不匹配

银行家的名声一直不好. 西塞罗在 De Officiis 公元前44年, 参考长老卡托, 伟大的罗马哲学家, 谁, 当被问及他对利息贷款的看法时, 回答说, “你对谋杀怎么看?——威廉·詹宁斯·布莱恩, 在1896年民主党全国代表大会上, railed against the bankers 谁 would “crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Robert Frost (with more irony than poetry) called a bank “a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it rains.”

这不是道歉, 或防御, 的银行家, but we should understand the central role banking plays in the economy. 银行吸收存款, 并以利息的形式支付, and lend those deposits to people and businesses that want to borrow: to buy a house, 扩大业务, 还有很多其他用途. Taking deposits from savers and recycling that capital to borrowers is the central purpose of banking. This function is fundamental to the economy, and it entails, inherently, 通过设计, a mismatch between a bank’s assets (loans) and liabilities (deposits). There is simply no way around this basic design mismatch of recycling deposits to borrowers.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created in 1933 to guarantee bank deposits in order to prevent a run on banks. 如今，大多数个人持有的资产不足250美元,000 (the current maximum amount insured) in their bank accounts, and their deposits are guaranteed 谁le by the federal government. But most of the $17 trillion in bank deposits is in accounts greater than $250,000, primarily by businesses that must have free access to their cash.

Banks’ central purpose is to recycle capital from savers to borrowers, but banks also have a central function in the exchange of money. Trillions of dollars flow every day among millions (billions) of individuals and businesses that has nothing to do with borrowing and lending. These flows represent the exchange of goods and services throughout the economy, and this exchange mechanism is the function of banks, 没有这些，经济就会崩溃.

数百万的企业, 从你当地的餐馆到沃尔玛, 代表了经济的绝大部分, 每月花费超过250美元,000, and could not function if they were required to limit their bank deposits to that amount. 这些存款是经济的命脉. To safeguard the economy, these deposits, all deposits, must be guaranteed safe. 但要做到这一点，需要一种不同的监管机制.

The Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) established last week is a step in the right direction. Banks are able to obtain loans on the par amount of collateral posted, thus avoiding having to sell government securities at a mark-to-market loss in order to meet liquidity demands by depositors. The BTFP should be extended to cover all government securities held by all banks.

Regulators should also consider a deposit “gating” measure, 类似于大多数对冲基金的条款. This would limit (“gate”) the amount that can be withdrawn at the bank level. 例如, withdrawals of more than 25% of the deposit base will not be permitted, 250美元以下的免税额,在困难情况下. This would give regulators time to oversee a timely and orderly transition of the failing bank.

The simplest fix to the inherent mismatch in banking is to eliminate the banks. A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) would stop bank runs since the central bank has an unlimited balance sheet. 但我们应该谨慎行事. A CBDC disrupts the central banking function of recycling capital, a function not well-suited to government bureaucrats. Significant privacy concerns are also raised with a CBDC. But as a monetary exchange mechanism, a CBDC could be ideal, and that should be explored.

The bottom line is that banks serve two critical functions in the economy: as a recycler of capital from savers to borrowers, and as the mechanism for the exchange of goods and services. Bank deposits cannot be put at risk without catastrophic economic consequences. 所有的银行存款都应该是完整的.

There must also be tighter controls on how banks manage their balance sheets. Shareholders and bondholders must bear the cost of bank mismanagement, but not depositors.

Banking involves an inherent mismatch of assets and liabilities: that mismatch defines banking. But we can’t allow that mismatch to jeopardize the critical role banks play in the everyday flow of capital in our economy. 所有的存款都必须保证, through stricter rules on how banks can invest those deposits, 或者建立CBDC.

I thought the sartorial choices of the two men at the top were hideously mismatched. 我知道什么?  British GQ Magazine had them as two of their best-dressed men of 2019. 但我可以忍受衣服的不搭配, just as we are going to have live with the inherent mismatch in the function of banking. 不管我们喜不喜欢.

• 2020年6月2日

  Earthrise or Earthset: Thoughts on a Post-Pandemic World (Part 3)

  Source: NASAWeak economic growth and low investment returns are the prospects we discussed in the first two parts of ...

• 2015年9月24日

  瑜珈

  Baseball, more than any other sport, by far, has drawn its share of colorful characters. 我不知道为什么，但是 ...

• 2015年9月4日

  工作

  Markets have taken today's employment release as evidence of a weakeningjobs market. 只有17.3万个净新增工作岗位 ...