.