Cyclopedia Of Economics

Assumption number one

That risk inherent in assets such as stocks can be "diversified away". If one divides one's capital and invests it in a variety of financial instruments, sectors, and markets, the overall risk of one's portfolio of investments is lower than the risk of any single asset in said portfolio.

Yet, in the last decade, markets all over the world have moved in tandem. These highly-correlated ups and downs gave the lie to the belief that they were in the process of "decoupling" and could, therefore, be expected to fluctuate independently of each other. What the crisis has revealed is that contagion transmission vectors and mechanisms have actually become more potent as barriers to flows of money and information have been lowered.

Assumption number two

That investment "experts" can and do have an advantage in picking "winner" stocks over laymen, let alone over random choices. Market timing coupled with access to information and analysis were supposed to guarantee the superior performance of professionals. Yet, they didn't.

Few investment funds beat the relevant stock indices on a regular, consistent basis. The yields on "random walk" and stochastic (random) investment portfolios often surpass managed funds. Index or tracking funds (funds who automatically invest in the stocks that compose a stock market index) are at the top of the table, leaving "stars", "seers", "sages", and "gurus" in the dust.

This manifest market efficiency is often attributed to the ubiquity of capital pricing models. But, the fact that everybody uses the same software does not necessarily mean that everyone would make the same stock picks. Moreover, the CAPM and similar models are now being challenged by the discovery and incorporation of information asymmetries into the math. Nowadays, not all fund managers are using the same mathematical models.

A better explanation for the inability of investment experts to beat the overall performance of the market would perhaps be information overload. Recent studies have shown that performance tends to deteriorate in the presence of too much information.

Additionally, the failure of gatekeepers - from rating agencies to regulators - to force firms to provide reliable data on their activities and assets led to the ascendance of insider information as the only credible substitute. But, insider or privileged information proved to be as misleading as publicly disclosed data. Finally, the market acted more on noise than on signal. As we all know, noise it perfectly randomized. Expertise and professionalism mean nothing in a totally random market.

Assumption number three

That risk can be either diversified away or parceled out and sold. This proved to be untenable, mainly because the very nature of risk is still ill-understood: the samples used in various mathematical models were biased as they relied on data pertaining only to the recent bull market, the longest in history.

Thus, in the process of securitization, "risk" was dissected, bundled and sold to third parties who were equally at a loss as to how best to evaluate it. Bewildered, participants and markets lost their much-vaunted ability to "discover" the correct prices of assets. Investors and banks got spooked by this apparent and unprecedented failure and stopped investing and lending. Illiquidity and panic ensued.

If investment funds cannot beat the market and cannot effectively get rid of portfolio risk, what do we need them for?

The short answer is: because it is far more convenient to get involved in the market through a fund than directly. Another reason: index and tracking funds are excellent ways to invest in a bull market.

3. Capital-Allocating Institutions

The main role of banks, well into the 1920, was to allocate capital to businesses (directly and through consumer credits and mortgages). Deposit-taking was a core function and the main source of funding. As far as depositors were concerned, banks guaranteed the safety and liquidity of the store of value (cash and cash-equivalents).

In the 1920, stock exchanges began to compete with banks by making available to firms other means of raising capital (IPOs - initial public offerings). This activity gradually became as important as the stock exchange's traditional competence: price discovery (effected through the structured interactions of willing buyers and sellers).

This territorial conflict led to an inevitable race to the bottom in terms of the quality of debtors and, ultimately, to the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that ensued. Banks then were reduced to retail activities, having lost their investment services to hybrids known as "investment banks".

The invention of junk bonds in the 1980s heralded a whole new era. A parallel, unregulated financial system has emerged which catered to the needs of businesses to raise risk capital and to the needs of those who provided such funds to rid themselves of the hazards inherent in their investments. Consumer credits and mortgages, for instance, were financed by traditional banking businesses. The risks associated with such lending were securitized and sold to third parties.

As expertise evolved and experience accumulated, financial operators learned to slice the hazards, evaluate them using value-at-risk mathematical models, tailor them to the needs of specific customer profiles, hedge them with complex derivatives, and trade them in unofficial, unregulated, though highly liquid amorphous, virtual "marketplaces".

Thus, stock exchanges have begun to lose their capital allocation functions to private equity funds, hedge funds, investment banks, and pension funds. In the process, such activities have become even more opaque and less regulated than before. This lack of transparency led to pervasive counterparty distrust and difficulties in price discovery. Ultimately, when the prices of underlying assets (such as housing) began to tumble, all liquidity drained and markets seized and froze.

