I had intended to write about universities this week but, strolling through the City of London, I was surprised, shocked even, to find myself on Trump Street, and then amused to see that it is joined by Russia Row.
My first thought was that this was part of a grand plan by the British establishment ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to London in September, the idea being to stage an event at the nearby Guildhall and to then tell the president that a nearby street had been named after him. Trump Street was apparently named so because several trumpet makers lived there in the 18th century, but let’s ignore that for the time being.
Yet, the far more meaningful coincidence of Trump Street is its proximity to Gresham Street.
Sir Thomas Gresham was a trader and financier in 16th century London, at a time when coffee houses in the lanes around the Royal Exchange formed the basis of what is known as the City. Gresham was an important player in Queen Elizabeth I’s economy, and his emblem — a grasshopper — is still present in various parts of the City (there is a giant-sized golden grasshopper on the roof of the Royal Exchange — if you can dare to make it up there).
While Gresham’s imprint can be seen across the City, he is remembered by Gresham’s Law which was named after him and states “bad money will drive out the good.” Gresham’s Law which echoes similar observations from Copernicus and other scientists through the ages is founded on the idea that in an economy where coins with the same face value but that are made from different base metals (say nickel and copper) there is a tendency for traders to hoard the coins made of the more valuable metal and to circulate lower quality coins. Bad coins stay in circulation, good ones are re-commoditized. From an economics point of view the law is conditioned on all the coins (of variable quality) having the same face value.
Unlike the 16th century, today, coins have the same physical consistency and in general there is little incentive for people to shave bits off coins (historically coins have serrated edges to prevent this) but broadly the Gresham’s Law is applicable in different domains.
Think of how cheap goods (made under questionable labor conditions) have forced quality players out of markets, or how in the run-up to the global financial crisis, low quality financial institutions offering generous loan conditions caused better quality banks to step back from lending. In both cases, regulation or policing of markets is necessary to ensure that ‘bad’ actors do not gain an advantage over good ones. Social media is another example, where it seems a lot of nonsense thrives at the expense of information.
Additionally, the idea of Gresham’s Law is applicable to politics, where in many countries it appears that political actors with extreme views and extreme modus operandi are forcing out ‘good’ ones in the sense that most normal people would be terrified of a career in politics.
Readers will guess that my argument is leading back to Washington. Bad behavior, bad ideas and bad policies are infesting themselves in public life, the economy and markets — to the surprise of many ardent supporters of Trump. What is not clear is whether this will result in an evacuation of capital and talent from the U.S., or whether there will be a counter-reaction. Gresham’s point in describing how bad money drives out good was to avoid the debasement of the currency (schilling), which when Elizabeth I came to power, was already in a bad state. She appointed Gresham as a finance minister of sorts in 1560, and within a year he had ‘bad’ coins taken out of circulation and replaced them with money made from precious metal, the result of which was a dramatic improvement in Britain’s status as a trading and economic power.
The lesson of this should be very clear today. As a final point, it is interesting to note, from the point of view of coins and money, that the ratio of gold (precious metal) to a cyclical commodity (copper) is the most stretched it has been since at least the 1980s, suggesting that markets at least are thinking of Gresham’s Law.
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