Friday, November 15, 2013

If Only There Was Some Place To Hedge Exchange Rate Risk

John Quiggin argues in Jacobin that Wall Street needs to shrink.  I think there are many persuasive arguments that the financial sector is too large, but I didn't think Quiggin made a very compelling case.  Particularly, this passage stood out quite a bit.
Since differences in inflation rates have generally been small, and changes in patterns of comparative advantage are usually gradual, it was expected that market-determined exchange rates would be relatively stable, contrasting with the sharp devaluations (of as much as 20 or 25 percent) occasionally forced on governments during the Bretton Woods era. This stability would, in turn, help to stabilize national economies. 
In fact, the reverse has been the case. Exchange rates have gyrated wildly even in the absence of significant changes in fundamentals. For example, the Australian dollar traded at $US1.10 when it was first floated in 1983, before falling below 50 cents and then rebounding all the way back to $1.10. The current rate is around $US 0.90. These fluctuations have had catastrophic effects on trade-exposed sectors like manufacturing.
The central bank of a country can only target one thing.  If the central bank decides to print money and buy foreign exchange in such a way to keep its foreign exchange rate with some other currency constant, it cannot conduct counter-cyclical monetary policy.  It cannot let the currency fall during recession to stimulate exports and help the faltering economy recover.  After the fall of Bretton Woods, many countries decided that stabilizing their currency was not the appropriate goal, and they'd be better off conducting counter-cyclical monetary policy to help prevent recessions.  Thus, it's very strange to point to the instability of exchange rates, when countries obviously knew they were trading the stability of their exchange rates for more control of the stability of their economies.

He goes on to point out that the gyrations in the exchange rate were devastating to manufacturing.  What a strange point to make in a piece about the excess of the financial sector!  One of the benefits of a highly developed financial sector is that manufacturing firms can hedge their exposure to foreign exchange risk.  By trading sometimes complex derivatives, firms can lock in the price at which they export by offsetting any changes in the exchange rate with derivatives contracts.  Their counter-parties may in part be import firms looking to lock in the price of their imports.  And if the relative prices are off, speculators or just "insurance sellers" will step in and absorb the foreign exchange risk in exchange for a risk adjusted return.

There is considerable risk in the world and one thing a well-developed financial market can do is carve up that risk, so that a company or person can only hold the right kind of risk.  McDonald's is willing to hold the risk that their burgers don't sell abroad, that's a risk they understand and is central to their business, but they may not want to hold the risk that the profits they make abroad are worth considerably less in US dollars due to exchange rates they have little to do with.  If there are considerable risks of this type, a well developed financial sector can carve them up and sell them off to individuals more able and willing to bear them.  Ironically, the way they'd do this is with complex financial derivatives.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Explaining Jokes to Bob Murphy

by Charlie Clarke


Bob Murphy finds Krugman saying something monstrous:
 We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society will want without some increase in taxes…on the middle class, maybe a value added tax….And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits. So the snarky version…which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble, is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.
Murphy's reaction is, "Ha ha ha, the government deciding who lives and dies because it’s taken over health care, and right-wingers are routinely mocked for making the exact same claim. How droll."

Of course, Murphy completely misses the joke.  Paul Krugman is equating not covering health care that has no demonstrated benefits to a "death panel."  That's a ridiculous thing to do.  It is funny and snarky, because Republicans actually do this!  Even though every insurance company ever, private or public, has to decide what procedures to cover, it is somehow a monstrous death panel when the government does it.  Granted, it's easy to see how people like Bob Murphy who think it's perfectly acceptable to equate taxation and theft can miss the irony.

The deeper irony is that the well-informed academic critique of health care on the right argues that this is actually the main problem with health care in this country.  Due to government subsidies, people buy too much health insurance, perform too many high cost, low benefit procedures and drive up the costs of health care.  They would argue that the primary cost benefit of national single payer systems is rationing health care and not improving efficiency.  I think the point has merit, but apparently Republicans don't.  Ironically, I was first convinced this argument had merit by Paul Krugman's Age of Diminished Expectations as an undergraduate.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

New Finance Research Shows Finance Researchers Are Awesome

The paper shows that PhDs in Finance and Economics manage money better than non-PhDs.

"Several hundred individuals who hold a Ph.D. in economics, finance, or others fields work for institutional money management companies. The gross performance of domestic equity investment products managed by individuals with a Ph.D. (Ph.D. products) is superior to the performance of non-Ph.D. products matched by objective, size, and past performance for one-year returns, Sharpe Ratios, alphas, information ratios, and the manipulation-proof measure MPPM. Fees for Ph.D. products are lower than those for non-Ph.D. products. Investment flows to Ph.D. products substantially exceed the flows to the matched non-Ph.D. products. Ph.D.s’ publications in leading economics and finance journals further enhance the performance gap."

Hat tip: Marginal Revolution