Swedish Banks Will Spend – Or Else!
At the Riksbank, which now has a deposit rate of minus 0.25 per cent, the most vocal advocate of the policy is deputy governor Lars Svensson, a world-renowned expert on monetary policy theory and a close associate of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, since they worked together at Princeton University.
CNN (Financial Times) -emphasis added indignantly
It would seem silly to ask, “Has it come to this?” with a sense of outrage, when, obviously the answer is – “Yes, it has.” It was way back in December when rates in the United States became Zero Bound, hitting what Bernanke politely terms the “Zero Lower Bound”, or ZLB for short.
Ever since, the Federal Reserve has focused much of its attention on trying to get the economic effect of lowering rates through some other means – since it “can’t” reduce interest rates below zero. It is this addiction to the effect of lowering interest rates that has caused the Fed to go with the spaghetti theory of economics – throw it against the wall and see what sticks.
But it turns out that the ZLB might be less of a bound than Bernanke thought, as the Swedes have made the great intellectual leap that punishes any bank that tries save money. Amazingly, the British seem to feel left out:
Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, has hinted he may follow the Swedish example as the danger of a so-called liquidity trap, where cash remains stuck in the banking system and does not filter out to the wider economy, is an increasing concern for the UK.
It’s no surprise that the resurgent Keynesians have panicked themselves into a mode where they will do anything – no matter how ridiculous it looks – to encourage spending in society. Once you finish dumping a trillion or so interest free dollars into otherwise bankrupt financial institutions and they still won’t make loans to people who won’t pay them back (that mistake is fresh in their minds), you might as well punish them for it.
Got that? Here’s the plan: Give the banks as much free money as they want (they want a lot – who wouldn’t?), and then when they aren’t looking charge them if and only if they won’t loan it to customers. In other words, it’s that same sense of “free” that we often associate with money. You know – it’s free, but you can’t use it the way you want.
Then again, maybe this is nothing unusual at all. Lars Svensson continues:
“There is nothing strange about negative interest rates,”
I mean, really, what does it matter if your savings account earns money at 1%, 0% or negative 1%?
One thing is clear… when the floodgates burst forth and no one wants to hold onto money because it costs them money NOT to spend it, we’d better hope that the economic tinkerers have a better Plan B than turning off the printing presses.
