Financial Repression

Financial repression is a term that describes measures by which governments channel funds to themselves as a form of debt reduction. This concept was introduced in 1973 by Stanford economists Edward S. Shaw and Ronald I. McKinnon. Financial repression can include such measures as directed lending to the government, caps on interest rates, regulation of capital movement between countries and a tighter association between government and banks. The term was initially used to point out bad economic policies that held back the economies in less developed nations. Financial repression has since been applied to many developed economies and the long-term damage being done through stimulus and tightened capital rules following the 2008-09 Financial Crisis.

Financial repression is an indirect way for governments to have private industry dollars pay down public debts. A government steals growth from the economy with subtle tools like zero interest rates and inflationary policy to knock down its own debts. Some of the methods may actually be direct, such as outlawing the ownership of gold and limiting how much currency can be converted into foreign currency. In 2011, economists Carmen M. Reinhart and M. Belen Sbrancia hypothesized in a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper entitled "The Liquidation of Government Debt" that governments could return to financial repression to deal with debt following the 2008 economic crisis.

Reinhart and Sbrancia indicate that financial repression features:

1. Caps or ceilings on interest rates
2. Government ownership or control of domestic banks and financial institutions
3. Creation or maintenance of a captive domestic market for government debt
4. Restrictions on entry to the financial industry
5. Directing credit to certain industries

The same paper found that financial repression was a key element in explaining periods of time where advanced economies were able to reduce their public debt at a relatively quick pace. These periods of financial repression tended to follow an explosion of public debt. In some cases, this was a result of wars and their costs. More recently, public debts have grown as a result of stimulus programs designed to help lift economies out of the Great Recession. There have been signs that financial repression has been used in a sense. The stress tests and updated regulations for insurers essentially force these institutions to buy more safe assets. Chief among what regulators consider a safe asset is, of course, government bonds. This buying of bonds helps, in turn, to keep interest rates low and potentially encourages overall inflation - all of which culminates in a quicker reduction in public debt than would have otherwise been possible.