November 13, 2005

the great debate


here is the main event folks

staged by the WSJ

my boy brad against this wall street  bond merlin hack 

==================


  
 .Dooley  high lites: 


"an economically important bloc of (mostly Asian) countries
 manages exchange rates to promote export growth
 and rapid industrialization"

". Their primary economic problem
 is the rapid assimilation 
of hundreds of millions of workers
 into a modern economy (China)
 or an economic recovery (Japan)"


------ by throwing in japan he escapes 
the south  radius of his june nber paper ...

i wonder if he figures
labor slack inside a north country 
 with its temporary  
 near zero marginal product
 is a good analogue 
to his structural south model ???

seems if so 
then the policy implications
become 
  not just
emerging one offery relevent 
but  emerged  counter cyclical relevent  too 
as in the old beggar thy neighbor  import tarrif games
and competitive devaluation rounds  

i prefer keynes 
 a full employment  fiscal deficit polcy
doesn't lead so obviously
to  global great depressions ---------------



"Asian development policy
 has generated very large purchases 
of international reserves
 and exports of savings to the rest of the world"

------------ no issue here ---------------

" We believe that the U.S. current-account deficit
 is a byproduct of the ability of U.S. households and firms
 to capture and profitably utilize this supply of internationally mobile savings"

---------- low mortgage rates and trans nat super profits 
but how about stagnant north real wages ----------------------

"(this asian sourced) extra supply of savings .... in the U.S
 has reduced long real interest rates by about 1.5 percentage points"

" It would be foolish to pass up such a bargain"

---------- as to this  "baragin"'s benefits
to 'umble  home owners..

isn't it 
 sort of 
 like what  the spider
said  to the fly .....

don't a lay strung out waiting for em
maybe even   at the next step ????

a short run spending  high
leading to 
   long run  stag wage  debt payment  hang over 
on houses with  under water equity ???? ------------------


"The U.S. deficit and low interest rates
 will last as long as Asian savings
 are placed in the international market
 by Asian governments
 and as long as other industrial countries
 are too weak to bid those savings away
 from the U.S."


------------sloppy language here 
"too weak "
isn't the   real point
just as
this  sudden  high wave of "surplus" cash "glut" 
inflowing  from the south 
lowered rates 
a  roll  back out can  raise em
 here and all  over the north 
leaving the hideous high and dry
speared on a real rate of interest no man can stand for 
an  effect
often begging for a compensatory
but easily mis read
  policy shift
 toward  a monetary base explosion ---------- 

" We predict that this will last for a decade
 although the dollar will slowly depreciate 
and U.S. rates will slowly rise
 during this long adjustment period "

------------- this is pure salesmans blither

wheres the demo model ???

why assume soft rates of adjustment
when reality has 
SO VERY OFTEN proves
            to be  a monster
           of  sudden and harsh  swings ????--------------------


" Asian governments will want,
 and be able to, feed international credit markets
 as a part of their development strategy"

--------------that summary boast
            reminds me of a thousand prior  gaffs 
                                             of  narrow  hubris -------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -----us  chicken littles  as dooley puts words in our   mouth ------

" China will overheat, reserve holders will dump dollars,
 and the U.S. will protect itself from low-priced goods"

---------------- what's his point
 inflation a currency run and protectionism
are laughably unlikely ???-----------------

" Moreover, the system will end with a crisis 
a la Argentina by the end of this year."


-------- well here i agree
u know i'd never compare uncle hegemonic
 to a run of the mill southie 
any arguments about the us ad its imperial dollar
require analogues from the annals
of earlier reserve currency states ----------

* * *
-----now u step forth ---------------
 
 Setser writes: 


" the taxpayers of poor Asian countries (above all China) subsidize
 through their central bank's accumulation of dollar reserves
 wealthy consumers in the U.S"

 --------------- some dramatic telescoping here 
the full run of the powdre trail back to the keg
is a way up ahead 
but at least potentially 
this is a "dead on "  reality -------------------------


" You argued that this system was far more stable 
than the naysayers thought and would last for a generation!"

