Depressions and Slumps

in the price level. The decrease in the price level leads to an increase in the real money stock. The LM curve shifts down and continues to shift down until output has returned to the natural level of output.

the natural level of output due to an adverse shock.
Because output is below the natural level of output, price levels decrease over time.
So long as output remains below its natural level, the price level continues to fall, and the LM curve continues to shift down.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

model.
Suppose output is below the natural level of output – equivalently, the unemployment rate is higher than the natural rate of unemployment.
With the unemployment rate above the natural rate, inflation falls over time.
As long as output is below its natural level, inflation falls, and the LM curve continues to shift down.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

this:
Output below the natural level of output leads to lower inflation.
Lower inflation leads in turn to higher real money growth.
Higher real money growth leads to an increase in output over time.
This mechanism, however, is not foolproof.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

what enters the IS relation, is the real interest rate—the interest rate in terms of goods.
What matters for the demand for money, and thus enters the LM relation, is the nominal interest rate—the interest rate in terms of dollars.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

The Nominal Interest Rate, the Real Interest Rate, and Expected Inflation

Interest Rate, and Expected Inflation

When inflation decreases in response to low output, there are two effects: (1) The real money stock increases, leading the LM curve to shift down, and (2) expected inflation decreases, leading the IS curve to shift to the left. The result may be a further decrease in output.

The decrease in inflation now has two effects:
The first effect is to increase the real money stock and shift the LM curve down, this shift tends to increase output.
The second effect is for a given nominal interest rate, the decrease in expected inflation increases the real interest rate.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

The Nominal Interest Rate, the Real Interest Rate, and Expected Inflation

rate is equal to zero, and once people have enough money for transaction purposes, they become indifferent between holding money and holding bonds. The demand for money becomes horizontal. This implies that, when the nominal interest rate is equal to zero, further increases in the money supply have no effect on the nominal interest rate.

nominal interest rate decreases, people want to hold more money.
As the nominal interest rate becomes equal to zero, people want to hold an amount of money at least equal to the distance OB: This is what they need for transaction purposes.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

The Liquidity Trap

from the equilibrium of Ms and i at point A, an increase in the money supply leads to a decrease in the nominal interest rate.
Now consider the case where the money supply is at point B or C. In either case, the initial nominal interest rate is zero, and an increase in the money supply has no effect on the nominal interest rate at this point.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

The Liquidity Trap

becomes powerless. The increase in money falls into a liquidity trap: People are willing to hold more money (more liquidity) at the same nominal interest rate.
The central bank can increase “liquidity” but the additional money is willingly held by financial investors at an unchanged interest rate, namely, zero.

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

The Liquidity Trap

output, the LM curve is a flat segment, with a nominal interest rate equal to zero. For higher levels of output, it is upward sloping: An increase in income leads to an increase in the nominal interest rate.

curve, Figure 22-4(a) looks at equilibrium in the financial markets for a given value of the real money stock and draws three money demand curves, each corresponding to a different level of income:
The combination of income, Y, and nominal interest rate, i, gives us the first point on the LM curve, point A in Figure 22-4(b).
Lower income means fewer transactions, and, therefore, a lower demand for money at any interest rate. This combination of income, Y’, and nominal interest rate, i’, gives us the second point on the LM curve, point A’ in Figure 22-4(b).

by point A” in Figure 22-4(a), with nominal interest rate equal to zero. Point A” in Figure 22-4(b) corresponds to A” in Figure 22-4(a).
The intersection between the money supply curve and the money demand curve takes place on the horizontal portion of the money demand curve. The equilibrium remains at A”, and the nominal interest rate remains equal to zero.

a liquidity trap, there is a limit to how much monetary policy can increase output. Monetary policy may not be able to increase output back to its natural level.

are likely to be very high. The liquidity trap is unlikely to be a problem when inflation is high.
If a country is in a recession, and the rate of inflation is negative, say 5%, then even if the nominal interest rate is zero, the real interest rate remains positive.

The value of the real interest rate corresponding to a zero nominal interest rate depends on the rate of expected inflation. For example, if expected inflation is 10%, then:

22-1 Disinflation, Deflation, and the Liquidity Trap

Putting Things Together: The Liquidity Trap and Deflation

In this situation, there is nothing monetary policy can do to bring output above the natural level of output.

and Deflation

In words: The economy caught in a vicious cycle: Low output leads to more deflation. More deflation leads to a higher real interest rate and even lower output, and there is nothing monetary policy can do about it.