Thus, at the end of 2006, the global financial system was comprised of three main groups of actors: traditional retail banks whose main role was deposit taking and doling out consumer credits; exchanges whose main functions were price discovery and the provision of liquidity; and investment banks and their surrogates and special purpose vehicles whose principal job was the allocation of capital to businesses and the mitigation of risk via securitization and insurance (hedging).

Yet, these unregulated investment banks were also often under-capitalized and hyper-leveraged partnerships (at least until the late 1990s, when some of them went public). This is precisely why they had invented all manner of complex financial instruments intended to remove credit-related risks from their books by selling it to third parties. Physicists, analysts, and rating agencies all agreed that the risk attendant to these derivatives can be calculated and determined and that many of them were risk-free (as long as markets were liquid, of course).

The business strategy of the investment banks was viable. It should have worked perfectly had they not committed a primal sin: they have entered the fray not only as brokers, dealers, and mediators, but also as investors and gamblers (principals), taking on huge positions, often improperly hedged ("naked"). When these bets soured, the capital base of these institutions was wiped out, sometimes literally overnight. The very financial instruments that were meant to alleviate and reallocate risk (such as collateralized debt obligations - CDOs) have turned into hazardous substances, as investors (and investment banks) gambled on the direction of the economy, specific sectors, or firms.

In hindsight, the "shadow banks" subverted the very foundations of modern finance: they created money (modifying the money-printing monopoly of central banks); they obfuscated the process of price discovery and thus undermined the price signal (incidentally casting doubt on symmetrical asset pricing models); they interfered with the ability of cash and cash-equivalents to serve as value stores and thus shook the trust in the entire financial system; they amplified the negative consequences of unbridled speculation (that is not related to real-life economic activities and values); they leveraged the instant dissemination of information to render markets inefficient and unstable (a fact which requires a major revision of efficient market hypotheses).

This systemic dysfunctioning of financial markets led risk-averse investors to flee into safer havens: commodities, oil, metals, real estate and, finally, currencies and bonds. This was not merely a flight to quality: it was an attempt to avoid the abstract and fantastic "Alice in Wonderland" markets fostered by investment banks and to reconnect with tangible reality

With the disappearance of investment banks (those who survived became bank holding companies), traditional banks are likely to regain some of their erstwhile functions: the allocation to businesses and creditworthy consumers and homeowners of deposit-based capital. The various exchanges will also survive, but will largely be confined to price discovery and the allocation of risk capital. Some financial instruments will flourish (credit-default swaps of all types), others will vanish (CDOs).

All in all, the financial scenery of 2010 will resemble 1910's more than it will 2005's. Back to basics and home-grown truths. At least until the next cataclysm.

V. The Crisis in Historical Context

Housing and financial crises often precede, or follow the disintegration of empires. The dissolution of the Habsburg and the British empires, as well as the implosion of the USSR were all marked by the eruption and then unwinding of imbalances in various asset, banking, and financial markets.

The collapse of Communism in Europe and Asia led to the emergence of a new middle class in these territories. Flushed with enhanced earnings and access to bank credits, its members unleashed a wave of unbridled consumption (mainly of imported goods); and with a rising mountain of savings, they scoured the globe for assets to invest their capital in: from football clubs to stocks and bonds.

The savings glut and the lopsided expansion of international trade led to severe asymmetries in capital flows and to the distortion of price signals. These, in turn, encouraged leveraged speculation and arbitrage and attempts to diversify away investment risks. The former resulted in extreme volatility and the latter in opaqueness and the breakdown of trust among market players and agents.

VI. The Next Crisis: Imploding Bond Markets

Written: November 3, 2008

To finance enormous bailout packages for the financial sector (and potentially the auto and mining industries) as well as fiscal stimulus plans, governments will have to issue trillions of US dollars in new bonds. Consequently, the prices of bonds are bound to come under pressure from the supply side.

But the demand side is likely to drive the next global financial crisis: the crash of the bond markets.

As the Fed takes US dollar interest rates below 1% (and with similar moves by the ECB, the Bank of England, and other central banks), buyers are likely to lose interest in government bonds and move to other high-quality, safe haven assets. Risk-aversion, mitigated by the evident thawing of the credit markets will cause investors to switch their portfolios from cash and cash-equivalents to more hazardous assets.

