Looks like the Fed is greasing the skids for negative interest rate policy (NIRP) while simultaneously threating to raise the Funds rate one or more times before year end. Getting the tail gunner in position. Here’s Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer being interviewed by Tom Keene of Bloomberg (empashis mine).
MR. KEENE: What did you learn about negative rates in the crucible of the markets? What have you learned in the last number of months?
DR. FISCHER: Well, we’ve learned that the central banks which are implementing them – there were four or five of them – basically think they’re quite successful and are staying with their approach, possibly with the exception of Japan. They’re thinking it through, and they have said they’ll come back to try and make negative rates work better. So we’re in a world where they seem to work. I think one of the most interesting developments I’ve seen in theory is a paper that says, yes, they work up to a certain point and then they become counterproductive.
MR. KEENE: Precisely. Yes, that’s a critical point. I mean we have within the interviews of Bloomberg Surveillance that Francine Lacqua and I have had, Olivier Blanchard [former Bank of England Governor during the crisis and a friend] calls them an outright scam. Granted, he’s not a public official anymore, I understand that. There is a raging debate about the efficacy of negative interest rates for central banks, for governments, and again for banking itself. What about the efficacy of negative rates for savers and the people of these different nations?
DR. FISCHER: Well, clearly there are different responses to negative rates. If you’re a saver, they’re very difficult to deal with and to accept, although typically they go along with quite decent equity prices. But we consider all that, and we have to make trade-offs in economics all the time, and the idea is, the lower the interest rate the better it is for investors.
MR. KEENE: What did you learn about negative rates in the crucible of the markets? What have you learned in the last number of months?
DR. FISCHER: Well, we’ve learned that the central banks which are implementing them – there were four or five of them – basically think they’re quite successful and are staying with their approach, possibly with the exception of Japan. They’re thinking it through, and they have said they’ll come back to try and make negative rates work better. So we’re in a world where they seem to work. I think one of the most interesting developments I’ve seen in theory is a paper that says, yes, they work up to a certain point and then they become counterproductive.
MR. KEENE: Precisely. Yes, that’s a critical point. I mean we have within the interviews of Bloomberg Surveillance that Francine Lacqua and I have had, Olivier Blanchard [former Bank of England Governor during the crisis and a friend] calls them an outright scam. Granted, he’s not a public official anymore, I understand that. There is a raging debate about the efficacy of negative interest rates for central banks, for governments, and again for banking itself. What about the efficacy of negative rates for savers and the people of these different nations?
DR. FISCHER: Well, clearly there are different responses to negative rates. If you’re a saver, they’re very difficult to deal with and to accept, although typically they go along with quite decent equity prices. But we consider all that, and we have to make trade-offs in economics all the time, and the idea is, the lower the interest rate the better it is for investors.
Fischer, Yellen, and Dudley making tradeoffs in Jackson Hole
Paraphrasing:
Well screw the savers, you’ll just have to grin and bear it, we have to make trade-offs in favor of (wealthy) investors. You know, the kind that have significant net worth in equities. Not savers or workers, homeowners, or car buyers, or students with loans. Investors are what matter. That’s who they work for.
John Mauldin in his September 4th newsletter “Monetary Mountain Madness” was angrier than I’ve ever seen (read) him, “They are sacrificing mom-and-pop middle America, the hard workers who have played by the rules and retired and saved and now want to live out their lives enjoying their grandkids and a little well-deserved relaxation, and they find they can’t do that because the Federal Reserve thinks that protecting Wall Street and wealthy investors and bankers is more important.” This sentiment is from a Republican who derives his income mainly from welloff investors. Basically he says they are putting NIRP in their toolkit in advance of the next recession.
You might want to hold on to some of your positive coupon bonds.
Money or Debt 