2014’s buzzword is “macro-prudential” – Here’s why one analyst is already tired of it
2013's word was "tapering", now 2014's will be "macro-prudential", says Societe Generale's Kit Juckes. He already dislikes the new term even more.
Apparently, the credit crisis was caused by a lack of governance, not by absurdly accommodative monetary policy.
And we're going to avoid a repeat by regulating financial markets while keeping rates low. I really, really hope this is a good idea, but it's got all the hallmarks of encouraging excess.
Juckes says that economists – Nobel Prize winners and other eminent figures – are forming a consensus around easy monetary policy, with piecemeal measures to tackle asset inflation.
This is essentially what Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been advocating. Loose policy, but with specific interventions to put out the fires that causes.
That will result in nothing but upside risks to US nominal GDP growth in 2014/15 with "no brakes on the US economy", says Juckes.
He says that 2013 is ending with buoyant equity markets because "money is still far, far too cheap." And what central banks think will be a solution "sounds like a recipe for a muddle".