The Mystery of Low Interest Rates
By Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A17
Something strange happened on the way to higher interest rates: They declined. We're talking about rates on long-term mortgages and bonds. These rates truly affect the economy, because they influence housing and business investment. Most economists expected them to rise. But no. Last June rates on 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 6.29 percent; now they're about 5.7 percent. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently called the declines a "conundrum.'' Equally puzzling is whether the declines guarantee a healthy economy -- or suggest a speculative "credit bubble.''
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posted by carlhaacke at 8:53 AM
1 Comments:
There's nothing surprising in low rates.
The global debt/global GDP is now higher than it was in 1929. It is of course higher in the USA. Household debt especially has never been so high.
So if debt is about to peak because there's already so much of it, then this signals an oncoming credit crunch, deflation, debt deflation and depression.
I wrote on our global debt babel tower.
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