 ----------------- indeed he shows no caution at all
in fact refuses to suggest unckle trim his sails at all ----------------



"no cause to worry if U.S. net external debt --
 that is, the gap between American assets abroad and what the U.S. owes 
the rest of the world -- 
rises from around 20% of U.S. GDP in 2003 
to something like 75% of U.S. GDP in 2013."


------- here i think u need to have something better then too hogh is too high

as in   a precedent  i saw a delong bit
where he claimed the brits prior to 1914
were at ratios "higher"
then your scenario leads to in 10-15 years -----------------------

" that will happen even if the trade deficit stays at around 6% of GDP".

 "By 2013, the current-account deficit,
 which includes interest payments, 
would reach 9% of U.S. GDP
 even if the trade deficit stabilizes"

------- right here u need a comparative --------------------

" it is OK if the U.S. doesn't save
 since the U.S. can outsource saving to Asia for some time"

----------- this does not disentangle the heavy trans nat 
asia headed fdi out flow
from the massive uncle assisted household usury racket 
are we realy
 crowding out domestic investment in productive facilities 
or merely witnessing "the markets "
 trans nats' real  investment choices
which involve going for the higher returns in asia ???--------------
  

"these trends are unsustainable. They imply a lot of external debt
 for a country that doesn't export much.
 And since external debt is ultimately
 a claim on future U.S. exports
, it implies further falls in the dollar"

------this is the heart of your argument

can america earn enough to pay its debts

are we going to rely on a system of studios and labs
and the stream of IP payments
they can earn us
over seas
to pay our  foreign debts ???

of course we have bases over there too
protection and extortion rackets
to compliment our resource and cheap labor extractions 

the key here
is the possible divurgence between
gdp and gnp
if you are an american"property owner"
it might all come out...
"spiffing " --------------------------
                                             -------

" just as Argentina's rising external debt burden
 eventually led to falls in the peso"

------- see above on north south croos over analogies ------------

" Those now lending to the U.S. in dollars
   for long terms at low rates risk large losses"

--------- indeed uncle could run the dollar down
    but we'd have a  pre global  depression  crisis-----------
                



" A collapse in 2006, maybe. A collapse before 2008, likely; before 2010, almost certainly."

----- i'd avoid this short run merlin stuff -------------------
 

.


" even if China and the world's oil exporters
 want to continue to subsidize the U.S.
will  the U.S. be willing to accept the gift.??"

------ i like that line a lot
   free heroin ----------------



" We haven't exactly found a way 
to make sure all parts of the economy
 share equally in this subsidy "

------- this speaks silent volumes ------------------

" Do you all really think China will be able to continue 
to rely as heavily on exports for growth in 2006
     as it did in 2005?"

------ we both know the party bosses know better then that -----------------

* * *
back to 
 
dooley:

" But investors, our primary audience,
 are very short-run oriented "

"-- if they get it wrong
for more than a year or so, they become history"

------ ya but if you get it right for one quater at a time 
 u make them happy
  either way
policy changes to make things optimal
are not like market specs who can make money rain or shine
so long as they beat the stampede in or out
                                       even by only  one step  ---------------

" An elegant long-run theory
 is of no use to us
 if it doesn't have strong predictions
 for the time horizon important to market participants "

------- they needn't worry either way 
their neither peddling elegence or the long view 
just  showing the scam still has legs ---------------

"The key is the link between then and now"


dooley doe setser 
or does he .....???


"Suppose a collapse was "likely before 2008"
 and that that means greater than 50%
 over the next 26 months."

" Moreover the crisis is defined by
 sharply higher U.S. interest rates 
and a mega-devaluation of the dollar"

" If this is the market consensus forecast"

" something has to give now.
 Interest parity demands
 that either yields on dollar assets
 have to be much higher 
to compensate investors for the risk
 of large losses on dollar assets
 or, more likely, investors dump dollar assets
 and the crisis happens now."

"Neither has happened. The market doesn't buy your story -- why not?"

