How does liquidity affect the economy?
Generally, high levels of liquidity offer substantial benefits to our financial system and overall economy through higher financial asset prices and a more efficient means to channel funds between savers and borrowers.
The more liquid a stock is, the tighter spread it will tend to have. That's because market makers will be able to rapidly buy and sell and there is less risk that they'll be left with an unwanted position in the stock.
When more liquidity is available at a lower cost to banks, people and businesses are more willing to borrow. This easing of financing conditions stimulates bank lending and boosts the economy.
Excess liquidity indicates low illiquidity risk, and since bankers' compensation is often volume-based, excess liquidity drives them to lend aggressively to increase their bonuses. This ultimately results in higher risk-taking and imprudent lending practices, such as easing collaterals (Agénor & El Aynaoui, 2010).
Still, a high liquidity rate is not necessarily a good thing. A high value resulting from the liquidity ratio may be a sign the company is overly focused on liquidity, which can be detrimental to the effective use of capital and business expansion.
Liquidity provides financial flexibility. Having enough cash or easily tradable assets allows individuals and companies to respond quickly to unexpected expenses, emergencies or business opportunities. It allows them to balance their finances without being forced to sell long-term assets on unfavourable terms.
What Is Liquidity? Liquidity refers to the efficiency or ease with which an asset or security can be converted into ready cash without affecting its market price. The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.
The degree of this liquidity constraint depends on the real value of money, which in turn depends on the inflation rate. Inflation reduces the real value of money, and thus makes the liquidity constraint more binding.
Unmanaged or poorly managed liquidity risk can lead to operational disruptions, financial losses, and reputational damage. In extreme cases, it can drive an entity towards insolvency or bankruptcy.
Excess liquidity suggests to investors, shareholders, and analysts that the firm is unable to effectively utilise the available cash resources or identify investment opportunities that can generate revenues.
Why is liquidity important in a recession?
Key benefits of having liquid assets:
Pay off debt like loans or a mortgage if you should incur an income loss so you wouldn't lose your home or car. Not have to sell property or assets and take a loss on them because you are in a time of need. Not get yourself deeper into debt.
- Advance tax and goods and services tax (GST) payments,
- The deposit of withdrawn Rs 2,000 notes,
- Redemption of government bonds,
- Higher government spending,
- The sale of dollars by the RBI to defend the rupee from depreciation.
For investors, “cash is king during a recession” sums up the advantages of keeping liquid assets on hand when the economy turns south. From weathering rough markets to going all-in on discounted investments, investors can leverage cash to improve their financial positions.
Is Market Liquidity Good or Bad? There's only upside to market liquidity. In fact, the financial markets need liquidity to ensure that traders can open and close their positions efficiently and enjoy tighter bid-ask spreads. To put it simply, market liquidity actually lowers the cost of investing.
Liquidity is a company's ability to convert assets to cash or acquire cash—through a loan or money in the bank—to pay its short-term obligations or liabilities. How much cash could your business access if you had to pay off what you owe today —and how fast could you get it?
Traditional measures of market liquidity include trade volume (or the number of trades), market turnover, bid-ask spreads and trading velocity. Additionally, liquidity also depends on many macroeconomic and market fundamentals.
Since price impact is directly correlated to the liquidity of an asset there is only so much you can do if you're trading an asset with low liquidity. You can either wait for more liquidity to enter that asset you're looking to trade, or lower the size of your trade to reduce its price impact.
Liquidity is important in investing to be able to access the wealth that you build. If your assets are all tied up in long-term investments or highly illiquid investments, you may find yourself cash-poor. This can significantly reduce your ability to direct funds into an investment opportunity that comes your way.
Illiquid assets may be hard to sell quickly because of a lack of ready and willing investors or speculators to purchase the asset, whereas actively traded securities will tend to be more liquid. Illiquid assets tend to have wider bid-ask spreads, greater volatility and, as a result, higher risk for investors.
A liquidity trap is caused when people hold cash because they expect an adverse event such as deflation, insufficient aggregate demand, or war. Among the characteristics of a liquidity trap are interest rates that are close to zero and changes in the money supply that fail to translate into changes in the price level.
Is cash really King?
Because of how precious cash can be during times of financial stress, many have said that cash is king. The phrase means that having liquid funds available can be vital because of the flexibility it provides during a crisis.
First, banks can obtain liquidity through the money market. They can do so either by borrowing additional funds from other market participants, or by reducing their own lending activity. Since both actions raise liquidity, we focus on net lending to the financial sector (loans minus deposits).
If a position can be easily replaced with another instrument, the substitution costs are low and the liquidity tends to be higher. Time horizon. If the seller has urgency, this tends to exacerbate the liquidity risk. If a seller is patient, then liquidity risk is less of a threat.
Generally, yes, a higher liquidity is better for investors, as it can signal that a company is performing well, and that its stock is in demand. It can also be easier for an investor to sell that stock in exchange for cash.
The main advantage of strong liquidity is knowing there are enough assets to cover unexpected emergencies, changes in demand and surprise expenses. It can also improve a business's credit score which will give you a greater chance of securing funding should you need it.
