Liquidity Trap In monetary economics, a liquidity trap occurs when the economy is stagnant, the nominal interest rate is close or equal to zero, and the monetary authority is unable to stimulate the economy with traditional monetary policy tools. In this kind of situation, people do not expect high returns on physical or financial investments, so they keep assets in short-term cash bank accounts or hoards rather than making long-term investments. This makes the recession even more severe. In normal times, the monetary authority (usually a central bank or finance ministry) can stimulate the economy by lowering interest rate targets or increasing the monetary base. Either action should increase borrowing and lending, consumption, and fixed investment. When the relevant interest rate is already at or near zero, the monetary authority cannot lower it to stimulate the economy. The monetary authority can increase the overall quantity of money available to the economy, but traditional monetary policy tools do not inject new money directly into the economy. Rather, the new liquidity created must be injected into the real economy by way of financial intermediaries such as banks. In a liquidity trap environment, banks are unwilling to lend, so the central bank's newly-created liquidity is trapped behind unwilling lenders. The liquidity trap theory applies to monetary policy in non-inflationary depressions. The theory does not apply to fiscal policies that may be able to stimulate the economy. Milton Friedman suggested that a monetary authority can escape a liquidity trap by bypassing financial intermediaries to give money directly to consumers or businesses. This is referred to as a money gift or as helicopter money (this latter phrase is meant to call forth the image of a central banker hovering in a helicopter, dropping suitcases full of money to individuals). Political considerations make it difficult for a monetary authority to grant the money gift, because individuals and firms not receiving free money will exert political pressure.
It made benchmark interest rate remains low. Then the excess liquidity made the asset bubble. Finally, the burst of asset bubble thumped the financial system. (Pierpaolo,B and Woodford,M, 2003)
Livingston, James. Origins of the Federal Reserve System : money, class, and corporate capitalism. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1986
The economic business cycle of the world is its own living and breathing entity expanding and contracting with imprecise balances involving supply and demand. The expansions and contractions also known as booms and recessions support a delicate equilibrium of checks and balances, employment and unemployment. The year 1929 marked the beginning of the downward spiral of this delicate economic balance known as The Great Depression of the United States of America. The Great Depression is by far the most significant economic event that occurred during the twentieth century making other depressions pale in comparison. As a result, it placed the world’s political and economic systems into a complete loss of credibility. What transforms an ordinary recession or business cycle into an authentic depression is a matter of dispute, which caused trepidation among economic theorists. Some claim the depression was the result of an extraordinary succession of errors in monetary procedure. Historians stress structural factors such as massive bank failures and the stock market crash; economists hold responsible monetary factors such as the Federal Reserve’s actions when they contracted the currency distribution, and Britain's attempt to return their Gold Standard to pre-World War parities. Subsequently, there are the theorists such as the monetarists, who presume that it began as a normal recession, however many policy errors by the monetary establishment forced a reduction in the money supply, which worsened the economic condition, thereby turning the normal recession into the Great Depression. Others speculate that it was a failure of the free market or a failure of the government in their efforts to regulate interest rates, slow the occ...
According to the Austrians, each depression follows a “boom-bust” cycle caused by multiple errors in economic decision-making. Rothbard explains these common features as a “cluster of errors.” The “boom” of a depression is a time of wasteful investment. This is caused by banks loaning out money at too high a rate. As newly acquired funds pour into businesses, businesses believe the supply of funds for investment has greatly increased and the interest rate falls. Businesses invest this money at a higher rate in the capital goods market, as they have been “tricked” into believing there has been an increase in saving by the consumer. Soon this bank caused inflation will trickle down the economy in the form of higher wages. The consumers, who have not actually increased their preference for saving, rush out to by consumer goods. The investment in capital goods by businesses turns out to be a waste.
...s evasive when it came to monetary exchange and its effects. Money tends to make the reasonable, unreasonable at times. We see evidence of this everyday as people are corrupted by money.