"The market could be wrong"

------- no the market crawls along day by day
 with a few eyes looking out 2 quaters or so --------------


" it is time to focus
 on how the international monetary system 
evolves in the absence of crises" 

----- no its not

to assume way the crisis
is to assume away
the basic modus operandi of the system
as it morphs from one stage to the next in its development ----------


"The trends in debt-GDP ratios you propose 
assume the only adjustment is a crash
 Like recent calculations
 that we are running out of oil,
 such extrapolations make exciting reading
 but they do not capture market dynamics"

------- very poor analogy 
and yet oil prices run up and down
as badly as if they were cycling thru scarcity and glut scares -------

" the incentives that have sustained the system to date
 also provide a smooth convergence
 to a new equilibrium in the long run."

--again just salesmans' words here --------

" Our recent paper sets this mechanism out in detail"

------ not at all 
there is no detail
its  more like a kidnappers note
here's your sons hair lock
etc etc 
it gets the message
across alright 
but 
without revealing the ploteers  where abouts or anything else
of much use to the police  ------


" there will be a very slow but sure
 real devaluation of the dollar
 against the Asian bloc
 and a very slow but sure
 rise in cyclically adjusted real interest rates
 in the U.S. and other industrial countries."

------ the dollar will fall against these east asian currencies
  like it did against the yen....
maybe so
but  i see no proof beyond
assertion
and "well we ain't hit any ice bergs yet "---------------

" As Asian savings become less of a bargain for the U.S.
 there will be a gradual reduction
 in the U.S. current-account deficit"

----- see he thinks the asians offer us a nice exit strategy --------------

" An interesting implication of our approach
 is that, after a large initial appreciation
 of the euro against the dollar,
 this important exchange rate 
will remain relatively stable 
during the long adjustment period"

------ here is another kettle of fish
          the difference
 between the chinese product invasion of north america
and western europe
creating secondary tensions between the US and the EU  ----------------

"There will be bumps along the road "

------ BUT NO CRISIS ???

TOO BAD WE CAN'T PLACE OUR
FINAL  BETS NOW ---------
   
 --------------------------------

" how  can events  we can't yet identify
 deflect us from this underlying adjustment scenario"

------ he really needs to think about that
since his theory 
  is  claiming he doesn't need to ---------------




• Global Balancing Act
October 18, 2005
Dooley : 
"an economically important bloc of (mostly Asian) countries
 manages exchange rates to promote export growth
 and rapid industrialization"

". Their primary economic problem
 is the rapid assimilation of hundreds of millions of workers
 into a modern economy (China)
 or an economic recovery (Japan)"



"Asian development policy
 has generated very large purchases 
of international reserves
 and exports of savings to the rest of the world"


" We believe that the U.S. current-account deficit
 is a byproduct of the ability of U.S. households and firms
 to capture and profitably utilize this supply of internationally mobile savings"

"(this asian sourced) extra supply of savings .... in the U.S
 has reduced long real interest rates by about 1.5 percentage points"

" It would be foolish to pass up such a bargain"


"The U.S. deficit and low interest rates
 will last as long as Asian savings
 are placed in the international market
 by Asian governments
 and as long as other industrial countries
 are too weak to bid those savings away
 from the U.S."

" We predict that this will last for a decade
 although the dollar will slowly depreciate 
and U.S. rates will slowly rise
 during this long adjustment period "

From the start we have predicted that the


" Asian governments will want,
 and be able to, feed international credit markets
 as a part of their development strategy"


 the chicken littles  as dooley puts words in their  mouth 

" China will overheat, reserve holders will dump dollars,
 and the U.S. will protect itself from low-priced goods".

" Moreover, the system will end with a crisis 
a la Argentina by the end of this year."

* * *

 
 Setser writes: 


" the taxpayers of poor Asian countries (above all China) subsidize
 through their central bank's accumulation of dollar reserves
 wealthy consumers in the U.S"


" You argued that this system was far more stable 
than the naysayers thought and would last for a generation!"

 



"no cause to worry if U.S. net external debt --
 that is, the gap between American assets abroad and what the U.S. owes 
the rest of the world -- 
rises from around 20% of U.S. GDP in 2003 
to something like 75% of U.S. GDP in 2013."

" that will happen even if the trade deficit stays at around 6% of GDP".

