October 16, 2008
podcast: Will the Bank Plan Revive Global Markets?
With stock markets in freefall, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced on Tuesday that the government's effort to unlock credit markets would include direct investments of $250 billion in bank equities. He also warned bankers not to hoard the money, but to use it to make the loans that lubricate the nation's economy. Similar moves announced by European governments over the weekend, along with anticipation that the U.S. would follow suit, sent global stock markets rocketing upward on Monday. But the moves signal significant changes in the financial landscape, moving leverage and power from Wall Street to Washington. In separate interviews, Wharton finance professors Richard Marston and Jeremy Siegel tell Knowledge@Wharton that while the investment is not without risk, it appears to be the best hope for restoring confidence in credit and stock markets— and reducing the severity of a recession that is all but certain to come.
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