All About Optics (Predicting Stress Test Outcomes)

Written by Simon Johnson

May 5, 2009 at 7:44 am

The bank stress tests are beginning to create a perception problem, but not – as you might think – for banks.  Rather the issue is top level Administration officials’ own optics (spin jargon for how we think about our rulers).

At one level, the government’s approach to banks – delay doing anything until the economy stabilizes – is working out nicely.  This is the counterpart of the macroeconomic Summers Strategy and in principle it is brilliant. “Don’t just do something, stand there,” is great advice in any crisis – eventually everything bottoms out and you can take the credit, justified or not (unless an election catches up with you first; check with Herbert Hoover.)

But American bankers apparently just cannot cooperate by lying low, keeping their mouths shut, and refraining from anything that looks like picking other people’s pockets.

All About Optics (Predicting Stress Test Outcomes) « The Baseline Scenario

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Swedish model (economist.com)
• The Costanza-Hoover Principle (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)