 "By 2013, the current-account deficit,
 which includes interest payments, 
would reach 9% of U.S. GDP
 even if the trade deficit stabilizes"

" it is OK if the U.S. doesn't save
 since the U.S. can outsource saving to Asia for some time"

I -- and my colleague Nouriel Roubini -- do think t

"these trends are unsustainable. They imply a lot of external debt
 for a country that doesn't export much.
 And since external debt is ultimately
 a claim on future U.S. exports
, it implies further falls in the dollar"

" just as Argentina's rising external debt burden
 eventually led to falls in the peso"

" Those now lending to the U.S. in dollars
   for long terms at low rates risk large losses"



" A collapse in 2006, maybe. A collapse before 2008, likely; before 2010, almost certainly."


 

.


" even if China and the world's oil exporters
 want to continue to subsidize the U.S.
will  the U.S. be willing to accept the gift.??"



" We haven't exactly found a way 
to make sure all parts of the economy
 share equally in this subsidy "


" Do you all really think China will be able to continue 
to rely as heavily on exports for growth in 2006
     as it did in 2005?"

* * *

 
dooley:

" But investors, our primary audience,
 are very short-run oriented "

"-- if they get it wrong
for more than a year or so, they become history"

" An elegant long-run theory
 is of no use to us
 if it doesn't have strong predictions
 for the time horizon important to market participants "

"The key is the link between then and now"


dooley doe setser 
or does he .....???


"Suppose a collapse was "likely before 2008"
 and that that means greater than 50%
 over the next 26 months."




" Moreover the crisis is defined by
 sharply higher U.S. interest rates 
and a mega-devaluation of the dollar"


" If this is the market consensus forecast"

" something has to give now.
 Interest parity demands
 that either yields on dollar assets
 have to be much higher 
to compensate investors for the risk
 of large losses on dollar assets
 or, more likely, investors dump dollar assets
 and the crisis happens now."

"Neither has happened. The market doesn't buy your story -- why not?"

"The market could be wrong"


" it is time to focus
 on how the international monetary system 
evolves in the absence of crises" 


"The trends in debt-GDP ratios you propose 
assume the only adjustment is a crash
 Like recent calculations
 that we are running out of oil,
 such extrapolations make exciting reading
 but they do not capture market dynamics"

" the incentives that have sustained the system to date
 also provide a smooth convergence
 to a new equilibrium in the long run."

" Our recent paper sets this mechanism out in detail"


" there will be a very slow but sure
 real devaluation of the dollar
 against the Asian bloc
 and a very slow but sure
 rise in cyclically adjusted real interest rates
 in the U.S. and other industrial countries."


" As Asian savings become less of a bargain for the U.S.
 there will be a gradual reduction
 in the U.S. current-account deficit"


" An interesting implication of our approach
 is that, after a large initial appreciation
 of the euro against the dollar,
 this important exchange rate 
will remain relatively stable 
during the long adjustment period"

"There will be bumps along the road "

" how  can events  we can't yet identify
 deflect us from this underlying adjustment scenario"

* * *

 




Neither seems to have materialized. This year's U.S. current-account deficit will be far larger than last year's, and next year's budget deficit will be larger than this year's. 



"The nice, slow real depreciation in the dollar against Asian currencies
 needed to bring the U.S. trade deficit down
 in a nice, safe, orderly and relatively pleasant way
 over your extended time frame (30 years, a 1% real depreciation a year?)
 has yet to really start"

" Interest rate differentials now favor the dollar"

. 



"The euro-zone is attracting significant inflows from China
 and the world's oil exporters,
 helping keep euro-zone rates low.
 But rather than generating a continent-wide
 housing boom and a continent-wide consumption boom
 low rates seem to be prompting 
a boom in European capital flows to the U.S"

"part of the answer is that many investors do have short-time horizons.
 To date, no one has made money betting against
 the People's Bank of China in the Treasury market"

". Most seem to expect Bretton Woods II 
will last at least until they get this year's bonus"



Still,
" net private financial flows 
are not large enough to finance a $800 billion-plus U.S. current account deficit"

" with $600 billion or so in global reserve accumulation this year 
   the private sector doesn't have to."


" private investors put about $150 billion
 more into emerging economies last year
 than they took out."

" Emerging economies are financing the U.S.
 because their central banks want to finance the U.S.;
 private investors are quite willing
 to finance the emerging world"

What worries me is that flows to the U.S. -- both private and official -- rest on rather shaky foundations, and as Brad Delong has argued, the markets seem to be pricing in virtually no chance of a bad outcome. Private investors finance the U.S. at low rates because they expect central banks to continue to finance the U.S. -- and even to step up their intervention if private flows falter.


" Since the markets are not demanding any adjustment now
 the underlying imbalances keep getting bigger
 In any standard model
 the bigger the deficit and debt today
 the bigger the needed dollar depreciation tomorrow "




" The amount China has had to spend to keep the yuan from rising
 has grown every year for the past four years
; it will reach 15% of China's GDP this year.
 If China continues to intervene at that pace
, its reserves would reach $2 trillion,
 or 75% of its GDP, by the end of 2008"

 "is the  U.S. is politically prepared 
to sit still as Chinese exports
 to the U.S. double between 2004 and 2008,
 as will happen even if a slow appreciation
 of the yuan leads China's export growth
                   to slow to around 20%?

" Is the U.S. willing to accept the financial dependence on China
 implied if the stability of the financial system requires
 $300 to $400 billion in Chinese reserve growth every year?"



" a natural development for the system... (would be for)
...  another periphery, seeing that this was a successful development strategy,
  taking their place"

" the system lasts for a very long time
 but the China part of it gradually fades"

"What will last"
" for the foreseeable futures the U.S. role as the center country in the system"

". In some periods this will generate large net inflows
 of savings from the periphery to the U.S.
; in other periods, none at all or reversals."

" Clearly there was no effective periphery for 20 years
after the demise of Bretton Woods I
 and the U.S. built a net asset position in international markets"
.
" When a new periphery emerges
we will have to carefully evaluate 
the incentives and constraints faced by the system at that time"



" the policy community is unanimous in the view that the U.S. must adjust". 


"Your argument rests on the assumption
 that the U.S. current-account deficit
is driven by the U.S. fiscal deficit."

" If so, why have European and Japanese fiscal deficits,
 which are higher still 
in the presence of much lower growth,
 not generated current-account deficits?"

" if U.S. fiscal deficits are pulling in foreign savings
, why are they doing so at very low rates?"


" Is it in the self interest of the governments
 that now feed the international monetary system
 with their savings to continue to do so? "

"our  framework suggests they will -- not forever,
 but for a long time.
 It isn't because they like us
 or have an irrational attachment to dollar assets.
 They would like to look like Japan in 10 years"



" China's goods are cheap with the yuan at eight yuan to the dollar;
 they would still be cheap at six."

 

" Imagine how receptive the U.S. would be to Chinese goods with the interest rate at 7%"

". The currency policy regime
 has the effect of keeping the interest rate low,
 splitting the interests of productive factors
 in the U.S."

" and putting off the date
 that the protectionist political coalition
 might organize."




.


" The real threat to the U.S.
 is that the liberal economic world 
that is emerging will crumble
 under the weight of massive global excess labor"

* * *
setser:
 

 


"the periphery is maintaining undervalued real exchange rates
 building up reserves
, and in the process keeping interest rates
 in the center lower than they otherwise be"

.

" corporate sectors.. are saving rather than investing"

" Our disagreement is simple:
You see the system as fundamentally stable,
 both politically and economically. I don't."



" compare two different international systems.
 In one, the periphery builds up its reserves,
 those reserve flow through finance capital outflows
 from the center to the periphery,
and no one runs either a current-account deficit
 or a current-account surplus
Think $50 billion in foreign direct investment flows
 from the U.S. and Europe to China,
off set by a $50 billion buildup in Chinese reserves"

"That roughly characterizes Bretton Woods I
 and, incidentally, also describes reasonably well
 Europe's relationship with the "periphery" right now"

". That system collapsed 
when De Gaulle got tired of financing
 the American corporate takeover of France."

