torsdag den 17. december 2009

Gerald O'Driscoll om Obama vs. bankerne

Senior fellow Gerald O'Driscoll jr. har en artikel i WSJ (17/12) om præsident Barack Obama og bankerne, som han kaldte big fat cats i sidste weekend. Obama vil have bankerne til at låne flere penge til små og mellemstore virksomheder. Men det er politisk teater, mener O'Driscoll.

O'Driscoll minder læserne og Obama om, at bankerne blot svarer på de incitamenter, som den økonomiske politik giver:
"Wall Street fat cats are always a convenient political target, but bankers are responding to the incentives generated by the economic policies of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. First and foremost is the Fed's policy of near-zero interest rates".
Bankerne kan låne til en rente tæt nul og investere pengene i statsobligationer, der giver 3,5% i rente og som er (næsten) risikofri investering. Det er et resultat af penge- og finanspolitikken, der føres i USA og fortsætter:
"Sending scarce resources to major banks in the form of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), ultra-low interest rates, and the Fed's targeted credit schemes has diverted needed capital from real, productive activity. Now the politicians feel the public's anger and are complaining about the lack of lending and the size of executive compensation. If Congress wanted banks to lend and to limit pay packages, it should have put those in as conditions in the TARP legislation.

The TARP was hastily arranged, poorly designed and badly executed. Nonetheless, Congress acted in haste and now gets to repent at leisure. Meanwhile, the totality of the policies to aid the major financial institutions is delaying the recovery of the broader U.S. economy and the hiring of its unemployed workers".

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