Moreover, as countries that hold trillions in government bonds (mainly US treasuries) begin to feel the pinch of the global crisis, they will be forced to liquidate their bondholdings in order to finance their needs.

In other words, bond prices are poised to crash precipitously. In the last 50 years, bond prices have collapsed by more than 35% at least on three occasions. This time around, though, such a turn of events will be nothing short of cataclysmic: more than ever, governments are relying on functional primary and secondary bond markets for their financing needs. There is no other way to raise the massive amounts of capital needed to salvage the global economy.

Croatia, Economy of

The first gay parade in Croatia's history ended in bloody clashes with Nazi-saluting skinheads and the members of a soccer fan club. Police fired teargas and arrested 26 marauders. Another 10 ended in the hospital. The 300 marchers called for increased social tolerance and legislation to protect sexual minorities. The Minister of Interior urged them to "love yourselves and fight for your rights".

Only the day before, Croatian president, Stipe Mesic, won the Crans Montana Forum Foundation award for promoting peace, democracy, and international cooperation. Quoted by the IWPR Balkans Report, Viktor Ivancic, the editor of the "Feral Tribune", an opposition weekly published in Split, bemoaned Croat intolerance: "What occurred during this peaceful march of homosexuals ... has dispelled the illusion of a humane nation."

A survey carried out earlier this year in nine countries and territories in Southeastern Europe by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) showed Croats to be as worried about unemployment as their Bosnian neighbors - despite having an incomparably richer and more developed economy. Almost three quarters rated joblessness as their greatest concern. Croats tend to trust the private sector far more than they trust their politicians.

This is rather unexpected. The Western media has consistently demonized the ruling party, the HDZ, and its authoritarian and corrupt leader, Tudjman. Croatia's economic troubles - its unemployment amounted to 20 percent at the time - were squarely blamed on the HDZ's xenophobia, civil and human rights abuses, sheltering of war criminals, mismanagement, and virulent nationalism.

So unyielding was the regime's grip that even today, according to the BBC World Service, more than 80 percent of Croats tune in to HRT, the state-owned TV station, for news and entertainment - an unprecedented phenomenon in post-communist countries.

But the HDZ was replaced two years ago by a bunch of politicians described by the BBC as "far more committed to Croatia's integration into the European mainstream." The constitution was re-written making Croatia's government less presidential and more parliamentary.

Croatia joined the World Trade Organization and, concurrent with Macedonia,  negotiated a stabilization and association agreement with the European Union - now being ratified in the EU's national parliaments. As a member of the informal Vilnius group of NATO candidates, Croatia repeatedly called upon the alliance to expand aggressively in its forthcoming summit in November 2002 in Prague.

In the last 30 days alone, Croatia signed a free trade agreement with Albania and another one regarding immigration and tourism with Bulgaria. Croatia is on the verge of signing a multilateral concord with CEFTA - the central European free trade zone.

The owlish and bearded Ivica Racan, leader of the Social Democratic Party, competently led a center-left five-party coalition government, formed in January 2000, through this startling transmutation from near international pariah to the darling of multilaterals of all persuasions.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EBRD have just approved yet another $61 million to construct the last two sections of the Rijeka-Zagreb motorway. This comes on the heels of massive EIB funds invested in a railway connecting the country to Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

This "favored nation" treatment trickles down to the private sector. The World Bank's private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) concluded last month a $9.1 million small and medium enterprises loan facility with the soon-to-be-privatized Croatia Banka. Other Croat banks were recently purchased by foreign direct investors - e.g., the latest completed purchase of Riejcka Banka by Austria's second-largest bank, Erste Sparkasse.

Croatia is in the throes of a conscious effort to mend fences with its erstwhile mortal enemy, Yugoslavia. A fortnight ago, the chambers of commerce of the two countries concluded two agreements which tackle the thorny issue of claims following the succession of the former federation. Croatia has even, controversially, taken to handing to their prosecutors revered military figures indicted by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

US Ambassador at large for War Crimes , Pierre-Richard Prosper, in a statement broadcast on HRT, extolled Croatia as a "regional leader" in extraditing suspects. He noted the international community's growing readiness to relegate the task of judging the miscreants to indigenous Croat courts.

But Croatia's more immediate friction is with peaceful and prosperous Slovenia, an imminent EU member. On June 28, the second largest party in Racan's precarious coalition - the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) headed by the irascible Drazen Budisa - walked out on a parliamentary session, vocally refusing to ratify a treaty with the neighbor regarding a shared ownership of the disputed Krsko power plant. It was only the latest in a series of crises that rocked the coalition since the beginning of the year.