" stable, so long as China and India
 are willing to subsidize
 U.S., European, Japanese and Korean multinational corporations"

" In the current system,
the periphery runs a large current-account surplus
 and builds up its reserves,
financing a large current-account deficit
 in the center country.
 Actually, in the past few years,
 the U.S. current-account deficit
 and the current-account surpluses
of the periphery have all grown
, both absolutely and as share of GDP.
 Reserve accumulation by the periphery
 went from $116 billion in 2001 to $517 billion in 2004 
and maybe $600 billion this year, 
while the U.S. current-account deficit went from $390 billion
 to $800 billion."

 


"the U.S. must reduce its dependence on foreign savings
, whether by saving more or investing less,"

" the best way to bring about that adjustment
 is through cutting the fiscal deficit"

". Would you all rather see a fall in private investment
, or a surge in household savings?"



" the core reason 
why the U.S. has to adjust
 is that the trade and transfers deficit
 (6.5% of U.S. GDP) 
is now large relative to the U.S. export base (10% of GDP).
 Current exchange rates 
and U.S. growth rates imply
 a widening trade deficit,
 and I don't think that deficit
 can continue to increase for much longer"

"keeping the U.S. current-account deficit constant
 implies a fall in the U.S. trade deficit over time."

" implications."

 "The periphery will not be able to rely on exports
 as much as it has until now
 to support growth."

" Real interest rates in the center cannot fall further"

" U.S. consumption won't be able to keep on growing
 faster than U.S. income "

" The fun part of Bretton Woods II -- even in your vision -- is close to over"





" China has to keep on intervening
 not to support an expanding export sector,
 but just to hold on to its existing export sector.
 The U.S. needs continued reserve inflows
 from China not to allow housing prices to keep on rising,
 but to keep them from falling. Yuck."

"But even a less fun system could be a stable system
 -- that, I take it, is your argument."


" China's workers will keep on accepting low real wages;"


" China's taxpayers will keep on adding to the amount
 that they eventually will have to spend 
to bailout their central bank (and their banks); "


"U.S. and other firms will continue to make 
so much in China that they will sustain
 the political consensus
 for open markets
, despite opposition from U.S. manufacturing workers,"

:

"• The winners from the current U.S.-China trade 
don't realize that U.S.-China trade is responsible
 for their success.
 Home owners in Orange Country 
and real estate brokers in Florida
 are not lobbying for China to hold on to the yuan peg. 
The U.S. Treasury -- the biggest winner of all in some sense --
 is lobbying China to change the peg."

 
"• The upper Midwest is the epicenter of the (very troubled) U.S. auto industry.
 China's auto sector is developing fast.
 A slowing U.S. economy, no matter why the economy is slowing,
 will increase, not decrease, demands for protection."
 
"• China (and others) may not be willing to continue
 to accept low-yielding U.S. assets,
 and so far, the U.S. has been willing
 to trade Treasury IOUs for Chinese goods,
 but not to trade U.S. oil companies for Chinese goods.
 A Chinese de Gaulle would rail at the inequity.
 
• The transition from a win/win (fast growing exports/falling real rates) system
 to a don't lose/don't lose (existing exports/relatively low rates)
 may prove difficult.
 

.

* * *

 
dooley





. "U.S. can't take it story" and invoking protectionism 
as the main threat. 
We agree completely on this as a serious threat.
 Indeed, the thrust of the whole system
 is to spread around sufficient payouts
 to undermine this threat.

6. You are telling a "Europe is resilient story"
 in that it passes through the inflows.
 But some of the deflationary pressure
 must be sticking to Europe.
 Europe has grown only unemployment in the last few years.



" You believe "that the U.S. must reduce its dependence 
on foreign savings." 
We still do not understand the basis for this belief.

" Our view is simple: It is in their interest to lend 
and in our interest to borrow
. Asia won't wake up one day 
and decide this is a bad deal
 because it is not a bad deal.

