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Rational Economics Literature Review

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Literature Review: Do Markets Work Or Do They Just Work Until They Don’t?
“One of the most constant aspects of American life is change – and nowhere is it more evident than in our financial markets.” – Henry Paulson, in his remarks on Blueprint for Regulatory Reform (3/31/2008) It is hard to believe that we have had so many market crashes throughout history and yet there exist so many people that claim they can guarantee certain returns. This fallacy is one of the main components of economics as a study. So called experts have been known to praise certain theories while they unknowingly march into a market crash. In order to understand how market crashes happen, it is critical to understand the beliefs that were held leading up to past crises. In Olivier J. Blanchard’s paper published in 2008 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, he declares that “the state of macro is good” (Blanchard 2008, 2). Blanchard, of MIT, was expressing his contempt with the way in which the macroeconomy appeared to be operating and the ability of economists to explain the operations. He was not alone. Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman, admitted in October of 2008 to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was “shocked because [he had] been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that [the economy] was working exceptionally well.” What had led these renowned experts to believe all was well while the markets were wildly deviating from their expectations? The answer lies in the belief held by many economists of an “idealized vision of an economy in which rational individuals interact in perfect markets (Krugman 2009, 2). This idea ignored all the things that can go wrong that humans do not typically expect.
Trust the Market The study of economics was birthed in 1776 around the ideals detailed in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Over the next 160 years, Krugman notes, “an extensive body of economic theory was developed” (Krugman 2009, 2). The general belief of this study was to trust the market. This idea that there was an ‘invisible hand’ at play and the markets can operate as some sort of machine went on without much resistance. This belief was challenged very strongly when the first major financial crisis occurred in the US –The Great Depression. Krugman notes that even some economists believed “whatever happens in a market economy must be right” (Krugman 2009, 3) even during the crisis.
Markets are Efficient Eugene Fama defended this idea that the markets should be trusted with his Efficient Market Hypothesis. Fama, of the University of Chicago, coined the idea that “security prices fully reflect all available information” (Fama 1991, 1575). Efficient Market Hypothesis, EHM for short, means that the price of an asset or equity is priced accurately in real time. For instance, all readily available information is already factored into the price of something when an investor goes to buy that thing. This means that at no time will something be under or overvalued. Fama’s hypothesis went hand in hand with another model that many would consider a fundamental aspect of financial economics. The Capital Asset Pricing Model was founded by Jack Treynor in the early 1960s (French 2003, 61) and is still a popular model today. The Capital Asset Pricing Model, CAPM, is a theoretical model that all investors rationally balance risk against the perceived reward and mathematically arrive at a decision.
When Fundamentals are Flawed As subprime lending practices and the market for credit default swaps and derivatives were growing, Alan Greenspan, former US Fed Chairman, kept his faith in the self-correcting nature of the market and opposed regulation increases. Greenspan refused to rein in subprime lending or address the inflating housing bubble. Paul Krugman identified Greenspan’s inaction to be a result of the popular belief that “modern financial economics had everything under control” (Krugman 2009). Greenspan did later admitnn front of congress that the idea that the markets are self-sufficient and will heal themselves was flawed. Greenspan stated he “was shocked, because [he] had been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that [his idea of the markets had been] working exceptionally well” (CITE PBS TRANSCRIPT).
Paul Krugman realized that this widespread belief that markets are self-sufficient and will heal themselves led market participants to believe that modern financial markets have everything under control. This belief is understood to have allowed market crashes to form under the radar. Even Alan Greenspan, the then Fed Chairman and a proponent for deregulation, “whose rejection of calls to rein in subprime lending or address the ever-inflating housing bubble rested in large part on the belief that modern financial economics had everything under control” (Krugman 2009, 6), was blindsided by the market crash he oversaw in the US. Economists clung to these fundamentals even when asked about alarming economic conditions that could lead to a market crash. In response to pressures about a potential housing market bubble Greenspan concluded “overall, while local economies may experience significant speculative price imbalances, a national severe price distortion seems most unlikely in the United States, given its size and diversity” (Greenspan 2004, 1). Another famous Fed figure, Ben Bernanke, responded to increasing housing prices by stating that “price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals” (Bernanke 2005, 1). In conclusion, the theories that economists would consider fundamental are often based on market conditions that do not factor in irrational behavior. This type of behavior is inherently tied with bubble and usually contributes to their creation. Even at times when ideological beliefs about the markets should be shattered, there exists a resistance of economists and the public to cling to what they perceive as fundamental knowledge.

Bernanke, Ben S. 2005. The Economic Outlook. Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/cea/econ-outlook20051020.html. Blanchard, Olivier J. 2008. The State of Macro. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w14259. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1688990238?accountid=10796 Fama, Eugene F. 1991. “Efficient Capital Markets: II.” The Journal of Finance 46 (5): 1576 – 1617. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/jeffrey.russell/teaching/Finecon/readings/fama.pdf French, Craig W. (2003). "The Treynor Capital Asset Pricing Model". Journal of Investment Management 1(2): 60–72. SSRN 447580. Greenspan, Alan. 2004. The Mortgage Market and Consumer Debt. The Federal Reserve Board at America’s Community Bankers Annual Convention. http://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2004/20041019/default.htm Krugman, Paul. 2009. “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” The New York Times Magazine, September 2. http://nyti.ms/1Jaobjq

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