Mesic exhorted the disobedient parliamentarians to adhere to government policies. Early elections will slow the reforms - he warned through the independent Croat daily, Vecernji List. He threatened to support a minority government and to tap Racan for his current job again.

To little avail. Both Racan and HSLS were angling to precipitate a crisis - the former to get rid of the latter and the latter to unseat the former in an early ballot. Threatening to resign the following week, the prime minister resubmitted the controversial treaty ratification bill. Six HSLS deputies voted for and nine abstained.

The bill passed. The nine disgruntled renegades threatened to defect and join other parties. The opposition Democratic Centre and Croatian Democratic Union announced they will not support a government headed by a reappointed Racan. Seeing an opportunity to split the HSLS and regain his position as prime minister, Racan resigned on July 5. In a feat of divine timing, the Dalai Lama arrived, on July 7, for his first visit of the troubled country. He delivered a propitious lecture on constructive dialogs.

On July 10, Mesic, as was widely expected,  appointed Racan to form the new government. He has 30 days to accomplish this. A failure will result in new elections. A letter of support bore the signatures of 84 out 150 parliamentarians. The federation of Independent Croatian Unions (NHS) urged Racan to include in his new government experts with limited political involvement - i.e., technocrats. But these important events were overshadowed by the mood altering decision of Goran Ivanisevic not to play at Wimbledon.

Racan used the grace period to pass a few crucial laws in parliament. On July 12, the august body voted to compensate Serb refugees whose real estate was expropriated to accommodate internally displaced persons. HINA, the news agency, gained independence by becoming a "public institution".

The next day, in a rite of self-mutilation, the HSLS expelled 12 party members who continued to support the government, defying the party line. These included the deputy prime minister Goran Granic, defense minister Jozo Rados, and two other incumbent ministers Hrvoje Kraljevic and Andro Vlahusic.

The country was slightly distracted by a historically significant reconciliation between the former warring parties in Sarajevo. On July 15, the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Yugoslavia issued the "Sarajevo Declaration" pledging amicable cooperation on an impressive range of subjects: property rights, trade, the fight against terrorism and organized crime, social protection, the return of refugees, economic cooperation. Washington applauded.

But this harmonious spirit did not traverse Croatia or infect Slovenia. In the city of Karlovac in Croatia, the ruling coalition expelled the HSLS. And Slovenia's Minister of the Environment refused to pay compensation for free electricity it failed to deliver to Croatia as part of the controversial nuclear power pact. The Slovene Constitutional Court is taking its time  in rendering a decision on the legal status of the Krsko agreement, which remains non-ratified by Slovenia's legislature.

Racan probably has little appetite to continue to rule at the mercy of capricious independents and the pleasure of party fragments. Even if he succeeds to form a new government, it is likely to be a lame duck one. He may yet pull a "Chirac" on the startled electorate and bet the family house by asking Mesic to declare early elections. And as opposed to the French president, he may yet pull it off.

It was a normal week in Croatia. A mass grave was discovered in the east, generals were being indicted by the Hague, the new Yugoslav ambassador apologized for crimes committed against Croats by his compatriots, Bosnian officials coped with a restive Croat population in their patchwork country.

The CIA comments on Croatioa's Balkan geography delicately. Croatia, it says in its "World Factbook 2001", "...controls most land routes from Western Europe to (the) Aegean Sea and (the) Turkish Straits". With a population of 4.5 million and a land mass of c. 56,500 sq. km. - Croatia is more than twice as big as Slovenia. It is almost as ethnically homogeneous - 78% are ethnic Croat and Catholic. The Croats are highly literate and skilled, the legacy of centuries of Austro-Hungarian (especially Habsburg) rule. Croatia's (mostly industrial) output per capita was almost as high as Slovenia's in the former Yugoslavia (and a good one third higher than the Federal average). Yet, nowadays, Croatia trails Slovenia by every economic measure. Its GDP per capita is half the latter's. Why this discrepancy?

While Slovenia was always export and services oriented, Croatia languished under a bloated and venal industrial central planning bureaucracy. Four years of savage internecine fighting (avoided by Slovenia), almost a million internally displaced people, and the overnight transformation of close economic allies and target markets into mortal and bitter enemies - all took their toll. Croatia's Western-aided transition from heavy and mineral industries into "lighter" tourism and oil processing was successfully completed earlier this year, following a mild recession in 2000. The economy grew by 3% last year as more than 70% of the labour force found work in services (compared to 30% in industry and agriculture combined).