References
- https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/buying-home-during-recession/
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidityratios.asp
- https://www.barrons.com/articles/small-community-banks-are-teetering-expect-more-failures-a3de6f78
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquiditytrap.asp
- https://www.synonym.com/synonyms/liquidity-crisis
- https://www.3vfinance.com/infinance-le-blog/en/understanding-liquidity-risk-definition-causes-consequences
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/08/24/is-it-true-that-cash-is-king-during-a-recession/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession
- https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122414/there-downside-having-high-liquidity-ratio.asp
- https://homework.study.com/explanation/why-is-too-much-liquidity-not-a-good-thing.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis
- https://www.promarket.org/2017/10/17/blame-2008-financial-crisis/
- https://groww.in/p/liquidity-risk
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214845022000795
- https://8020consulting.com/principles-of-measuring-and-managing-liquidity-risk/
- https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/articles/this-is-who-ends-up-rich-when-the-stock-market-crashes/
- https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/are-we-in-a-recession
- https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2018/september/the-financial-crisis-ten-years-on
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_financial_crisis
- https://quizlet.com/450407662/fina-465-ch-12-exam-3-flash-cards/
- https://www.ncontracts.com/nsight-blog/key-risk-indicators-for-banks/
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bondmarket.asp
- https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp2732~9bb7f4e4cc.en.pdf
- https://c2fo.com/resources/finance-and-lending/6-people-who-made-their-fortunes-during-a-recession/
- https://homework.study.com/explanation/what-two-factors-are-considered-in-managing-liquidity.html
- https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-liquidity
- https://www.bankdirector.com/article/how-much-liquidity-is-enough/
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/financial-crisis-review.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_the_Great_Recession
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidity_crisis
- https://0x.org/post/what-is-price-impact
- https://www.thestreet.com/dictionary/liquidity-market-liquidity
- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/surplus-liquidity
- https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/staffp/2002/00-00/pdf/rajan2.pdf
- https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=87952
- https://www.investopedia.com/3-strategies-to-survive-the-looming-liquidity-crisis-4588690
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidity.asp
- https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/research/liquidity-crunch-will-take-a-bite-out-of-us-bank-earnings
- https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/explainers/tell-me-more/html/excess_liquidity.en.html
- http://www.c3teachers.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/NewYork_12_Great_Recession.pdf
- https://study.com/learn/lesson/liquidity-risk-funding-examples.html
- https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011215/it-important-company-always-have-high-liquidity-ratio.asp
- https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/the-global-financial-crisis.html
- https://gatewayroyaltyllc.com/why-liquidity-is-important-in-uncertain-economic-times/
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidasset.asp
- https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/confs/2008/pdf/davis.pdf
- https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-caused-the-great-recession
- https://www.catalystcorp.org/communications/catalyst-news/news-archives/2023/10/30/8-ways-to-solve-liquidity-challenges
- https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/53937/1/589196928.pdf
- https://sphera.com/spark/everything-you-need-to-know-about-liquidity-risk/
- https://squareup.com/gb/en/townsquare/what-is-liquidity
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidityrisk.asp
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1062976919300687
- https://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD258.pdf
- https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=91059
- https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/what-is-liquidity-in-stocks/
- https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1008.pdf
- https://miuniversity.edu/news/how-do-i-calculate-the-liquidity-risk-of-a-company/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/20/is-the-us-in-a-silent-depression-the-tiktok-theory-explained.html
- https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/supervisory/insights/sisum17/sisummer2017-article01.html
- https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-record/economy
- https://apps.aima.in/ejournal_new/articlesPDF/Manish-Kumar.pdf
- https://www.factris.com/en/news/why-is-liquidity-important/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidity_trap
- https://fastercapital.com/topics/the-pros-and-cons-of-low-liquidity-in-the-market.html
- https://www.ssctech.com/blog/why-do-banks-fail-and-whats-next-2023-lessons-and-predictions
- https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-now-world-third-largest-economy-japan-recession/
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/illiquid.asp
- https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/templates-business-guides/glossary/liquidity
- https://www.morpher.com/blog/insufficient-liquidity-for-this-trade
- https://homework.study.com/explanation/what-is-a-disadvantage-of-maintaining-a-very-high-level-of-liquidity.html
- https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/what-is-the-difference-between-a-liquidity-and-a-solvency-crisis/
- https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/jbss/article/download/22830/19390/71198
- https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/documents/areas/fac/finance/fari.pdf
- https://freetrade.io/learn/what-is-liquidity
- https://www.ir.com/guides/understanding-liquidity-in-banks
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Great_Recession
- https://agicap.com/en/article/liquidity-crisis/
- https://www.occ.treas.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2023/nr-occ-2023-60.html
- https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/deutsche-bank-no-longer-expects-us-recession-2024-2024-02-06/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/recession-proof-passive-income-streams-2022-7
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financial-crisis.asp
- https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6837369.pdf
- https://www.fool.com/terms/c/cash-is-king/
- https://capital.com/liquidity-crisis-definition
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/great-recession.asp
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/liquidity-crisis.asp
- https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/mortgages/subprime-mortgage-crisis/
- https://www.britannica.com/story/5-of-the-worlds-most-devastating-financial-crises
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/liquidity
- https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/risk-management/liquidity-risk.html
- https://coebank.org/en/investor-relations/risk-management/liquidity-risk/
- https://www.investopedia.com/insights/major-players-2008-financial-crisis-and-where-they-are-now/
- https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/investing/michael-burry-stock-market-crash/index.html
- https://www.noradarealestate.com/blog/list-of-failed-banks/
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/trading/11/understanding-liquidity-risk.asp
- https://www.investopedia.com/what-happens-if-my-bank-fails-7378029
- https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/career-map/sell-side/risk-management/major-risks-for-banks/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/26/the-us-avoided-a-recession-in-2023-whats-the-outlook-for-2024.html
- https://prevailiws.com/why-is-liquidity-important-in-investing/
- https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Financial-Crises-Explanations-Types-and-Implications-40283