Howard Marks Memo: Will It Work?
The other day, my son Andrew – college senior and credit-analyst-to-be – asked whether I think Treasury Secretary Geithner is doing the right things. As has happened before, his question elicited a fatherly response that grew into this memo.
When you want a bridge built, you hire a civil engineer whose “calcs” will determine exactly how much concrete and steel should be used. Then it’ll be sure to hold the weight of the cars you expect to cross it. And if you have to perform a task in carpentry, you can employ specialized tools developed and tested expressly for the job: esoteric things like miter boxes, routers and extractors.
One of the most important things to bear in mind today is that economics isn’t an exact science. It may not even be much of a science at all, in the sense that in science, controlled experiments can be conducted, past results can be replicated with confidence, and cause-and-effect relationships can be depended on to hold. It’s not for nothing that economics is called “the dismal science.”
Solutions in economics aren’t nearly as dependable as engineers’ calculations, and there may not be a tool that’s just right for fixing an economy. Of course, the toolbox offers lots of possibilities, including interest rate reductions; quantitative easing; tax cuts, rebates and credits; stimulus checks; infrastructure spending; capital injections; loans, rescues and takeovers; regulatory forebearances and on and on. But no one should think there’s a “golden tool,” such that solving the problem is just a matter of figuring out which one it is and applying it. Anyone who holds the problem solvers to that standard is being unfair and unrealistic. -