Yet, the implosion of world travel and tourism following the September 11 atrocities, threatens this newfangled economic foundation as well. Successive Croat governments failed to tackle structural reforms decisively, the victims of fractious and contentious party politics and trade union extortion. Only recently has the wage bill of the central government been trimmed (by 5%) and social transfers rationalized - though the full implementation of these measures has been put off, by an obstinate parliament, to 2002. The collective agreement with state and public workers signed earlier this month froze salaries - and net employment - at this year's levels. IMF style social engineering resulted in unrest and pet mutinies within the administration. Earlier this month, the director of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute blamed lack of drugs and a deteriorating health care service on cuts in health funds (and payment arrears, the result of a gigantic deficit).

Croatia's rating card is mixed at best. Its inflation rate is down to 4-5%, its GDP growth has recovered to 4%, but it has a serious fiscal deficit, not ameliorated by a hitherto botched privatization. Croatia resorted to persistent foreign borrowing to amortize its payment arrears. In a Letter of Intent to the IMF dated October 31, 2001, Croatia undertook to slash its budget deficit to a still unsustainable 5.3% of GDP this year (and 4.25% next year), mostly by the socially expedient cutting of capital investment. In effect, Croatia has reneged on its earlier commitments to attain fiscal rectitude by reducing subsidies, wages, and transfers. Nevertheless, the IMF professed itself to be content with Croatia's performance, commending it for exceeding targets agreed in its latest March 2001 standby arrangement.  The World Bank has lately approved a Structural Adjustment Loan (SAL) of $202 million. Croatia is one of the Bank's darlings, with $780 million committed and $550 million disbursed (mostly on transportation infrastructure, urban development, and finance-related projects).

Of Croatia's smallish labour force - 1.7 million strong - c. 300,000 are unemployed. Of c. 13,000 new jobs created in November - the majority were in state administration and the public sector. Moreover, Croatia is unique in that half of the unemployed are either skilled or highly skilled. One in twenty five has a university degree (compared to 3%, the world average and 1% in the likes of Macedonia). Brain drain, though not as severe as in Macedonia or Yugoslavia, is still detrimental to Croatia's future.

Croatia's monetary position is better. The Croat National Bank (CNB) has come close to meeting its targets regarding foreign exchange reserves and net domestic assets and has pursued a vigorous banking reform program coupled with credit expansion to the fledgling private sector. Spreads on Croat eurobonds have narrowed despite widespread aversion towards emerging markets debt. Public trust in the economy is evidenced by robust growth in retail sales, business investment, and private consumption. Domestic banks are repatriating capital. The economy is being remonetized - interest rates are lower, bank deposits in both domestic and foreign currencies higher, bank lending is surging, and the monetary base expanded. The CNB had to intervene repeatedly to prevent an appreciation of the kuna - a highly unusual circumstance in countries in transition. The CNB may yet have to resort to contractionary policies next year should this tsunami of demand for money not abate.  The current account deficit increased to c. 3.5% of GDP - the result of massive last minute privileged purchase of cars by war veterans. But, the deficit trend is a more sustainable 2-2.5%.

The introduction of the euro would stretch the resources of the banking system further - the DM is an unofficial second currency in Croatia. Erste Bank from Austria has shipped tones of euro coins and notes to Croatian banks last week alone. Since Croats hold most of their DM savings in cash, the exchange operation is likely to be drawn out and complicated. The EU, for fear of money laundering through euro conversions, already demanded from Croat banks detailed reports on any cash transaction involving more than 14,000 euros.

Minor geopolitical irritants still mar the future: a dispute with Italy regarding war time property, with Slovenia regarding land and maritime borders, with Yugoslavia regarding a UN administered peninsula, with Bosnia regarding everything - from port facilities to the composition of commissions common to both countries. Croatia is also an auxiliary drug smuggling route for both East Asian heroin and South American cocaine, which makes the EU vocally unhappy. True, a third of Croatia's exports still goes to the likes of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Macedonia. But it has developed major new export markets in Germany, Italy, and Austria and has signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU on December. The trade related provisions will apply from January 1, 2002. Croatia has every intention of applying for accession as early as 2003. It cannot afford to allow any part of its economy or society interact with the sleazier sides of the Balkan. It needs to extract itself from its geography - and the sooner, the better.