suppressing wages may be good for those who do it, but bad for the system as a whole, and so it only "works" when a very few countries do it and the rest don't notice. - that's cheat
Financial Times: "Thailand’s household debt stands at 86 per cent of GDP, the highest among upper middle-income countries in the world, according to HSBC, with consumers using loans to fund daily expenses amid slowing economic and wage growth."
Thailand seems to be an extreme case of what has become a global problem, but I wonder if this is really a demographic problem so much as a global trade problem. Thailand has a very high manufacturing share of GDP, roughly 24% of its GDP, versus a global average of around 16%, and in order to remain "competitive", it cannot allow wages to rise too much given that global competitiveness has mostly become a function of low wages relative to productivity.
The problem with low wages relative to productivity, of course, is that it results in low domestic demand relative to production, and the only way to make up for it is either to run trade surpluses that force the low demand onto trade partners, or to increase household debt, which works temporarily to boost demand but increases financial fragility.
I would argue that as long as we have a global trading system that rewards countries that suppress wage growth relative to productivity growth, this problem isn't going away. This is what Michael Kalecki explained: suppressing wages may be good for those who do it, but bad for the system as a whole, and so it only "works" when a very few countries do it and the rest don't notice. The problem, as Joan Robinson warned, is that eventually everyone notices it, and trade breaks down.
The word needs faster growth in workers' wages, not more debt to make up for it, but in an unevenly globalized world, no country can afford to let wages rise too quickly because the benefits accrue mainly to those of its trade partners who keep wage growth below productivity growth.
This is something labor unions everywhere should be more worried and more vociferous about. Wage growth is sluggish not because businesses are evil but because our system punishes manufacturers in countries that allow wage growth to keep pace with productivity growth.
Just look at Germany. When it suppressed wage growth in the 2003-05 reforms, it became the most competitive manufacturer in the world, but during the past 5-10 years, as wages once again caught up, its manufacturers lost much of that competitiveness. Germany was heavily rewarded for doing the wrong thing, and then got punished for reversing it.
This is a terrible global incentive structure, and it affects manufacturing countries like Thailand. The only way Thailand can reduce household debt without slowing the economy either is to raise wages or to run surpluses, but it can't raise wages without making its manufacturers less competitive.
https://t.co/d0qLrYZDlK
朱镕基干了啥 early-2000s banking cleanup was not that China found a way to eliminate the costs of resolving bad debt. It was that it found a politically acceptable way to hide those costs.
"China’s banking crisis in the 2000s was resolved by transferring the costs to households through financial repression—a decision that recapitalized the banks while exacerbating the structural imbalances that continue to shape the Chinese economy today."
As Chinese debt continues to surge, and as Beijing increasingly tries (so far unsuccessfully) to rein it in, it is worth remembering how China managed its last major debt cleanup, from 2002 to 2011, and what the consequences were for the economy. I discuss this in my latest piece for the Carnegie Endowment.
https://t.co/umeEjG3nH4
@michaelxpettis I have a question, professor, regarding the solution of selling assets, how could it be effective without the foundation of judiciary system and its independency, wouldn't it be another repeat of selling of late 1990s, or Chinese stock market.
debt resolution requires losses to be allocated, whether explicitly or implicitly. Beijing chose to allocate those losses primarily to households through financial repression. That decision successfully recapitalized the banking system, but it also depressed household income···
"China’s banking crisis in the 2000s was resolved by transferring the costs to households through financial repression—a decision that recapitalized the banks while exacerbating the structural imbalances that continue to shape the Chinese economy today."
As Chinese debt continues to surge, and as Beijing increasingly tries (so far unsuccessfully) to rein it in, it is worth remembering how China managed its last major debt cleanup, from 2002 to 2011, and what the consequences were for the economy. I discuss this in my latest piece for the Carnegie Endowment.
https://t.co/umeEjG3nH4
1980s, 中国消费还有65 to 68%of GDP. 1990s 消费跌, 2000年 it still represented 63.9 percent of GDP. 2000年之后不升反降, 到2010, 跌倒 49.4 % of GDP, 迄今为止任何主要经济体最低的消费力. 黄金10年20年, 谁得利
"China’s banking crisis in the 2000s was resolved by transferring the costs to households through financial repression—a decision that recapitalized the banks while exacerbating the structural imbalances that continue to shape the Chinese economy today."
As Chinese debt continues to surge, and as Beijing increasingly tries (so far unsuccessfully) to rein it in, it is worth remembering how China managed its last major debt cleanup, from 2002 to 2011, and what the consequences were for the economy. I discuss this in my latest piece for the Carnegie Endowment.
https://t.co/umeEjG3nH4
"China’s banking crisis in the 2000s was resolved by transferring the costs to households through financial repression—a decision that recapitalized the banks while exacerbating the structural imbalances that continue to shape the Chinese economy today."
As Chinese debt continues to surge, and as Beijing increasingly tries (so far unsuccessfully) to rein it in, it is worth remembering how China managed its last major debt cleanup, from 2002 to 2011, and what the consequences were for the economy. I discuss this in my latest piece for the Carnegie Endowment.
https://t.co/umeEjG3nH4