Since the onset of the Federal Reserve we have not gone into a major depression, and over a course of time there will be times when our economy will peak and boom and the Fed will feel that it is time to slow the economy by raising the rates.
Before we begin our investigation, it is imperative that we understand the historical role of the central bank in the United States. Examining the traditional motives of this institution over time will help the reader observe a direct correlation between it and its ability to manipulate an economy. To start, I will examine one of its central policies...
In economics, a recession occurs when there is a slowdown in the spending of goods and services in the market. A recession causes a drop in employment, GDP growth, investment, as well as societal well-being. All recessions are caused by a specific cause, but the Great Recession of 2007-2009 was caused by a crash in the housing market. This crash was triggered by a steep decline in housing prices. All of a sudden, people bought houses because there was an excessive amount of money in the economy and they thought the price of houses would only increase. (Amadeo, 2012). There was a financial frenzy as the growing desire for homes expanded. People held a lot of faith in the economy and began spending irrationally on houses that they couldn’t afford. This led to overvalued estate and unsustainable mortgage debt. (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012).
In the study of macroeconomics there are several sub factors that affect the economy either favorably or adversely. One dynamic of macroeconomics is monetary policy. Monetary policy consists of deliberate changes in the money supply to influence interest rates and thus the level of spending in the economy. “The goal of a monetary policy is to achieve and maintain price level stability, full employment and economic growth.” (McConnell & Brue, 2004).
The term Monetary policy refers to the method through which a country’s monetary authority, such as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England control money supply for the aim of promoting economic stability and growth and is primarily achieved by the targeting of various interest rates. Monetary policy may be either contractionary or expansionary whereby a contractionary policy reduces the money supply, reduces the rate at which money is supplied or sets about an increase in interest rates. Expansionary policies on the other hand increase the supply of money or lower the interest rates. Interest rates may also be referred to as tight if their aim is to reduce inflation; neutral, if their aim is neither inflation reduction nor growth stimulation; or, accommodative, if aimed at stimulating growth. Monetary policies have a great impact on the economic stability of a country and if not well formulated, may lead to economic calamities (Reinhart & Rogoff, 2013). The current monetary policy of the United States Federal Reserve while being accommodative and expansionary so as to stimulate growth after the 2008 recession, will lead to an economic pitfall if maintained in its current state. This paper will examine this current policy, its strengths and weaknesses as well as recommendations that will ensure economic stability.
Another problem prior to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System was the inelasticity of bank credit and the supply of money. Small banks placed their excess reserves in large central reserve banks. Whenever a bank’s depositors wanted their funds, the smaller banks would be covered by the central banks. The system worked well during normal conditions. Some banks would draw down on their reserves as other banks would be building up their reserves. In times of excessive demand, however, the problem became quite serious. When the public wanted large amounts of currency, the
The Federal Reserve use several tools like discount rate, federal funds rate, required reserve ratio and open market operations to control the money supply. In the simulation, the effect of controlling the money supply on the economy was presented. Typically, releasing money into the system results in higher Real GDP and lower unemployment. On the other hand, it also raises inflation.
When an economy is in a recession the government has to act differently in order to increase demand and help businesses survive. The money supply method of the monetary policy is a good idea in theory but because of the current economic crisis, banks don’t feel secure enough to lend out there money as the return isn’t guaranteed.
Whereas Milton Friedman argued that consumption is related to permanent rather than current income. He was therefore more sceptical about he usefulness of a tax change for stabilisation purposes than one who believes that consumption depends on current disposable income. Policy makers usually use Fiscal policy to alter the level, timing or composition of government expenditure and/or the level, timing or structure of tax payments. And they use Monetary policy to alter the supply of money and/or credit and also to alter interest rates. But some policies are not always successful; a good example was the decision to use monetary policy to solve the liquidity trap.
These two policies use to try to shorten recessions. Fiscal policy has its initial impact in the goods markets, then monetary policy has its initial impact mainly in the assets markets, which both effect on both level of output and interest rates. (R. Dornbusch et al., 2008)