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: Economics of Contempt

1998 vs. 2009

By Anonymous

A few weeks ago James Kwak noted that Goldman had only $270 billion of assets in 1998, and asked, half-rhetorically, whether that was big enough, since Goldman was "probably doing a perfectly good job of serving their clients at the time." I thought the answer to this question was obvious, but I guess it's not, since this meme has apparently persisted.

The answer, of course, is that capital markets have exploded upwards since 1998. The international bond markets rose 157%, from $32.5 trillion in 1998 to $83.5 trillion in 2008; bond issuance rose 272%, from $654 billion in 1998 to $2.4 trillion in 2008; etc., etc. I don't have a lot of time, but I think these charts drive home my point.

Asking whether banks, which serve as market-makers in capital markets products, need to be bigger than Goldman was in 1998 frames the issue exactly wrong. The issue isn't how big market-makers need to be in order to provide adequate liquidity to the capital markets of 1998. The issue is how big market-makers need to be in order to provide adequate liquidity to the capital markets of 2009 (and beyond).

Full post as published by Economics of Contempt on November 19, 2009 (boomark / email).