Таbl. 7. Balance Sheet of London Clearing banks

Cash assets are notes and coin in the banks' vaults. However, modem banks' cash assets also include their cash reserves deposited with the Bank of England. The Bank of England (usually known as the Bank) isthe central bank or banker to the commercial banks.

Apart from cash, the other entries on the asset side of the balance sheet show money that has been lent out or used to purchase interest-earning assets. The second item,bills and market loans, shows short-term lending in liquid assets.

Liquidity refers to the speed and the certainty with which an asset can be converted back into money, whenever the asset-holders desire. Money itself is thus the most liquid asset of all.

The third item,advances, shows lending to households and firms. A firm that has borrowed to see it through a sticky period may not be able to repay whenever the bank demands. Thus, although advances represent the major share of clearing bank lending, they are not very liquid forms of bank lending. The fourth item,securities, shows bank purchases of interest-bearing long-term financial assets. These can be government bonds or industrial shares. Although these assets are traded daily on the stock exchange, so in principle these securities can be cashed in any time the bank wishes, their price fluctuates from day to day. Banks cannot be certain how much they will get when they sell out. Hence financial investment in securities is also illiquid.

The final two items on the asset side of the balance sheet showlending in foreign currencies andmiscellaneous bank assets. Total assets of the London clearing banks were £200,1 billion. We now shall examine how the equivalent liabilities were made up.

Deposits are chiefly of two kinds: sight deposits and time deposits. Whereas sight deposits can be -withdrawn on sight whenever the depositor wishes, a minimum period of notification must be given beforetime deposits can be withdrawn. Sight deposits are the bank accounts against, which we write cheques, thereby running down our deposits without giving the bank any prior warning. Whereas most banks do not pay interest on sight deposits or cheque (checking) accounts, they can afford to pay interest on time deposits. Since they have notification of any withdrawals, they have plenty of time to sell off some of their high- interest investments or call in some of their high-interest loans in order to have the money to pay out deposits.

Certificates of deposit (CDs) are an extreme form of time deposit where the bank borrows from the public for a specified period of time and knows exactly when the loan must be repaid. The final liability items in Таbl 7 show deposits in foreign currencies, miscellaneous liabilities, such as cheques, in the process of clearing.

MONEY AND THE RETURN IT EARNS

Fundamental to all financial markets is the idea of earning a return on money. Money has to work for its owner. Here are some of the ways it can do so:

1. You deposit $1,000 with a bank, which pays you, say, 10 per cent a year interest. In other words, your $1,000 of capital earns you $100 a year, which is the return on your money. When you want your $1,000 back you get $1,000, plus any accumulated interest, not more or less. Provided your bank does not go bust, your $1,000 of capital is not at risk, except from inflation, which may reduce its purchasing power each year.

2. You buy gold bullion to a value of $1,000 because you think the price of gold will rise. If the price of gold has risen by 20% after a year, you can sell your gold for $1,200. You have made a profit or a capital gain, of $200 on your capital outlay of $1,000. In other words you have a return of 20% on your money. If the price of gold fails to move, you've earned nothing because commodities like gold do not pay interest.

3. You use your $1,000 to buy securities that are traded on a stockmarket. Usually these will begovernment bonds (known as gilt-edged securities or gilts in the UK) orordinary shares in a company. The former always provide an income; the latter normally do. Traditional gilt-edged securities pay a fixed rate of interest. Ordinary shares in companies normally paya dividend from the profits the company earns. If the company's profits rise, the dividend is likely to be increased; but there is no guarantee that there will be a dividend at all. If the company makes losses, it may have to cease paying a dividend.

But when you buy securities that are traded on a stockmarket, the return on your $1,000 is not limited to the interest or dividends you receive. The prices of these securities will also rise and fall, and your original $1,000 investment accordingly becomes worth more or less. So you are taking the risk of capital gains or capital losses.

Suppose you buy $1,000 worth of ordinary shares, which pay you a dividend of $40 a year. You are getting a return ordividend yield of 4% a year on your investment ($40 as a percentage of $1,000). If after a year the market value of your $1,000 of shares has risen to $1,100, you can sell them for a capital gain of $100 (or a 10% profit on your original outlay). Thus your overall return over a year consists of the $40 income and the $100 capital gain:

a total of $140 or a 14% overall return on your original $1,000 investment.

Investors are generally prepared to accept much lower initial yields on shares than on fixed-interest stocks because they expect the income to rise in the future. Most investors in ordinary shares are seeking capital gains at least as much as income. Note that if you are buying a security, you are taking the risk that the price may fall whether it is a government bond or a share. But with the government bond the income is at least guaranteed by the government. With the share there is a second layer of risk. the company may not earn sufficient profits to pay a dividend.

To summarize: money can be deposited to produce an income; it can be used to buy commodities or goods, which arc expected to rise in value; or it can be invested in stockmarket securities, which normally produce an income but show capital gains or losses as well. Of course, there are many variations on each of these items.

INTEREST RATES AND BOND PRICES

The change in interest rates has important implications for the stockmarket prices of bonds, which pay a fixed rateof interest: fixed-interest securities, of which the traditional gilt-edged securities issued by the government arc the most familiar though companies also issue fixed-interest bonds. It works like this.

Gilt-edged securities are a form of IOU (I owe you) orpromissory note issued by the government when it needs to borrow money. The government undertakes to pay so much a year in interest to the people who put up the money and who get the IOU in exchange. Normally the government agrees to redeem the stock at some date in the future, but to illustrate the interest rate mechanism it is easiest initially to take an irredeemable or undated stock, which does not have to be repaid.

The original investors who lend the money to the government do not have to hold on to the lOUs. They can sell them to other investors, who then become entitled to receive the interest from the government. Suppose the government needs to borrow money at a time when investors would expect an 11% yield on a gilt-edged security. It oners $11 a year interest for every $100 it borrows. The investor is prepared to pay $100 for the right to receive $11 a year interest, because this represents an 11% return on his outlay.

Then suppose that interest rates rise to a point where an investor would expect a 12,5% return if he bought a gilt-edged security. He will no longer pay $100 for the right to $11 a year in income. He will only be prepared to pay a price that gives him a 12,5% return on his outlay. The "right" price in this case is $88, because if he pays only $88 to receive $11 a year in income, he is getting a 12,5% return on his investment. So in the stockmarket the price of the gilt-edged security that pays $11 a year interest will have to fall to $88 before investors are prepared to buy it. The original investor who paid $100 thus sees the value of his investment fall because of the rise in interest rates. Conversely, the value of his investment would have risen if interest rates had fallen.

To summarize: If interest rates on securities go down, bond prices or prices for securities go up, and vise versa.

THE MONEY SUPPLY AND THE DEMAND FOR MONEY