Back in June last year (2007), we wrote in Epic, unprecedented inflation that
Today, the world is experiencing an unparalleled inflation of asset prices. This is the first time ever that the world is experiencing asset price inflation in all asset classes (e.g. property, bonds, commodities, stocks and even art!) and in all major nations (e.g. US, China, Japan, Australia, UK, Russia, etc). We will repeat this point again: never before had such a universal scale of asset price inflation ever happened in the entire history of humanity! Today, even artwork is also in a ?bull? market (if you consider artwork as an asset class)!
The implication is, as Marc Faber opined, this synchronised inflation will eventually lead to a synchronised deflation i.e. price deflation for all asset class in all major nations. This is something that contrarians have been warning all along (see Spectre of deflation in January 2007).
This synchronised monetary inflation leads to a mighty economic boom that mainstream economists called (and cheered for) the “asset-driven” growth. But again, we were sceptical about this kind of boom. As we explained back in November 2006 in How will asset-driven ?growth? eventually harm the economy?,
Thus, when housing prices [asset price in general] increased due to the increase in ?demand? for housing, the common people are misled into thinking that the value of housing had increased as much as the increase in its prices. That collective error in judgement resulted in the economy misallocating scarce resources into housing sector?in the case of the US, a significant proportion of the jobs created during the asset-driven ?growth? was related (both directly and indirectly) to the housing boom. Since economic resources are always scarce, any misallocation of it implies an opportunity cost on the other sectors of the economy. The result is a structural damage to the economy that can only be corrected through a recession.
The dark side of this boom is the dangerous build up of debt and leverage in the global economy. As we explained in January 2007 at Myth of asset-driven growth,
As asset price growth outpaces income growth by an ever-increasing margin, increasing issue of credit (i.e. the flip side of taking up of debt) is required to bridge the gap between the asset price and income. What is most often overlooked is that the uptake of debt, which is required for asset-driven growth, has to be serviced. There are two kinds of debt?investment debt and consumption debt. Investment debts are being used for investments that will generally add value to the economy by increasing its productive capacity. Thus investment debts are self-servicing loans?they will generate the necessary economic returns to make repayments possible. The problem with asset-driven growth is that much of the debts are consumption debts. Since such debts are acquired for consumption, they do not add value to the economy because they do not increase its productive capacity. As such, asset-driven growth magnifies the consumption debts of the economy, which will have to be serviced in the future. By deferring the burden of debt servicing to the indefinite future, it can only mean that the nation?s wealth will shrink in the future. Hence, asset prices cannot rise in perpetuality. Eventually, the weight of future debt servicing burdens dooms the bubble to collapse under its own weight.
For those who are new to this publication, these explanations are from the classic business cycle theory of the Austrian School
of economic thought. Followers of the Austrian School will look at today’s financial crisis with a yawn because it is obvious to those who understands the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. To understand this theory, we highly recommend our guide, What causes economic booms and busts?.
Currently, we are in the bust phase of the business cycle. In this phase, we will see a much needed painful restructuring of the economy as wasteful and unsustainable mal-investments of the prior boom time get liquidated. Real-life example of mal-investment liquidations can be seen in this news article, Frozen-out expats return to Australia for jobs,
A generation of young Australian expatriates are being forced home from New York and London due to the tightening job market in the finance industry.
Painful as it is, liquidation of mal-investments is a necessary evil so that the global economy can get back on its feet towards a sustainable growth path. The manifestation of this painful process is deflation. The magnitude of the coming deflation reflects the monstrosity of the prior unsustainable inflation. The fact that the media is now murmuring about the infamous “D” word (Depression) shows that the massive boom of the past few years is a cruel illusion that fooled many, including many of the mainstream economists and government.
But what are the governments around the world doing? They are fighting this necessary evil by stalling the inevitable liquidation of mal-investments by the free market with bail-outs and even more attempts at monetary inflation! This will delay the long-term recovery of the global economy. How can they solve the problem with more attempts at inflation when inflation is the cause of it in the first place?
Should they ever succeed in their attempts at inflation, the end result will be as we described in Supplying never-ending drugs till stagflation:
Students of the Austrian School of economic thought will understand that indiscriminate ?printing? of money (i.e. [inflation]) will worsen the plague of mal-investments and structural damage in the economy. Like drugs, the more you ?print? money, the less effective it will be in stimulating economic growth (see What causes economic booms and busts?). Eventually, it will come to a point that the economy will not respond positively any more no matter how much money is being ?printed.? That is the nightmare of stagflation (low or negative real growth with sky-rocketing price inflation- look at Zimbabwe).
