Hoisted from the archives – my old post on Freshwater and Saltwater macroeconomic theory
Long before Paul Krugman elevated the central schism in macroeconomics to the front page I wrote about it on this blog.
My old post is reprinted below (with a few trivial modifications to make it more readable than the original):
Freshwater and Saltwater: macroeconomic theory and losing money
Background for the non economists. In 1976 Robert Hall christened the central schism in macroeconomic thought as being between the freshwater and saltwater schools. The division was picked by their location (on the Great Lakes and Rivers versus the coastal schools). The division exists today – and indeed is being played out in Krugman’s (saltwater) blog and by the Chicago economists who think he is a bozo idiot.
Having got through the background here is the post…
Does everyone agree that Greenspan kept monetary policy too loose for too long?
I thought so!
When I did economics at University (admittedly at that Freshwater school on the Molonglo River called the Australian National University) that was meant to end in inflation – not deflation.
I like my theory to accord at least loosely with reality. Especially if I am going to bet real money on the outcome – rather than pontificate in papers from the ivory tower of academia.
More to the point – I thought (in true Freshwater style) that sustained low interest rates were a sign that monetary policy had been tight and that sustained high interest rates were a sign that monetary policy had been loose.
Given that basic understanding of macroeconomics I thought that regional banks that made more than half their profits out of carrying the yield curve would be carted out when loose monetary policy did eventually lead to higher interest rates. I was short a lot of banks – and whilst that was good – I spent a long time being short interest rate plays (whereas I should have been short the credit sensitive banks). I have detailed that mistake here. Bill Gross made a similar mistake declaring (early) the 25 year bull market in long dated treasuries over – so despite Bill Gross’s saltwater location at Newport Beach I was wrong in good company.
Now the subject of freshwater, saltwater and other macroeconomic elixirs is the subject de-jour amongst economic bloggers – but I have conducted the experiment – with real money – and I can confidently say (brutally backed by less-than-ideal-financial outcomes) that the saltwater guys were right.
John Hempton
PS. I know that the inflation junkies are still predicting hyper-inflation – but they were also predicting it in January when I wrote the original post. The Freshwater guys are still wrong. Will the backers of the Freshwater school please put out a testable timetable?
PPS. A reasonable summary of the issues I lived can be found in Justin Fox’s book. Whether Krugman should have referenced Fox in his magazine article is an open question – but I think Fox’s summary is right… Krugman lived the issues in the book and did not need Justin Fox to explain them to him…