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While I'm at it, if we're talking about excess liquidity, the development of new financial instruments (which are sold on the basis of having less risk than previous ones) actually, in my view, amounts to an increase in effective liquidity in the system, irrespective of central bank interest rate actions.

That is to say, deregulation and the ensuing rush into complex financial instruments, creates extra liquidity right up until the moment people lose confidence in them.

So "Bubbles" crime wasn't just his actions on the base rate, but his consistent belief in deregulation.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jan 23rd, 2008 at 02:35:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
IMHO one of the biggest blunders was to allow banks to take loans off their balance sheet by securitizing them. I say sell on the cash flows if you want, but keep the loan on your books.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 23rd, 2008 at 03:11:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Precisely.

In doing this, they are essentially permanently outsourcing their principal business, which is the implicit (and sometimes explicit, in the world of trade finance) guarantee of the credit of borrowers.

Banks also offload the guarantee temporarily (credit derivatives) or partially (eg AMBAC and the other monoline credit insurers).

The solution I advocate is putting the assets into trust and dividing the guarantee payments from borrowers (because the guarantee is the true value their interest payments is exchanged for) between investors and managers through the creation and sale of proportional units of this revenue stream.

This partnership-based "unitisation" is of course selling on the cash flows as you suggest.

Because as Canadian financial markets show, you don't actually need to sell ownership and control when you can parcel up the revenues (into Income Trusts in that case) and sell off the units.

This "unitisation" is an emerging "asset-based" alternative to the "securisation" now pretty much frozen solid.


"Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Wed Jan 23rd, 2008 at 04:38:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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