the steep yield curve of the 1930s

richard shaw seeking alpha ran an article back in 2007 with a providential chart of the yield curve spread dating back to 1927.

what's worth noting is that the curve steepened throughout the deleveraging of the early 1930s with absolutely no inflationary implication, and stayed steep through the second world war. this feeds directly into the rationale of removing the yield curve from leading economic indicators during deleveraging cycles.

a steep curve is normally indicative of a large spread to be harvested by banks if they have the wherewithal to lend. lending growth drives growth in financial assets, income and aggregate demand, and can indeed foment inflation if such growth outpaces capacity. as such, it has a rightful place among leading economic indicators under normal circumstances.

but "normal circumstances" is very far from where we are today. other factors in a balance sheet recession -- notably the lack of private sector loan demand as the private sector attempts to improve balance sheets and the lack of borrowers creditworthy on the stricter standards of banking resultant of banks protecting themselves from further losses -- are driving net financial assets down in a secular deleveraging. and there can be little doubt that we are in fact deleveraging.

ft alphaville highlights the steepening US curve along with a multifaceted take on how the shape of the curve could influence bank behavior, but the critical observation remains that there is no loan demand -- that is, loan demand is net negative, with the private sector preferring even with very low interest rates to reduce debt -- meaning that the steep curve the federal reserve is trying to engineer will have no beneficial effect.