If twenty per cent of americans are not paying their mortgages, it might be rough within a month or two. Even fed liquidity injections would not get the banks over that hurdle unless we fix it more directly. It's not obvious to me right now that the balance sheets of the corps group of systemically important largest u s bank are vulnerable to anywere near the same extent as they were in o a anyway. The normal set of relationships between equity markets and bond market seems to have been restored. There seems to be a safety function being performed by government debt markets, which must be reassuring. What do you think of the liquidity of treasury securities?...
Adam Tooze is best known for his highly-regarded books on the economic history of Nazi Germany, the remaking of the global economic and political order starting in World War I, and his account of how the economic effects of the 2008 financial crisis rippled across the globe for a decade to follow. Recently, he’s become an influential voice on Twitter documenting the pandemic-induced strain on the world’s financial systems.
Adam joined Tyler to discuss the historically unusual decision to have a high-cost lockdown during a pandemic, why he believes in a swoosh-shaped recovery, portents of financial crises in China and the West, which emerging economies are currently most at risk, what Keynes got wrong about the Treaty of Versailles, why the Weimar Republic failed, whether Hitler was a Keynesian, the political and economic prospects of various EU members, his trick to writing a lot, how Twitter encourages him to read more, what he taught executives at BP, his advice for visiting Germany, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded April 16th, 2020 Other ways to connect