Thursday, December 3, 2015

3/12/15: 85 v 52: Of Duration of Risk Mispricing


One of the causes of the most recent crisis in the euro area is frequently linked to the superficially low interest rates set by the ECB during the period of 2002-2006. Taking historical average rates, the actual period of significant interest rates deviation from the ‘normal’ was between 38 and 52 months, depending on how you measure it.

Since then, of course we’ve learned the lessons… so the current period of ECB rates below their pre-crisis historical average (using 1/2 standard deviation around the mean to control for significance) is… err… 85 months and counting. Oh, and by magnitude, the current deviation is much much worse than the one that caused pre-crisis mispricing of financial assets and risks.

Just check the following chart, updated to today’s ECB call…


Eye popping, no?.. say 52 months to blow the bubble up… 85 months to… 

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