We saw this commentary from one of the research analysts we follow. Brian Wesbury is the Chief economist at First Trust and we thought you might find his commentary interesting. This dovetails with the update we sent out last weekend about not believing everything you see or hear in the media. What Brian is discussing is the need to be honest about how and why the Federal Reserve grew its balance sheet. The Federal Reserve will finally look to start reducing its balance sheet and as it does, the net affect will be the same as if they raised interest rates. Brian’s belief is that this balance sheet reduction needs to be done sooner than later so we can get back to normal economic growth. We at Fortem Financial agree with his position and very insightful analysis:
D.C. institutions got away with blaming the crisis on the private sector, and used this narrative to grow their influence, budgets, and size. They also created the narrative that government saved the US economy, but that is highly questionable.
Without going too much in depth, one thing no one talks about is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the direction of HUD, were forced to buy subprime loans in order to meet politically-driven, social policy objectives. In 2007, they owned 76% of all subprime paper (See Peter Wallison: Hidden in Plain Sight).
At the same time, the real reason the crisis spread so rapidly and expanded so greatly was not derivatives, but rather mark-to-market accounting that came out of Sarbanes – Oxley Legislation designed to prevent corporate accounting fraud like we saw with MCI and Enron.
It wasn't government that saved the economy. Quantitative Easing was started in September 2008. TARP was passed on October 3, 2008. Yet, for the next five months markets continued to implode, the economy plummeted and private money did not flow to private banks.
On March 9, 2009, with the announcement that insanely rigid mark-to-market accounting rules would be changed, the markets stopped falling, the economy turned toward growth and private investors started investing in banks. All this happened immediately when the accounting rule was changed. No longer could these crazy rules wipe out bank capital by marking down asset values despite little to no change in cash flows. Changing this rule was the key to recovery, not QE, TARP or "stress tests."
The Fed, and supporters of government intervention, ignore all these facts. They never address them. Why? First, institutions protect themselves even if it's at the expense of the truth. Second, human nature doesn't like to admit mistakes. Third, Washington DC always uses crises to grow. Admitting that their policies haven't worked would lead to a smaller government with less power.
The Fed has become massive. Its balance sheet is nearly 25% of GDP. Never before has it been this large. And yet, the economy has grown relatively slowly. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, with a much smaller Fed balance sheet, the economy grew far more rapidly.
So how do you drain the Fed? By not appointing anyone that is already waiting in D.C.'s revolving door of career elites. We need someone willing to challenge Fed and D.C. orthodoxy. If we had our pick to fill the chair and vice chair positions (with Stanley Fischer announcing his departure) we would be focused on the likes of John Taylor, Peter Wallison, or Bill Isaac.
They would bring new blood to the Fed and hold it to account for its mistakes. It's time for the Fed to own up and stop defending the nonsensical story that government, and not entrepreneurs, saved the US economy. Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have never fracked a well or written an App. We need a government that is willing to support the private sector and stop acting as if the "swamp" itself creates wealth.
Please call or email us with any questions or thoughts.
