Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Are Central Banks Crazy Enough to Think Helicopter Money is the Answer?

Interest-Rates / Quantitative Easing Jul 27, 2016 - 04:04 PM GMT

By: Rodney_Johnson

Interest-Rates

Central banks around the world have a common problem. They are failures. For the past eight years, central bankers worked tirelessly to generate economic activity. They pushed interest rates below zero and printed trillions of dollars.

And yet, the IMF recently cut its global growth forecast again.

Most economies are stuck in neutral while threats such as the debt crisis in Europe and deflation in Japan keep growing. Now central bankers are talking about a new tool – helicopter cash (free money distributed by a government agency). It won’t work either, but don’t expect that to stop the bankers from trying!


If sort-of free money drove economic growth and inflation, Japan would be on fire. In 1999, government officials created a plan to distribute $6 billion free to qualifying families and the elderly. Averaging about $170 in coupons, residents received coupons that they could spend at local establishments for goods and services, but not cash.

The program provided a brief economic bump, but quickly faded. The problem was that no one expected the free money to keep flowing. It was “once-and-done.”

We tried the same thing in the U.S.

In 2008, President Bush, working with a Democratic Congress, gave qualifying Americans a tax rebate capped at $600 per person, or $1,200 per household. The money flowed during the spring and early summer, and then the economy plummeted.

I’m not suggesting the small program in Japan, and certainly not the tiny tax rebate in the U.S., could have altered the course of economic history. The problems back then were simply too big to address with small amounts of cash distributed among millions of people. The same is true today.

The Japanese population is dying off. Companies keep older workers employed even when there is no work, which stifles upward mobility and kills productivity. European countries have a host of problems, including aging populations, rigid workforce rules, and banks loaded with non-performing loans.

The U.S. is in better shape than most, but we are in the worst economic season. The older generation, which has the money and the best jobs, wants to save for retirement. The younger generation wants to spend, but doesn’t have the cash.

A dose of free money will solve none of these issues. But that doesn’t mean such programs would not have an effect.

Taxpayer funds provided the kick in Japan in 1999 and the U.S. in 2008, so the cash programs implemented by the governments weren’t truly “helicopter money.” Today, the discussed programs would come from the central banks, either directly… or indirectly.

This small difference would have huge consequences, not because of the immediate effects, but because of how it would change perceptions.

Currently central banks still have a modicum of credibility, at least when it comes to maintaining the value of their currency. Their logic might be tortured, like in the Eurozone, but they’ve shied away from printing money simply to prop up governments or support populations.

This frayed but resilient thread keeps up the illusion that money remains scarce, and therefore has value. Once central bankers cut that thread, there’s no limitation on how far they can go in their efforts to drive economic change.

If a $20 billion plan in Japan, or $200 billion plan in the U.S. or Europe, doesn’t do the trick, what would the bankers do next? Admit that their logic was flawed and look for another way to address their problems, or double down… then triple down… then, well, you get the picture.

Citizens, investors, or anyone else tied to a currency subject to a helicopter-money program would instantly be fearful of serial cash printing and giveaways, and therefore long-term devaluation of their holdings.

The prudent move would be to exit the currency as quickly as possible. That might sound wonderful to a country like Japan, or even the U.S., where weaker currencies and inflation pressures would be welcome, but too much of anything is poisonous. There is no way to put the free-money genie back in the bottle. No one in their right mind would trust central bankers to self-regulate or admit failure.

In this sense, helicopter money is the nuclear option. It is without precedent in developed nations, has had disastrous effects in smaller economies when used to prop up governments, and there is no way to curb such programs once they begin.

So far, officials in Japan and elsewhere claim they aren’t seriously considering such moves. But that’s what they said about negative interest rates in years past. Let’s hope for our own sake that this time around they stick to their word.

Rodney

Follow me on Twitter ;@RJHSDent

By Rodney Johnson, Senior Editor of Economy & Markets

http://economyandmarkets.com

Copyright © 2016 Rodney Johnson - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Rodney Johnson Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in