Suppose the economy is in a liquidity trap, and there is deflation. Output below the natural level of output leads to more deflation over time, which leads to a further increase in the real interest rate, and leads to a further shift of the IS curve to the left. This shift leads to a further decrease in output, which leads to more deflation, and so on.

increase in unemployment, followed by a slow decline.

emerge from the table:
How sharply and how much output declined at the start of the depression.
How long it then took for unemployment to recover.

22-2 The Great Depression

A recession had actually started before the stock market crash of October, 1929. The crash, however, was important.
The stock market crash not only decreased consumers’ wealth, it also increased their uncertainty about the future.

The Initial Fall in Spending

June 1932, the stock market index fell from 313 to 47 before it slowly recovered.

stock market crash was compounded by a major policy mistake, namely, a large decrease in the nominal money stock.
The relation between the money stock, M1, and the monetary base, H, is given by:
M1 = H x money multiplier

the decrease in the money supply came from a decrease in the money multiplier (M1/H), as people shifted their money from checkable deposits to currency.
The decrease in the money supply was roughly proportional to the decrease in the price level. Consequently, the LM curve remained roughly unchanged.

increase in the real interest rate.

The Adverse Effects of Deflation

22-2 The Great Depression

to 1941, the nominal money stock increased by 140% and the real money stock by 100%. These increases were due to increases in the monetary base, not the money multiplier.

The Recovery

22-2 The Great Depression

Other factors that played an important role were:
The New Deal—a set of programs implemented by the Roosevelt administration.
The creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Other programs administered by the National Recovery Administration (NRA).

be the set of measures taken by the Roosevelt administration such as establishing the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933.
Another factor may be that while unemployment was still high, output growth was high as well.
Another factor may be the perception of a “regime change” associated with the election of Roosevelt.

The Recovery

22-2 The Great Depression

World War II came to an end in the early 1990s.
Since 1992, the economy has suffered from a long period of low growth—what is called the Japanese slump.
Low growth has led to a steady increase in unemployment, and a steady decrease in the inflation rate over time.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

Japan was less than 1%.

increase in unemployment. Inflation has turned into deflation.

set of questions:
What triggered Japan’s slump? Why did it last so long? Were monetary and fiscal policies misused, or did they fail? What are the factors behind the current recovery?

change in the fundamental value of the stock price, which depends on the expected present value of future dividends.
A speculative bubble: Investors buy at a higher price simply because they expect the price to go even higher in the future.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Rise and Fall of the Nikkei

in stock prices in the 1980s and the subsequent decrease were not associated with a parallel movement in dividends.

suggests that a large bubble existed in the Nikkei.
The rapid fall in stock prices had a major impact on spending—consumption was less affected, but investment collapsed.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Rise and Fall of the Nikkei

been in a liquidity trap since the mid-1990s: The nominal interest rate has been close to zero, and the inflation rate has been negative. Even at a zero nominal interest rate, the real interest rate has been positive.

when it was used, if faced the twin problems of the liquidity trap and deflation.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) cut the nominal interest rate, but it did so slowly, and the cumulative effect of low growth was such that inflation had turned to deflation. As a result, the real interest rate was higher than the nominal interest rate.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Failure of Monetary and Fiscal Policy

of the slump, and there was a steady increase in government spending throughout the decade.
Fiscal policy helped, but it was not enough to increase spending and output.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Failure of Monetary and Fiscal Policy

increased and government revenues decreased steadily throughout the 1990s, leading to steadily larger deficits.

predict that the recovery will continue. This raises the last set of questions. What are the factors behind the current recovery?
There appear to be two main factors.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Japanese Recovery

already equal to zero and thus cannot be reduced further, the central bank might still be able to lower the real interest rate by affecting inflation expectations.

22-3 The Japanese Slump

The Japanese Recovery

A Regime Change in Monetary Policy

It became clear in the 1990s that the banking system in Japan was in trouble. Since 2002, the government has put increasing pressure on banks to reduce bad loans, and banks, in turn, have put increasing pressure on bad firms to restructure or close.

The Cleanup of the Banking System

sharp decrease in output growth in Japan in the early 1990s left many firms unable to repay their bank loans.

Figure 1

The Bank’s Balance Sheet