Flight to Quality and Bailouts: Policy Remarks and a Literature Review

Abstract

Flight to quality episodes involve a combination of extreme risk- or uncertainty-aversion, weaknesses in the balance sheets of key financial intermediaries, and strategic or speculative behavior, that increases credit spreads on all but the safest and most liquid assets. Unlike previous episodes, the entire U.S. financial system is currently at the center of the trouble, with no safe haven pockets, which may lead to greater real effects. The U.S. government's credit is still impeccable, which facilitates policies in support of the financial system. Policy must take into account incentives for behavior during the crisis, discouraging excessive prudence, which sometimes implies relegating post-crisis moral hazard concerns to a secondary role.

Keywords: subprime crisis, liquidity, bailout, intermediation, credit spreads

JEL Classification: E44, G14, G21