It's All A Matter Of Incentives

Cerberus Capital Management has asked for a bailout! Who would have thought that a private equity fund would be seeking the help of the Federal Government to provide it with bailout funds?

The United States government is the largest creator of incentives in the world. Whatever it does it sets up incentives that people respond to in order to gain whatever edge they can obtain. And, the competition can sometimes become extremely fierce.

Incentives can either be positive or negative. They can either encourage us to do something…like pursue an education…or they can discourage us from doing something…like quitting smoking. They can work to make the society better…like improving the environment…or they can cause criminal behavior…like prohibition resulted in an underground business boom.

Whatever it is that the government does…it sets up incentives that people respond to. And, making lots and lots of funds available to people creates a huge incentive for those individuals to line up…with their hands out.

We saw this earlier with TARP. I thought that this effort supposedly had something to do with the “toxic assets” that were on the balance sheets of banks. But, as soon as it was passed…all of a sudden mayors and governors had their hands out for some of the money. Somewhere I missed their inclusion in the bill passed by Congress.

The major criteria now for getting money from the Obama stimulus plan just passed by Congress is “shovel ready.” Wow…I didn’t know that so many governmental bodies in the United States had so many proposals ready to begin putting the shovel into the ground next Monday!

Most incentives in an economy evolve out of the workings of the economic and social system that exists within a country. One could say these incentives are “endogenous” to the system…that is, they are created through the normal functioning of daily life. One could say that these incentives arise naturally.

Governments and some large organizations can create incentives “exogenously”…that is, they can impose incentives on a society from outside the system…say, because they think that certain incentives create “right” behavior. A church, for example, is one such system. A government can create incentives that will raise the nation to fight a war…and the incentives must be strong enough to get the nation to pay for that war by paying taxes to support the war.

One of the problems with these “exogenous” incentives is that they may ultimately be harmful to the people that they were trying to help. This problem is observed quite often in economics because most changes in incentives take a substantial time period to work themselves out. Consequently it is difficult to attach the “consequence” of a government policy with the underlying “cause” of the result. Especially since modern society and its sources of information…television, newspapers, and radio…tend to focus on the current and the dramatic “consequences” without any recognition of what might have started off the whole chain of events leading to this end.

This leaves us with an uncomfortable situation in which we must deal with the existing problem and with the emotions and psychology of current events isolated from what got us into the mess we are in.

Last Friday, we saw an announcer on public television ranting and raving about how the people that have followed the rules and responsibly sheparded their resources now have to dig into their pockets and cover those that have not behaved in such a sensible manner and now are experiencing financial and economic difficulties. And, this tirade has gained national attention by both sides of the argument.

The auto industry “big-guys” are down on their knees begging for some “bread and water” so as to keep their positions of power and control. Yet, these are the people that have been protected for years by the same state and national politicians they are now seeking mercy from.

And, the bankers…what a bad lot they are…those greedy “b……s”! Of course, bankers are always an easy bunch to pick on…and this picking goes back centuries. The auto-guys are just wimps in comparison to bankers when it comes to taking criticism.

The question that goes unanswered is “What was the environment created by government that set up the incentives that resulted in the results just described?” I have already answered this for the auto industry. But, who wouldn’t go to the government and get protection of their industry when it was so possible to do so?

Who wouldn’t support the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low for an extended period of time…of course, real interest costs were negative…so that business could be continued at a furious pace? Who wouldn’t be in favor of substantial tax cuts for the wealthy…especially if you happen to be wealthy? Who wouldn’t support going after that bad dictator who had those…what was it now? Oh, yes…weapons of mass destruction.

The obvious point to this discussion is that government got us into the mess we are in through the incentives it created eight or so years ago…and now we are faced with a situation in which it appears that government must set up a new set of incentives in order to make up for the mess that resulted from the incentives set up from an earlier time.

Yes, we have to take some money from those that did not over play their fiscal hand and transfer it to some that did. Yes, we have to help those financial institutions that responded in too extreme a form to the perceived opportunities that existed for them. Yes, we may need to do more for the auto industry…and for other industries.

But, where does it stop? Is everyone entitled to a bailout? (Well, as a matter of fact…I think I need a billion or two to get me through the next several years! I’m sure you are deserving of a bailout as well!) And, what are the consequences down-the-road a piece for the people and the society that are getting the bailouts?

Does Cerberus Capital Management really deserve a bailout? I thought private equity firms were risk takers and that is why they got the big bucks? Maybe Cerberus should face a "stress test" like the commercial banks.

What kind of a society are we creating through the incentives that are being developed today? What mess is the government going to have to bail us out of in two or three, or, five or six years from now…the mess that we are now creating…but we don’t know what mess that will be?

Of course, the final question is…how are you going to respond to the incentives now being created? Is it wise for certain Republican governors to turn down the bailout money because of…what was that…because of their principles?