Monday, September 12, 2011

Arends: To restart our economy, everyone should default on their mortgages, file bankruptcy, and get a fresh start


This is a funny concept, but Brent Arends may be on to something.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/massive-default-is-best-way-to-fix-the-economy-2011-09-12?pagenumber=2


Some will say the financial impact would be terrible. But the banks would just be facing up to reality. And a lot of these mortgages are already trading at distressed levels.

Some will say, "why should people get away with borrowing imprudently?" The response: Why should the banks get away with lending imprudently?

There's no point telling people not to borrow money. They always will. I have yet to see a Wall Street executive turn down free money. I have yet to see a company in an IPO say, "Don't give us so much money!" People like money. They will take as much as they are offered.

In a free economy, the people who are supposed to ration the loans are the lenders. Banks are supposed to lend carefully and responsibly. What else are they paid for? Accepting deposits? You could hire people on minimum wage to do that.

Some will say, "it's immoral" for borrowers to default. Alas, most of these people are being inconsistent. They are usually the first ones to defend a company when it closes down a factory and ships the jobs to China, or pays the CEO $50 million for doing a bad job, on the grounds that "this ain't morality, pal, this is business!"

But when Main Street wants to do the same thing, they start screaming "Morality! Morality!"

We don't live in an economy based on morals and fairness.

T Mobile doesn't charge me what's "fair" each month. They charge me what's on the contract. Your employer doesn't pay you more if you need more. He pays you your economic value. 

American mortgage contracts allow for default. Half of the states in this country are "non-recourse," which broadly speaking means you can send in the keys and walk away from a bad loan. The other half are sort of "semi-recourse." The bank can come after you for any shortfall, but only in a limited way. Broadly speaking they can't touch retirement accounts and basic assets. You can typically keep your car, personal effects, often things like life insurance.

Most of the people who are deeply underwater don't have that much anyway.

And the banks knew this. When they were lending $500,000 to a bus driver with $1,000 in his checking account, they knew that their loan was only guaranteed by the value of the home.

If they didn't know it, they should have. Their incompetence is not our problem.

It's tempting to say, "if someone borrows money, they should repay it." Generally speaking, I agree. I pay all my debts. But while that makes sense when applied to any individual, it doesn't work so well when it's applied to everyone.

We have tens of millions who cannot repay their debts. But they are all trying to. That sucks huge amounts of money out of the economy. And that means these people cannot function properly as consumers or workers. That's the reason people aren't coming into your restaurant. It's the reason people aren't taking your yoga class. It's the reason they haven't hired you to redo the kitchen.

And so tens or hundreds of millions of perfectly responsible business owners and employees are also suffering from this slump. That's the reason we have a shortage of demand. That's the reason no one is hiring.

Even worse: People who are underwater on their mortgage, but who do not want to default, cannot move to where the jobs are either. They are stuck with their home.

You want to break this logjam? Try Chapter 11 for the nation. Massive defaults. Clear the decks, clean the books.

What are the alternatives?

Government cutbacks, higher taxes, and a balanced budget? In a normal economy, fine. But in this situation, when the private sector is also slashing its spending, that could lead to absolute catastrophe. That's what happened in the Great Depression. And our debt levels are worse than in the Great Depression.

Government borrowing? That's the Keynesian solution. "The consumer can no longer borrow like a crazy person," says the Keynesian, "so Uncle Sam has to do so instead." It's just transferring private madness to public madness.

Inflation? That's probably the least bad alternative. But it's just default by another name. And instead of taking money from the imprudent banks that caused the problem, it robs grandma's savings.

Twice before, advanced economies have gone through what we are going through now — namely a massive hangover after a massive debt binge.

The first was the U.S. in the 1930s, the second was Japan in the 1990s.

The U.S. didn't get out of it until the 1940s unleashed inflation and reduced the debt's value in real terms.

Japan still hasn't gotten out of it. They have deflation, while government debt has skyrocketed.

The correct moral hazard is to punish the banks who lent imprudently by making them eat their own losses.

I told you that you wouldn't like it. I don't either. But the alternatives are worse.