by John Rubino
Dollar Collapse
The theory was pretty straightforward: push interest rates down far enough — in some cases to negative territory where borrowers actually turn a profit on their debts — and people will borrow money, spend it, and growth will ensue, with all that that implies for incumbent party election victories, banker year-end bonuses and other extremely important public policy goals.
But the theory’s designers apparently missed some crucial concepts — like the fact that people would be free to interpret their self-interest in ways that conflict with the needs of government and Wall Street.
Let’s start with the recent negative rate milestone: