SPEECH DATE:  12/04/21  SPEAKER:  Deputy Governor Henry Ohlsson  VENUE:  LO  SVERIGES RIKSBANK SE-103 37 Stockholm (Brunkebergstorg 11) Tel +46 8 787 00 00 Fax +46 8 21 05 31 registratorn@riksbank.se www.riksbank.se  Hidden wealth* Expansionary monetary policy causes asset prices to rise and thereby makes those who own assets wealthier. But this wealth is unevenly distributed among households, and therefore the income from it (capital income) will also be unevenly distributed. Expansionary monetary policy can thus lead to more uneven capital income. At the same time, unemployment decreases when monetary policy is expansionary. This makes labour income more even than it otherwise would have been. As the effects on capital income and labour income counteract each other, it is unclear what effect the expansionary policy has on income distribution in total. But this does not stop higher asset prices leading to more uneven wealth distribution. In this speech, I will highlight a phenomenon that can mitigate this effect. I will start with an example that illustrates what I mean by hidden wealth. The Norwegian oil fund is one of the world’s largest funds. In 2019, the value of the fund was 285 per cent of Norway’s nominal GDP. Norway's revenue from oil operations are added to the fund and the assets are then invested abroad. The nominal return has been a good 6 per cent a year on average since the fund started in 1996. Every year, the Norwegian state may utilise the fund’s average real return.
For instance, the Riksbank monitors and analyses the financial system, identifies potential risks and influences participants that are important to financial stability. We shall work to prevent financial crises from arising, but if they should nevertheless arise, it is our task to manage the situation. What does this mean? For instance, we must be prepared to act in situations where our assessment is that financial stability is threatened. Let us assume, for example, that a Swedish bank which is under the supervision of Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, is solvent and has assets that are greater than its liabilities, but experiences serious problems with its liquidity and thereby difficulty in meeting its payments. If the Riksbank’s assessment in such a situation is that the stability of the financial system is at stake if the bank collapses, then we can intervene with measures to aid liquidity. The United States is currently in the midst of a financial crisis, the backwash of which is sweeping through the global financial system. Although financial turbulence has been included in our analyses ever since last summer, the way it has manifested itself and the intensity of the events has varied along the way. And in recent weeks the problems have escalated. The most recent wave of financial turbulence is the worst so far since the original US mortgage crisis broke out. So what has happened recently? For one thing, large agents in the US financial market have suffered acute problems.