Also informative was your nonresponse to several points that I think are important. For example, the U.S. has a fiscal deficit that is little different from those of the other industrial countries and better in several cases, even after factoring in the Katrina one-off.
 No more definitive experiment on the current account
 could have been run to prove
to prove current accounts are not mirror images of fiscal deficits

" Would it not be fruitful to spend some effort
 working on filling in the model of how disturbances
 work themselves through a model of Bretton Woods II dynamics?"



* * *
steser


" concern is that U.S. fiscal deficits are too large
 for an economy whose households don't save."



" China has been more able than I expected to absorb
 a massive reserve increase without excessive credit growth 
or domestic inflation."

" By curbing lending growth with controls,
 the central bank created a captive market
 for low-interest rate sterilization bills."




" reserve diversification matters less than the overall pace of reserve accumulation"


" Since the renminbi needs to appreciate against both the dollar and euro,
 borrowing in renminbi
 to buy either still strikes me as losing bet.
 There is a reason why Zhou has been pushing for change".


" as the rest of Asia stepped down,
 the Middle East and Russia stepped up
 Most oil exporters still peg to the dollar "

" Russia and OPEC into U.S. debt securities -- 
the oil exporters either have huge offshore dollar deposits,
 or bought in ways that don't register cleanly in the U.S. data."



concerns:

The small size of the U.S. tradables sector
 likely implies very large falls in the dollar will be needed
 to bring down the very large gap
 between what the U.S. imports
 and what the U.S. exports
 (a key point made by Rogoff and Obstfeld). 
There may be a gap between the capital stock
 the U.S. has
 and the capital stock the U.S. needs
 to respond quickly to dollar depreciation
 (see DeLong). 
Suburban housing doesn't generate export revenue.

"The U.S. is going to have large external financing needs
 for some time. Suppose the U.S. trade and transfers deficit peaks
 at 7.0% in the fourth quarter 
and falls by 0.5% of GDP each of the next three years,
 a major shift, bringing the trade and transfers deficit
 to 5.5% of GDP in 2008.
 Rising interest payments still imply
 a current account deficit of a 6.5% of GDP 
-- more than in 2004."

"Net private flows don't come close
 to covering the U.S. external deficit now,
 even with large interest rate differentials
 in the dollar's favor.
 If the U.S. slumps and U.S. rates fall,
 the official sector may need to step up its intervention
 from its current, very high pace,
 to keep the dollar from going into free fall."

"The U.S. exposure to an external interest-rate shock keeps rising.
 Gross U.S. external liabilities are around 100% of U.S. GDP,
 most of that is debt, 
and much of the debt is short-term. 
The IMF forecasts they will rise to 150%
 of U.S. GDP in 2010,
 even if the U.S. starts to adjust.

Superpowers in the past 
have generally been net creditors
 and net lenders, 
not net debtors and big borrowers. 
The U.S.'s biggest financier -- China --
 is viewed by many in the U.S.
 as a strategic rival.
 One international monetary system,
 two very different political systems.

U.S. policy makers are not accustomed to the constraints
 that a big net debtor often faces
. You all don't think the center faces any constraints
; I am not so sure.
 In the initial Bretton Woods system,
U.S. policy was constrained by the dollar/gold parity. 

What happens if U.S. policy makers are perceived to ignore
 the concerns of our foreign creditors,
 and they want to introduce a few constraints into Bretton Woods II?



 what should be done?

• The U.S. should close the structural gap
 between tax revenues and government spending.
 
• China should let the renminbi rise more now,
 and the rest of Asia should follow
It also needs to get off a dollar peg for real,
 and take a series of steps 
to boost consumption.
 Less government savings would help,
 as would a modern social-insurance system.
 
• The Middle Eastern oil exporters should stop pegging
 to the dollar.
 Surpluses countries should not peg 
to the world's biggest deficit country.
 
• The evidence from Germany suggests 
that labor-market reforms
, on their own, are as likely to drag down
 European domestic demand
 as raise it.
 I wouldn't bank on them to spur global rebalancing.
 But steps to make German consumption more responsive 
to low euro rates would help
. More generally, macro policies in Europe
 need to be stimulative





Posted by lady eve at November 13, 2005 01:29 PM

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